Synchronous external JS loading with zombie.js - javascript

The problem:
I'm using zombie.js to test my client-side javascript, but I am running into a problem. Zombie.js does not provide synchronous <script> tag execution, and, in fact seems to not execute external JS files at all. A basic test confirms this:
<script type="text/javascript" src="test1.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="test2.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="test3.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
console.log("Inline javascript.");
</script>
Each test#.js contains a single line: console.log("TEST#.JS");
When I render this in a regular browser, the console displays the expected:
TEST1.JS
TEST2.JS
TEST3.JS
Inline javascript.
But when I run it with zombie.js, I only see a single line Inline javascript.
Here's what I have tried to get around the issue:
using document.createElement to dynamically append a script tag to the document
using document.write to add the script block into the html
using a setTimeout on console.log("Inline javascript") in combination with 1 and 2 to give the test scripts some time to load.
Is there any way to resolve this issue, besides placing the JS code from all my external JS files into a huge <script> block?

Are you sure the browser object has the "runScripts" option set to true? If not you can use the following syntax:
browser.visit('... your page url ...', { runScripts: true }, function (e, b) {
console.log('executing callback');
});

Related

run internal script after external script has been loaded via defer

It is well known to everyone that using defer is an efficient way to minimize the loading time of a website.
In my project, I am using Vue (included in the header using defer) and in a circumstance, I want to use a component that is created by another person. When I try to do Vue.Component(...) in the body of the HTML, it says Vue is undefined. It seems that my script in the body is running before the external script has been loaded. Is there any way to fix this issue?
I tried to do document.onload, but the function itself is not working.
PS: Just to be clear, the external script is referring to my js file where Vue is defined and I am not talking about the third party library at all.
Instead of document.onload you need to use window.onload or document.body.onload.
But an even better way is to wait for the load event on <script> tag:
<html>
<head>
<script id="vue-script" src="vue.js" charset="utf-8" defer></script>
</head>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
function onVueLoaded() {
Vue.render();
}
if ('Vue' in window) {
onVueLoaded();
} else {
var script = document.getElementById('vue-script');
script.addEventListener('load', onVueLoaded);
script.addEventListener('error', () => console.warn('failed to load Vue.js'));
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
Here I also added a handler for the error event if you wanted to explicitly handle loading errors.

How to defer inline Javascript?

