Question

What is the correct way to dynamically import JavaScript (.js) files into a parent JavaScript code, please?

I am using the following code, but it seems not correct:

    function loadjscssfile(filename, filetype)
{
    //if filename is a external JavaScript file
    if (filetype=="js")
    {
        var fileref=document.createElement('script');
        fileref.setAttribute("type","text/javascript");
        fileref.setAttribute("src", filename);
    }
    //if filename is an external CSS file
    else if (filetype=="css")
    {
        var fileref=document.createElement("link");
        fileref.setAttribute("rel", "stylesheet");
        fileref.setAttribute("type", "text/css");
        fileref.setAttribute("href", filename);
    }
    if (typeof fileref!="undefined")
    document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(fileref)
}

I think, the code is not correct, because, in the master JavaScript code, I can no read variables defined in the imported code, such as:

var fileRef = loadjscssfile('Language/svk.js', 'js');
alert("Pet Name: " + PETNAME);

imported svk.js file contains the only code:

// JavaScript Document
var PETNAME = "Beauty";

Thank you.

Answer 1

The reason you can’t read the PETNAME variable is that dynamically injecting scripts like this is asynchronous and non-blocking. This means that your alert executes before the script has actually been loaded. Instead, you might have to poll for the existence of the PETNAME variable:

var waitForPETNAME = function(){
        if (typeof PETNAME === 'undefined') {
            setTimeout(waitForPETNAME, 15);
        } else {
            // execute code that uses PETNAME
        }
    };

waitForPETNAME();

Also, a more fool-proof way to inject elements dynamically is to insert them before the first script element since you know for sure that a script element has to exist (otherwise you wouldn’t be executing code). In other words, replace:

document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(fileref)

with:

var insref = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
insref.parentNode.insertBefore(fileref, insref);