javascriptdomprototypejsscriptaculous

document.createElement('script')... adding two scripts with one callback


I need to add prototype and then add scriptaculous and get a callback when they are both done loading. I am currently loading prototype like so:

var script = document.createElement("script");
script.src = "http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/prototype/1.6.1.0/prototype.js";
script.onload = script.onreadystatechange = callback;
document.body.appendChild( script );

I could do this by chaining the callbacks, but that seems like poor practice ( I don't want a silly chain of 20 callback methods when I need to load more scripts). Ideas?


Solution

  • I propose you to use some small loader which will chain and do stuff for you. For example like this one:

    function loadScripts(array,callback){
        var loader = function(src,handler){
            var script = document.createElement("script");
            script.src = src;
            script.onload = script.onreadystatechange = function(){
                script.onreadystatechange = script.onload = null;
                handler();
            }
            var head = document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0];
            (head || document.body).appendChild( script );
        };
        (function run(){
            if(array.length!=0){
                loader(array.shift(), run);
            }else{
                callback && callback();
            }
        })();
    }
    

    This script should help you to build the script tags and call your callback when all files are loaded. Invoke is pretty easy:

    loadScripts([
       "http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js",
       "http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/prototype/1.6.1.0/prototype.js"
    ],function(){
        alert('All things are loaded');
    });
    

    Hope this will help