Question

Let’s say I have a javascript or CSS file that is only used on one or very few pages on a site. I also have a method for easily identifying when those pages are served, such as a human-readable URL. Is it bad practice to conditionally serve the JS using a server-side test to see if the script is necessary? With PHP for example, I might do this:

<?php
if($page='myFancyPage')
{
?>
    <script src="myFancyScipt.js"></script>
<?php
}
?>

I’m not losing the benefits of browser caching am I? Are there are other reasons why I shouldn’t do this?

I recognize that is might get unwieldy as a site gets large and more and more conditionals have to be piled up. But aside from that issue, are there reasons to avoid this practice?

Answer 1

No because the condition is on the SERVER not the CLIENT.

The client has no idea why it got the file, but when it gets it, it will be cached.