Question

I was wondering whether use jquery´s getScript or not.

I have a jQuery plugin that I need to include in my site, but I am unsure what to do and I am wondering if there is a difference between these approaches:

In my case, I have to include a rather big script, but only for IE browsers. At this moment I do it like this:

if($.browser.msie){
 //minifed code
}

Now I was wondering if this:

if($.browser.msie){
 $.getScript('link to minified script');
}

would have any advantages/disadvantages? Or if it is more or less the same thing?

Answer 1

There will be disadvantages to getting an external script.

i.e.
ONE HTTP request

if($.browser.msie){
 //minifed code
}

TWO HTTP requests

 if($.browser.msie){
 $.getScript('link to minified script');
}

Your browser can only generally cope with 2 http requests at any one time. So from a performance point of view, the first will be faster.

further explanation

with getScript, IE users will have a smaller request, (-the size of your “minified code”). But everyone else will have to download the external script everytime (+ the size of your external script * number of page requests) + delay in response due to extra HTTP request.

with the minified code everyone will have to download your size of your minifed code (+minified code size).

Presuming your minifed code is say 5K and is accessed 10 time that means:

IE GetScript:

(5K * 10) + performance of using second HTTP request = 50K+

Non-IE

0

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

IE nonGetScript

5K

non-IE

5K