Question

Whenever i want to add a javascript library programatically, say jquery for example, it generally involves making sure there is a placeholder at the footer of my page, then calling a codebehind method that will take a link to the src as a parameter and return an htmlgeneric control, which is then added to this placeholder.

Is this still the neatest way to do it, even with .net 4.0 out?

Answer 1

I think a better way is to use the RegisterStartupScript method:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z9h4dk8y.aspx

And even better in your case RegisterClientScriptInclude:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/kx145dw2.aspx

EDIT:
Here’s a sample of RegisterClientScriptInclude:

if (!Page.ClientScript.IsClientScriptIncludeRegistered("myJsInclude"))
   Page.ClientScript.RegisterClientScriptInclude("myJsInclude", "myJsFile.js");

EDIT2:
Here’s a sample of an include with RegisterStartupScript:

string jsBlock = "<script src='myJsFile.js'></script>";

if (!Page.ClientScript.IsStartupScriptRegistered("myJsInclude"))
   Page.ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript(typeof(string), "myJsInclude", jsBlock, false);

You should add things like language=”text/javascript” to the script tag, but for readability I didn’t add them.