In my page I dynamically add a script with a function like this:
function addScript( src ) {
var s = document.createElement( 'script' );
s.setAttribute( 'src', src );
document.body.appendChild( s );
}
I'm wondering though if I should wait for the document to be loaded before doing this. Is it possible that the body in the document may be not ready yet?
I'm using this at the moment:
document.onreadystatechange = function () {
if (typeof document.body !== 'undefined') {
addScript('http://my.url);
}
};
Not sure if it is unnecessary though and maybe delay the load of the script in the page.
It is possible that the body will not yet be available, but the head should be, so you could append it there.
document.head.appendChild(s);
Otherwise, if you do want to wait for the document to load, use the DOMContentLoaded event.
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
// inject the script
});
onreadystatechange is used in reference to a http request. ( or used only by the older versions of IE )
The best thing you could do it call the method just below the closing of the body tag. At this point you can be sure that the document has indeed loaded.
<script>
addScript('http://my.url');
</script>
</body>
But you can alway attach the callback to the onload event of the document.
Instead of doing document.onreadystatechange I would use document.onload, which fires after the document has finished loading all elements. onreadystatechange can fire multiple times in one session (which I have utilized previously), notably after ajax loading. onload only fires once the page finishes loading, and never again.
The readystatechange event is fired when the readyState attribute of a document has changed.
The load event fires at the end of the document loading process. At this point, all of the objects in the document are in the DOM, and all the images, scripts, links and sub-frames have finished loading.
Sources:
readystatechange
onload
I have had the same issue tryin to add a button to the youtube page using an extension, but since the page has a load of ajax calls my button always gets overwritten.
I would suggest you use
window.addEventListener("DOMNodeInserted", function(){
}, false);
With this each time the dom get changed your code will run, and you should put some logic checks if your element is still in the document if not add it again, and so on. Hackie but it works.
I have read code the uses jQuery outside of the ready handler, what are the drawbacks, if any to using it this way? For whatever reason I feel uncomfortable with it coded this way.
Inline script from and ASP.NET MVC View:
<script type="text/javascript">
function foo() {
if ($("#checkAll").attr("checked")) {
$(".setColumns").attr("checked", true);
}
else {
$(".setColumns").attr("checked", false);
}
}
</script>
There aren't really any drawbacks. It's just that you need to wait for the DOM element to be loaded before it can be manipulated. For example, if you had code like this:
<script type="text/javascript">
console.log($('#el').html());
</script>
<div id="el">Text</div>
The function would not return a value because the div was not yet loaded.
It is not.
The only reason why some people run it inside the document.ready handler, is because at that time, they can be sure the DOM tree is completely loaded, and your queries will return the correct results.
However, if you put your script tags underneath all elements, you normally would not have any issues with this.
The reason of using jQuery within the DOM ready handler is that event binding will only work when the element is present — if your DOM is not ready, your element may not be present and therefore the event may not be bound.
It is the same problem that people face when trying to bind events to dynamically loaded content without the .on() selector, for example — if the element is not initially present, events will not be bound to it.
p/s: You are of course free to define functions outside the handler.
I am used to using inline events in my websites for example
<head>
<script>
function func() {
alert("test");
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="mydiv" onclick="func()"></div>
</body>
I noticed that sites these days do not use inline events at all. I know you can set events pragmatically like:
document.getElementById('mydiv').onclick = function(){ func()}
Is this how it should be done? Do I have to put the above line at the end of every page?
How are the keypress,click, and blur events attached to the input fields on this site for example: https://twitter.com/signup
Thanks.
Yes, that is one valid way to add an event to an object, but it prevents more than one function from being bound at a time.
I would recommend looking into jQuery (or similar javascript library, like mootools), which is how the vast majority of sites bind their javascript events these days.
For example, in jQuery you generally bind clicks like this:
$("#mydiv").click(function(event) {
// click handling code
});
The cleanest way to add event listeners is to use the built in methods :
var el = document.getElementById('mydiv');
if (el.addEventListener) {
el.addEventListener('click', modifyText, false);
} else if (el.attachEvent) {
el.attachEvent('onclick', modifyText);
}
function modifyText() {
}
This promotes cleaner more readable and reusable code. (Note attachEvent is for pre IE9)
You can either place this code at the end of the <body> tag (or anywhere within the <body> tag but after the DOM element is added) or within a window onload function - which executes after the DOM has completed loading :
window.onload = function() {
// here
};
The prefered method is to use addEventListener, often in combination with a library (such as YUI or jQuery) that smooths over variations between browsers (e.g. old-IE not supporting addEventListener).
