javascript - load scripts asynchronously

Question

I am using several plugins, custom widgets and some other libraries from JQuery. as a result I have several .js and .css files. I need to create a loader for my site because it takes some time to load. it will be nice if I can display the loader before importing all the:

<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery-1.6.2.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/myFunctions.js"></script>
<link type="text/css" href="css/main.css" rel="stylesheet" />
... 
....
 etc

I have found several tutorials that enable me to import a JavaScript library asynchronously. for example I can do something like:

  (function () {
        var s = document.createElement('script');
        s.type = 'text/javascript';
        s.async = true;
        s.src = 'js/jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.min.js';
        var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
        x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
    })();

for some reason when I do the same thing for all my files the pages does not work. I have been trying for so long to try to find where the problem is but I just cannot find it. First I thought that it was probably because some javascript functions depended on the others. but I loaded them in the right order using the time out function when one completed I proceeded with the next and the page still behaves weird. for example I am not able to click on links etc... animations still work though..

Anyways

Here is what I have been thinking... I believe browsers have a cache that's why it takes a long time to load the page for the first time and the next time it is quick. so what I am thinking of doing is replacing my index.html page with a page that loads all this files asynchronously. when ajax is done loading all those files redirect to the page that I plan on using. when using that page it should not take long to load since the files should alredy be included on the cache of the browser. on my index page (page where .js and .css file get loaded asynchronously) I don't care of getting errors. I will just be displaying a loader and redirecting the page when done...

Is this idea a good alternative? or should I keep trying on implementing the asynchronously methods?

---

EDIT

the way I load everything async is like:

importScripts();

function importScripts()
{
    //import: jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.min.js
    getContent("js/jquery-1.6.2.min.js",function (code) {
                var s = document.createElement('script');
                s.type = 'text/javascript';
                //s.async = true;
                s.innerHTML=code;
                var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
                x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
                setTimeout(insertNext1,1);
            });


    //import: jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.min.js
    function insertNext1()
    {
        getContent("js/jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.min.js",function (code) {
                    var s = document.createElement('script');
                    s.type = 'text/javascript';
                    s.innerHTML=code;
                    var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
                    x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
                    setTimeout(insertNext2,1);
                });
    }

    //import: jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.css
    function insertNext2()
    {

        getContent("css/custom-theme/jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.css",function (code) {
                    var s = document.createElement('link');
                    s.type = 'text/css';
                    s.rel ="stylesheet";
                    s.innerHTML=code;
                    var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
                    x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
                    setTimeout(insertNext3,1);
                });
    }

    //import: main.css
    function insertNext3()
    {

        getContent("css/main.css",function (code) {
                    var s = document.createElement('link');
                    s.type = 'text/css';
                    s.rel ="stylesheet";
                    s.innerHTML=code;
                    var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
                    x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
                    setTimeout(insertNext4,1);
                });
    }

    //import: jquery.imgpreload.min.js
    function insertNext4()
    {
        getContent("js/farinspace/jquery.imgpreload.min.js",function (code) {
                    var s = document.createElement('script');
                    s.type = 'text/javascript';
                    s.innerHTML=code;
                    var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
                    x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
                    setTimeout(insertNext5,1);
                });
    }


    //import: marquee.js
    function insertNext5()
    {
        getContent("js/marquee.js",function (code) {
                    var s = document.createElement('script');
                    s.type = 'text/javascript';
                    s.innerHTML=code;
                    var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
                    x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
                    setTimeout(insertNext6,1);
                });
    }


    //import: marquee.css
    function insertNext6()
    {

        getContent("css/marquee.css",function (code) {
                    var s = document.createElement('link');
                    s.type = 'text/css';
                    s.rel ="stylesheet";
                    s.innerHTML=code;
                    var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
                    x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
                    setTimeout(insertNext,1);
                });
    }



    function insertNext()
    {
        setTimeout(pageReadyMan,10);        
    }
}


// get the content of url and pass that content to specified function
function getContent( url, callBackFunction )
{
     // attempt to create the XMLHttpRequest and make the request
     try
     {
        var asyncRequest; // variable to hold XMLHttpRequest object
        asyncRequest = new XMLHttpRequest(); // create request object

        // register event handler
        asyncRequest.onreadystatechange = function(){
            stateChange(asyncRequest, callBackFunction);
        } 
        asyncRequest.open( 'GET', url, true ); // prepare the request
        asyncRequest.send( null ); // send the request
     } // end try
     catch ( exception )
     {
        alert( 'Request failed.' );
     } // end catch
} // end function getContent

// call function whith content when ready
function stateChange(asyncRequest, callBackFunction)
{
     if ( asyncRequest.readyState == 4 && asyncRequest.status == 200 )
     {
           callBackFunction(asyncRequest.responseText);
     } // end if
} // end function stateChange

and the weird part is that all the style's work plus all the javascript functions. the page is frozen for some reason though...

Answer 1

A couple solutions for async loading:

//this function will work cross-browser for loading scripts asynchronously
function loadScript(src, callback)
{
  var s,
      r,
      t;
  r = false;
  s = document.createElement('script');
  s.type = 'text/javascript';
  s.src = src;
  s.onload = s.onreadystatechange = function() {
    //console.log( this.readyState ); //uncomment this line to see which ready states are called.
    if ( !r && (!this.readyState || this.readyState == 'complete') )
    {
      r = true;
      callback();
    }
  };
  t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
  t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t);
}

If you've already got jQuery on the page, just use:

$.getScript(url, successCallback)*

Additionally, it's possible that your scripts are being loaded/executed before the document is done loading, meaning that you'd need to wait for document.ready before events can be bound to the elements.

It's not possible to tell specifically what your issue is without seeing the code.

The simplest solution is to keep all of your scripts inline at the bottom of the page, that way they don't block the loading of HTML content while they execute. It also avoids the issue of having to asynchronously load each required script.

If you have a particularly fancy interaction that isn't always used that requires a larger script of some sort, it could be useful to avoid loading that particular script until it's needed (lazy loading).

_{* scripts loaded with $.getScript will likely not be cached}

---

For anyone who can use modern features such as the Promise object, the loadScript function has become significantly simpler:

function loadScript(src) {
    return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
        var s;
        s = document.createElement('script');
        s.src = src;
        s.onload = resolve;
        s.onerror = reject;
        document.head.appendChild(s);
    });
}

Be aware that this version no longer accepts a callback argument as the returned promise will handle callback. What previously would have been loadScript(src, callback) would now be loadScript(src).then(callback).

This has the added bonus of being able to detect and handle failures, for example one could call...

loadScript(cdnSource)
    .catch(loadScript.bind(null, localSource))
    .then(successCallback, failureCallback);

...and it would handle CDN outages gracefully.