Yo!
I have an arbitrary javascript file, let's call it localScript, and just say it looks something like this:
<script id="myScript" type="text/javascript">
function () {
var blue = 'blue';
var person = {
firstName:"John",
lastName:"Doe",
age:50,
eyeColor:"brown"
};
var bluePerson = function () {
person[color] = blue;
};
}
</script>
I want to be able to use another externalScript to dynamically change the contents of this localScript. For this simple example, let's just say I want to update some of the values in localScript, like—maybe change age of the person object to 75. (Obviously, there's very simple ways to do this, but for my use case it's imperative that I use another externalScript to generate the contents of this localScript).
It would be easy if there was something like .innerHtml which I could use in the externalScript which would allow me to select an element and then replace the 'innerHtml' contents. The localScript, though, obviously isn't composed of elements.
As far as I know, when using a script to modify another script, there aren't any 'easy' ways to reference variables/objects/items in the script.
Things I've considered are indexOf(), search(), and match(), which I could use in externalScript to find strings inside localScript and then replace the values. I feel though as these could be performance no-no's, especially if the script grows.
Are there any easy ways to do this—with an emphasis on performance? I feel like there must be some easy way to reference one of the items in the script, though, I suppose a script is all one large string.. and maybe there is no simple way.
BTW—I'm using AngularJS, if there are any built in methods—though I think this is mostly just a javascript thing.
Thanks a bunch!
It looks like a bad idea, but... well, if it is imperative...
It makes no sense to change a script in a <script> tag - if it is in DOM, it has already executed (and no longer matters). Thus, to change the script before it has a chance to execute, you need to load it using AJAX, change the text, then eval it.
You can easily change the variables. Refer following steps
Include external script just below the script you have written.
Access the variables in the external script as if they are locally declared.
The variables you have created in above script are available in global scope and hence should be accessible from everywhere.
Note: This answer was added before the function clause was added.
Related
I would like to use a query string parameter so that way I can specify the name of a DOM element.
I have some code that requires the height of the header and I would like that code to work for any theme. Only at times the header uses the <header> tag, at times it has a specific identifier, at times it is a specific class... to be able to reuse that code over and over again, I'd like to include it in a way such as:
<script src="https://www.example.com/js/my-script.js?c=header"></script>
What I want to be able to do is get the "?c=header" part from that JavaScript URL to send search a DOM object with jQuery(".header"). Do we have a way to know the URL of the JavaScript itself from the JavaScript being executed?
Obviously, I know of window.location.href and that's not the URL I'm looking for.
As mentioned by #Kaiido in a comment, there is the document.currentScript parameter that gives you access to the <script> tag which is currently running. Only there is a small trick to it, that parameter is defined on the first pass, not when executing functions within your script.
So what one can do is save that information, or at least what you need from that object, in the global scope or a static in your object.
In my case, I just did the following:
// Script to tweak things on many websites
var this_script_url = document.currentScript.src;
jQuery(document).ready(function()
{
// at this point: "document.currentScript === null"
var qs = this_script_url.split("?", 2);
if(qs && 2 == qs.length)
{
... // handle qs[1] which is the query string (a=1&b=3&...)
}
});
Please make sure you don't use a global name that's too generic. It should include the name of your script or abbreviation thereof. Otherwise you are likely to clash with another script's global.
Now if you have a prototype object, I would suggest you use a static member instead of a global.
var my_class = {};
my_class.script_url = document.currentScript.src;
// and later you can reference it directly as in:
url = my_class.script_url;
This way you are more likely to avoid clashing problems (the only thing that needs to be changing in case of a clash is the name my_class).
At this point, the ES5 or ES6 class keyword does not offer you to create variables.
I've seen some JavaScript code to access HTML elements like this: elementID.innerHTML, and it works, though practically every tutorial I searched for uses document.getElementById(). I don't even know if there's a term for the short addressing.
At first I thought simplistically that each id'ed HTML element was directly under window but using getParent() shows the tree structure is there, so it didn't matter that elements I wanted were nested. I wrote a short test case:
http://jsfiddle.net/hYzLu/
<div id="fruit">Mango<div id="color">red</div></div>
<div id="car">Chevy</div>
<div id="result" style="color: #A33"></div>
result.innerHTML = "I like my " + color.innerHTML + " " + car.innerHTML;
The "short" method looks like a nice shortcut, but I feel there is something wrong with it for it practically not appearing in tutorials.
Why is document.getElementById() preferred, or may be even required in some cases?
Why shouldn't I access elements more “directly” (elemId.innerHTML)
Because, according to the others in this thread, referencing arbitrarily by id name is not fully supported.
So, what I think you should be doing instead is store their selections into a var, and then reference the var.
Try instead
var color = document.getElementById('color');
color.innerHTML = 'something';
The reason why this would be a good thing to do is that performing a lookup in the DOM is an expensive process, memory wise. And so if you store the element's reference into a variable, it becomes static. Thus you're not performing a lookup each time you want to .doSomething() to it.
