CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascript
serg
serg

Reputation: 111325

Should I always use dynamic script tag injection technique for including javascript files, similar to Facebook?

Instead of just including <script src="..."> tag on a page as usual, facebook recommends loading its SDK library in the following way:

<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script>
  (function() {
    var e = document.createElement('script');
    e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js';
    e.async = true;
    document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e);
  }());
</script>

Saying, that:

The best place to put the asynchronous version of the code is right after the opening <body> tag. This allows Facebook initialization to happen in parallel with the initialization on the rest of your page.

If it is that great then maybe I should always use this method in all my projects for any external javascript include? When it is appropriate to use this technique and what are the reasons against it?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 2972

Answers (2)

palswim
palswim

Reputation: 12140

Asynchronously loading a script sounds good, but do you need to do it in an inline <script> tag?

What about loading it while handling the onload of the page?

function init() {
    (function() {
        var e = document.createElement('script');
        e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js';
        e.async = true;
        document.body.appendChild(e);
    }());
}

window.addEventListener("load", init, false);

Perhaps Facebook's way ensures all script-enabled browsers process the script, but you can pretty much ensure those same browsers handle the script with a nice addEventListener/attachEvent abstraction function.

Upvotes: 0

Andreas
Andreas

Reputation: 21911

Every script-tag forces the browser to stop loading, until the script-block is fully loaded and executed. By dynamically adding the script-tag, the page could be fully loaded without blocking. For further info have a look at Loading Javascript without blocking and/or loading scripts without blocking

Upvotes: 3

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