I have the following html code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Document</title>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/blazy/1.8.2/blazy.min.js" defer></script>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.1.4.min.js" integrity="sha256-8WqyJLuWKRBVhxXIL1jBDD7SDxU936oZkCnxQbWwJVw=" crossorigin="anonymous" defer></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/lightbox2/2.9.0/js/lightbox.min.js" defer></script>
<script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/js/bootstrap.min.js" integrity="sha384-Tc5IQib027qvyjSMfHjOMaLkfuWVxZxUPnCJA7l2mCWNIpG9mGCD8wGNIcPD7Txa" crossorigin="anonymous" defer></script>
<!-- 26 dec flexslider js -->
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/flexslider/2.6.3/jquery.flexslider.min.js" defer></script>
<script defer>
(function($) {
$(document).ready(function() {
//do something with b-lazy plugin, lightbox plugin and then with flexslider
});
})(jQuery);
</script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
I get an error, saying jQuery is not defined. Now even if I remove defer from my inline JS code, it says jQuery is undefined. For some reason I have to keep the jQuery plugins in the head and keep my JS code inline. My question is:
Why doesn't inline Javascript code get deferred when defer attribute is present on it?
Is there a way to imitate the defer behavior on my inline Javascript code? I can put that at the end of body tag if required.
The scripts with the defer attribute load in the order they are specified, but not before the document itself has been loaded. As defer has no effect on script tags unless they also have the src attribute, the first script that gets executed is your inline script. So at that time jQuery is not loaded yet.
You can solve this in at least two ways:
Put your inline script in a .js file and reference it with a src attribute (in addition to the defer attribute which you already had there), or
Let your inline script wait for the document and the deferred scripts to be loaded. The DOMContentLoaded event will fire when that has happened:
<script>
window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
(function($) {
//do something with b-lazy plugin, lightbox plugin and then with flexslider
})(jQuery);
});
</script>
NB: Notice that in the latter case $(document).ready(function() is not included any more, as that would wait for the same event (DOMContentLoaded). You could still include it like you had in your original code, but then jQuery would just execute the callback immediately, which makes no practical difference.
You can create a Base64 URL out of the script and put it into the src!
<script src="data:text/javascript;base64,YWxlcnQoJ0hlbGxvIHdvcmxkIScpOw=="
defer>
</script>
I built a quick test to see it in action.
You should see an alert with Hello world! last if defer is working:
<script defer>
alert('Why no defer?!?');
</script>
<!-- alert('Hello world!'); -->
<script src="data:text/javascript;base64,YWxlcnQoJ0hlbGxvIHdvcmxkIScpOw=="
defer></script>
<script>
alert('Buh-bye world!');
</script>
Doing it manually is a little laborious so if you have the luxury of compiling your HTML in some way (Handlebars, Angular, etc.) then that helps a lot.
I'm currently using:
<script src="data:text/javascript;base64,{{base64 "alert('Hello world!');"}}"
defer>
</script>
You can also use type="module":
<meta charset="utf-8">
<script type="module">
let t = document.getElementById('top');
console.log(t);
</script>
<h1 id="top">Top Questions</h1>
https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/HTML/Element/script#attr-type
From MDN docs:
defer
This Boolean attribute is set to indicate to a browser that the script is meant to be executed after the document has been parsed, but before firing DOMContentLoaded. The defer attribute should only be used on external scripts.
This is called an IIFE (Immediately Invoked Function Expression) which gets executed before DOM is available. So, in that case jQuery is undefined because it it not in the DOM.
defer loading with plain text Data URI - Chrome and FF
#noLib #vanillaJS
suggest not to use on Cross Browser PRODuction
until MS IE dies and MS Edge will adopt the Chromium open source ;)
the only way to defer script is external file or Data_URI (without using event DOMContentLoaded)
defer
spec script#attr-defer (MDN web docs): "This attribute must not be used if the src attribute is absent (i.e. for inline scripts), in this case it would have no effect.)"
Data_URI
spec Data_URI
with right type "text/javascript" there is no need to base64 at all... ;)
using plain text so you can use simple:
<script defer src="data:text/javascript,
//do something with b-lazy plugin, lightbox plugin and then with flexslider
lightbox.option({
resizeDuration: 200,
wrapAround: true
})
">
yes, it's little bit weird hack, but <script type="module"> are deferred by default, there is no other option to mix following in exact order:
module external files - deferred by default
module inline scripts - deferred by default
external files - optionally deferred
inline scripts - only with this hack - as I know (without libraries/frameworks)
Defer/async script tags are not good enough
There is a common knowledge that you should use <script src=".." async defer> (or set script.async = true before assigning src, when you do it from JS) and/or put your scripts at the very bottom of the page, so that as much as possible of the page gets loaded and rendered to the user, as fast as possible.
defer.js (note: I am the author of this script) is written in plain JavaScript, making lazy-loading other contents more fast and performant. You can defer any javascript files as well as inline script blocks efficiently.
If your page is just an HTML page enhanced with some JavaScript, then you're good with just <script async>. It takes time for browser to parse and execute those scripts, and each UI change may reflow your layout, make your load speed more slow, no one likes staring at a blank white page; users are impatient and will leave quickly.
In various cases, using async or defer does not deliver faster page speed than defer.js does.
I checked all the proposed solutions but all have their disadvantages. So I invented my own.
Put this inline script into your head tag or right after the start of body tag:
<script>var Defer = []; document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() { while (Defer.length) Defer.shift().call(); }); </script>
This one liner will collect all the inline scripts you want to defer and run them respectively as soon as document is fully loaded. Now anytime you need to run an inline script deferred, just register it like:
<script>
alert('This alert will show immediately.');
Defer.push(function() {
alert('This alert will show only after document is loaded.');
// You can use anything which is not loaded yet, like jQuery
$(".selector").doSomeJqueryStuff();
});
// You can use it as many times as you like and in any place of your DOM.
Defer.push(function() {
// Any inline code you want to defer
});
</script>
This inline script will run only after document is loaded. That means you can run inline jQuery script having your jQuery stay at the end of your DOM.
You can use this data url as src attribute
data:application/javascript,eval(document.currentScript.textContent)
which takes this current script tag and evaluate its content as if it was inside an external file.
it also works with lazy attribute.
it uses document.currentScript which not supported by IE browsers.
<script defer src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/vue"></script>
<script defer src="data:application/javascript,eval(document.currentScript.textContent)">
console.log('defered', typeof Vue); // function
</script>
<script>
console.log('not defered', typeof Vue); // undefined
</script>
There is a somewhat less obscure way to accomplish deferral that does not require callbacks, promises, or data urls ... although it does a little DOM manipulation in the background. The tiny library (109 bytes compressed/gziped) https://www.npmjs.com/package/deferscript let's you do this. The example below is based on the original post.
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/flexslider/2.6.3/jquery.flexslider.min.js" defer>
</script>
<script src="./deferscript.js" defer>
(function($) {
$(document).ready(function() {
//do something with b-lazy plugin, lightbox plugin and then with flexslider
});
})(jQuery);
</script>
All you have to do is insert a src attribute with the value ./deferscript.js.
If the problem is that jQuery variable $ is not defined, maybe you can create a fake $ function that returns a ready function waiting for the DOMContentLoaded?
All my inline scripts has $(document).ready(..... and the problem is that $ is not defined as the header scripts are deferred.
So, just add a fake $ in an inline script in head:
<script type="text/javascript">
var $ = function(element) {
return {
ready: function(callback) {
// in case the document is already rendered
if (document.readyState!="loading") callback();
// modern browsers
else if (document.addEventListener)
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", callback);
// IE <= 8
else document.attachEvent("onreadystatechange", function(){
if (document.readyState=="complete") callback();
});
}
};
};
</script>

Does angularjs gets loaded on fallback of jQuery?