Please note that javascript libraries tend to add shim functions to increase general function support across browsers. which would be a benefit to using, for example, jquery's selectors over pure javascript. Though, if you are in fact worried about memory / performance, native JS usually wins speed tests. (jsperf.com is a good tool for measuring speed and doing comparisons.)
It's safer I guess. If you had a variable named result in the same context that you are doing result.HTML I'm pretty sure the browser will throw a wobbler. Doing it in the way of document.getElementById() in this instance would obviously provide you with the associated DOM element.
Also, if you are dynamically adding HTML to the page I may be wrong, but you could also encounter unexpected behaviour in terms of what result is :)
Also I will add that not all ID's can have values that will not work as variable names. For instance if your ID is "nav-menu".
Although I suppose you could write window["nav-menu"].innerHTML
Which makes me think, what happens if you create a window level variable with the same name as an ID?
Checkout this jsfiddle (tested in chrome): http://jsfiddle.net/8yH5y/
This really seems like a bad idea altogether. Just use document.getElementById("id") and store the result to a variable if you will be using the reference more than once.
This is my code all I need to do is call a function which will write the contents to a dynamic div
<script language='javascript' type='text/javascript'>
function getComments(id)
{
alert(id);
}
var resultSet="";
function CreateDiv()
{
resultSet+="<br/><div id='"+rows.data[i].id+"'></div><script language='javascript' type='text/javascript'> getComments("+rows.data[i].id+"); <\/script>";
}
window.onload=CreateDiv;
</script>
The function getComments is not being called at all
What's that I am missing here
There are a few problems there.
You're referencing rows without defining it anywhere, which will cause an exception.
Assuming you define rows somewhere you haven't shown, the code's just creating a string containing a script tag and putting that string in resultSet. To cause the code inside the script tag to run, you'd have to assign resultSet to innerHTML on some element.
There's an extra ) in your call to getComments within the generated script.
Separately: Your id values would appear to be numbers (this is based on your passing them into getComments with no quotes around them). Note that using id values starting with a digit is allowed in HTML5, but not in earlier versions of HTML and not in CSS, so it's probably best avoided.
There's almost certainly a better way to do what you're actually trying to do, you may consider a separate question outlining the goal, how you've approached it so far, and asking for alternatives.
I would suggest that you break the code down into steps while you debug it. Specifically where you populate resultSet. Break it down at each plus sign. Then you can step through it and see how it is being populated.
resultSet+="<br/><div id='";
resultSet+=rows.data[i].id;
and so on.
Secondly, have a look in View Source to see what this looks like on the page when you run it. Does the HTML look properly formed?
Also, I am questioning whether that final <\/script> in resultSet is correct.
Try replacing the createDiv function with this:
function CreateDiv(){
resultSet += "<br/><div id='"+rows.data[i].id+"'></div>" + getComments(rows.data[i].id);
}
It should work flawlessly.
This has been a question I've had since I started doing serious ajax stuff. Let me just give an example.
Let's say you pull a regular HTML page of a customer from the server. The url can look like this:
/myapp/customer/54
After the page is rendered, you want to provide ajax functionality that acts on this customer. In order to do this, you need to send the id "54" back to the server in each request.
Which is the best/most common way to do this? I find myself putting this in hidden form forms. I find it easy to select, but it also feels a bit fragile. What if the document changes and the script doesn't work? What if that id gets duplicated for css purposes 3 months from now, and thus breaks the page since there are 2 ids with the same name?
I could parse the url to get the value "54". Is that approach better? It would work for simple cases repeatedly. It might not work so well for complex cases where you might want to pass multiple ids, or lists of ids.
I'd just like to know a best practice - something robust that is clean, elegant and is given 2-thumbs up.
I think the best way to do this is to think like you don't have Ajax.
Let's say you have a form which is submitted using Ajax. How do you know what URL to send it to?
The src attribute. Simply have your script send the form itself. All the data is in the form already.
Let's say you have a link which loads some new data. How do you know the URL and parameters?
The href attribute. Simply have the script read the URL.
So basically you would always read the URL/data from the element being acted upon, similar to what the browser does.
Since your server-side code knows the ID's etc. when the page is being loaded, you can easily generate these URLs there. The client-side code will only need to read the attributes.
This approach has more than just one benefit:
It makes it simpler where the URLs and data is stored, because they are put exactly in the attributes that you'd normally find then in HTML.
It makes it easier to make your code work without JavaScript if you want to, because the URLs and all are already in places where the browser can understand them without JS.
If you're doing something more complex than links/forms
In a case where you need to allow more complex interactions, you can store the IDs or other relevant data in attributes. HTML5 provides the data-* attributes for this purpose - I would suggest you use these even if you're not doing HTML5:
<div data-article-id="5">...</div>
If you have a more full-featured application on the page, you could also consider simply storing your ID in JS code. When you generate the markup in the PHP end, simply include a snippet in the markup which assigns the ID to a variable or calls a function or whatever you decide is best.
Ideally your form should work without javascript, so you probably have a hidden form input or something that contains the id value already. If not, you probably should.
It's all "fragile" in the sense that a small change will affect everything, not much you can do about that, but you don't always want to put it in the user's hands by reading the url or query string, which can be easily manipulated by the user. (this is fine for urls of course, but not for everything. Same rules that apply to trusting $_GET and query strings apply here).
Personally, I like to build all AJAX on top of existing, functional code and I've never had a problem "hooking" into what is already there.
Not everything is a form though. For
example, let's say you click a "title"
and it becomes editable. You edit it,
press enter, and then it becomes
uneditable and part of the page again.
You needed to send an ID as part of
this. Also, what about moving things
around and you want those positions
updated? Here's another case where
using the form doesn't work because it
doesn't exist.
All of that is still possible, and not entirely difficult to do without javascript, so a form could work in either case, but I do indeed see what you're saying. In almost every case, there is some sort of unique id, whether it's a database id or file name, that can be used as the "id" attribute of the html that represents it. * Or the data- attribute as Jani Hartikainen has mentioned.
For instance, I have a template system that allows drag/drop of blocks of content. Every block has an id and every area that it can get dropped has one as well. I will use prefixes on the containing div id like "template-area_35" or "content-block_264". In this case, I don't bother to fallback w/o javascript, but it could be done (dropdown-> move this to area for example). In any case, it's a good use of the id attribute.
What if that id gets duplicated for
css purposes 3 months from now, and
thus breaks the page since there are 2
ids with the same name?
If that happens (which it really shouldn't), someone is doing something wrong. It would be their fault if the code failed to work, and they would be responsible. Ids are by definition supposed to be unique.
IMHO putting is at a request parameter (i. e. ?customerId=54) would be good 'cos even if you can't handle AJAX (like in some old mobile browsers, command-line browsers and so) you can still have a reference to the link.
Apparently you have an application that is aware of the entity "Customer", you should reflect this in your Javascript (or PHP, but since you're doing ajax I would put it in Javascript).
Instead of handmaking each ajax call you could wrap it into more domain aware functions:
Old scenario:
var customer_id = fetch_from_url(); // or whatever
ajax("dosomething", { "customer": customer_id }, function () {
alert("did something!");
});
ajax("dosomethingelse", { "customer": customer_id }, function () {
alert("did something else!");
});
New scenario:
var create_customer = function (customer_id) {
return {
"dosomething" : function () {
ajax("dosomething", { "customer": customer_id }, function () {
alert("did something!");
});
},
"dosomethingelse": function () {
ajax("dosomethingelse", { "customer": customer_id }, function () {
alert("did something else!");
});
}
};
}
var customer_id = fetch_from_url(); // or whatever
var customer = create_customer(customer_id);
// now you have a reference to the customer, you are no longer working with ids
// but with actual entities (or classes or objects or whathaveyou)
customer.dosomething();
customer.dosomethingelse();
To round it up. Yes, you need to send the customer id for each request but I would wrap it in Javascript in proper objects.
This is my first post.
I'm trying to do some basic meta-programming with javascript, and I was wondering if there is a way of get the id of a particular object and with that id, access to the variable name, or get simply the variable name of a particular object. I wanna recreate a situation in which you first create every single html in a web page, and append to some of the html tags events associated to a particular class -example class Person-. for example: Supposed the next code:
var someFunction = function(someText){alert(someText);}
function SomeClassFunction(){
this.aClassFunction = someFunction;
}
var aVariableName = new SomeClassFunction();
and in the HTML code suppose I have the next piece of code.
<html>
<head>
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<div onclick="aVariableName.aClassFunction('Some text to show in alert');">
</div>
</body>
</html>
Then, as you may notice the onclick event uses the aVariableName I created before, but because I first create the name of the variable and then append the name in the code cause I knew aVariableName was the name of that object. What I wanna do or implement is to create the text above in html without know the variable name of an specific object. I have surfed on the net but, unfortunately I haven't found anything about it.
i dont know how to get the name of a variable from the code its self without doing a whole load of work parsing stuff, which will get messy, and i'd shoot someone for this.
var someValue;
var foo = function() { someValue; }
alert((foo + '')); // this is now a string, use substr to extract variable name
You know you can set events like this in javascript someElement.onclick = someFunction so you dont really need to know the name of the variable if all you're doing is setting an event handler.
In general, no — you can't get the name of a particular variable or its "id" either.
If you really want to, it may be possible to do Bad Things with exceptions and stack traces to get that information… But I don't know off the top of my head how to do that.
Edit: I assume that, by “variable ID”, you mean “a unique identifier for the object referenced by that variable”, like Python's id builtin:
>>> x = {}
>>> y = z = {}
>>> (id(x), id(y), id(z))
(123, 567, 567)
I'm not 100% sure that I understand your question correctly in regards to meta-programming, but typically you would attach an event handler to the click event of the DOM element, then you can examine properties of the element within the handler.
There are a couple things in JavaScript that facilitate meta-programming: eval will let you interpret arbitrary code, so you can build a string of code and eval it. The security concerns are numerous. You can also access properties of an object by index or by name, e.g.
aVariableName.aClassFunction
is the same as
aVariableName["aClassFunction"]
Hope that helps.