In the below code,
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Falback procedure</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.2/jquery.min.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
if(typeof jQuery === 'undefined')
document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="../localfolder/jquery.js"></script>');
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/angular.js/2.0.0-beta.0/angular2.js">
</script>
</head>
<body>
<p>Hello</p>
</body>
</html>
considering a scenario, where google CDN has reach-ability issues that triggers fallback mechanism of loading local jQuery library(sitting in webserver).
In such scenario, Does angularjs library get loaded? after executing document.write
You have two problems with that code that are likely to be making it not behave as you expect:
You have a literal </script> inside a script block. It doesn't matter that it's inside a string, it terminates the block it's in. You have to break it up so the browser doesn't see it as the end of the block:
<script type="text/javascript">
if(typeof jQuery === 'undefined')
document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="../localfolder/jquery.js"><\/script>');
// Note the \------------------------------------------------------------------^
</script>
The \ there is meaningless in JavaScript, but prevents the browser from seeing </script> and thus from ending the script block prematurely. Other ways you see it done are '....<' + '/script>' or '...</scr' + 'ipt>', etc.
Your src on the Angular script is incorrect, so it won't work whether jQuery loads or not (or from where). You've made the URL relative to the path of the page, but you need to make it at least protocol-relative by adding //:
<script type="text/javascript" src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/angular.js/2.0.0-beta.0/angular2.js">
</script>
<!-- here --------------------------^ -->
In a comment, you asked
I was wondering, whether document.write was an asynchronous execution
No, it happens immediately when the function is run. In your case, since the function is at the top level of a script tag with no special attributes, the HTML parser has to screech to a halt and run that JavaScript code, processing any tokens the JavaScript code outputs via document.write, and waiting until the JavaScript code finishes before moving on to the Angular part.
The browser may well be able to scan ahead to preload the angular.js file, but it won't execute the contents of that file until the parser has reached that file's script tag, because the order in which scripts execute is well-defined (e.g., in document order) unless you use the async or defer attributes.

External file script is not loading

Iam using load() for loading external html file.
$("#header_section").load("header.html");
$("#sidemenu_section").load("side_menu.html");
Here, HTML file is loaded and css also loaded but script file is not loading in the page
<script src="js/utility.js"></script>
I tried to declare the above script file inside the head and inside the body. Both are not working.
Check your relative path to the utility.js file and make sure to load juery.js library before load utility.js file.
and finally try this,
<script type="text/javascript" src="${pageContext.request.contextPath}/js/utility.js"></script>
to load the utility.js file.
I think you forget to add jquery.min.js file. use below code.
<head>
<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.3/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="js/utility.js"></script>
</head>
jQuery may only execute your code with the type attribute set to "text/javascript", per this bug filed a long time ago:
http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/3733
Try this ...
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://your.cdn.com/first.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
loadScript("http://your.cdn.com/second.js", function(){
//initialization code
});
</script>
The jQuery code that adds HTML to the DOM always strips out <script> tags. It runs them and then throws them away.
An exception to that behavior is when you use "$.load()" with the hack that allows you to load a fragment of a page:
$.load("http://something.com/whatever #stuff_I_want", function() { ... });
In that case, the scripts are stripped and not evaluated/run.

Why I can't type any letter if I separate the .js file?

Actually I was trying to get the concept of the module pattern. Here I have simple code which I used to type directly on the page. It was fine until I tried to separate the actual code from the HTML file and kept only a single line of code on the main HTML file:
<body>
<script type='text/javascript' src='module.js'>
// module.JS file was here ....
document.body.addEventListener('keypress',function(e){module.show(e.keyCode)});
</script>
</body>
File module.JS
var module = (function() {
return {
show:function(keyCode){
document.body.innerHTML+=(String.fromCharCode(keyCode));
}
};
})();
You'll need to have two <script> elements for this.
Use one to "import" your external module and another for the script you want to embed directly on the page:
<script type='text/javascript' src='module.js'></script>
<script type='text/javascript'>
document.body.addEventListener('keypress',function(e){module.show(e.keyCode)});
</script>
For more information, you can check out this MDN documentation page. Here is an excerpt talking about the src attribute (emphasis added):
This attribute specifies the URI of an external script; this can be used as an alternative to embedding a script directly within a document. Script elements with an src attribute specified should not have a script embedded within its tags.
A script block referring to an external JavaScript source should be separate and any script inside of it does not get executed. So you need two separate script blocks one for the external JavaScript file and the other for your script.
<script src='module.js'></script>
<script>
document.body.addEventListener('keypress',function(e){module.show(e.keyCode)});
</script>

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