Do I have to put the above line at the end of every page?
Usually you would put JavaScript in a file of its own, and then src it into each page that needed it.
The main idea here is that the DOM element that you want to register the handler on should be loaded. so either you do the event binding after the element html, or you could do it in the window.onload event handler, which could be defined before the actual tag definition, like this:
window.onload = function(){
// your event binding
}
But my advice would be to include javascript at the end of the document as much as possible.
I am a little confused with document.ready in jQuery.
When do you define javascript functions inside of
$(document).ready() and when do you not?
Is it safe enough just to put all javascript code inside of $(document).ready()?
What happens when you don't do this?
For example, I use the usual jQuery selectors which do something when you click on stuff. If you don't wrap these with document.ready what is the harm?
Is it only going to cause problems if someone clicks on the element in the split second before the page has loaded? Or can it cause other problems?
When do you define javascript functions inside of $(document).ready() and when do you not?
If the functions should be globally accessible (which might indicate bad design of your application), then you have to define them outside the ready handler.
Is it safe enough just to put all javascript code inside of $(document).ready()?
See above.
What happens when you don't do this?
Depends on what your JavaScript code is doing and where it is located. It the worst case you will get runtime errors because you are trying to access DOM elements before they exist. This would happend if your code is located in the head and you are not only defining functions but already trying to access DOM elements.
For example, I use the usual jQuery selectors which do something when you click on stuff. If you don't wrap these with document.ready what is the harm?
There is no "harm" per se. It would just not work if the the script is located in the head, because the DOM elements don't exist yet. That means, jQuery cannot find and bind the handler to them.
But if you place the script just before the closing body tag, then the DOM elements will exist.
To be on the safe side, whenever you want to access DOM elements, place these calls in the ready event handler or into functions which are called only after the DOM is loaded.
As the jQuery tutorial (you should read it) already states:
As almost everything we do when using jQuery reads or manipulates the document object model (DOM), we need to make sure that we start adding events etc. as soon as the DOM is ready.
To do this, we register a ready event for the document.
$(document).ready(function() {
// do stuff when DOM is ready
});
To give a more complete example:
<html>
<head>
<!-- Assuming jQuery is loaded -->
<script>
function foo() {
// OK - because it is inside a function which is called
// at some time after the DOM was loaded
alert($('#answer').html());
}
$(function() {
// OK - because this is executed once the DOM is loaded
$('button').click(foo);
});
// OK - no DOM access/manipulation
alert('Just a random alert ' + Math.random());
// NOT OK - the element with ID `foo` does not exist yet
$('#answer').html('42');
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="question">The answer to life, the universe and everything</div>
<div id="answer"></div>
<button>Show the answer</button>
<script>
// OK - the element with ID `foo` does exist
$('#answer').html('42');
</script>
</body>
</html>
The document.ready handler is triggered when the DOM has been loaded by the browser and ready to be manipulated.
Whether you should use it or not will depend on where you are putting your custom scripts. If you put them at the end of the document, just before the closing </body> tag you don't need to use document.ready because by the time your script executes the DOM will already be loaded and you will be able to manipulate it.
If on the other hand you put your script in the <head> section of the document you should use document.ready to ensure that the DOM is fully loaded before attempting to modify it or attach event handlers to various elements. If you don't do this and you attempt to attach for example a .click event handler to a button, this event will never be triggered because at the moment your script ran, the jQuery selector that you used to find the button didn't return any elements and you didn't successfully attach the handler.
You put code inside of $(document).ready when you need that code to wait for the DOM to load before executing. If the code doesn't require the DOM to load first to exist, then you can put it outside of the $(document).ready.
Incidentally, $(function() { }) is short-hand for $(document).ready();
$(function() {
//stuff here will wait for the DOM to load
$('#something').text('foo'); //should be okay
});
//stuff here will execute immediately.
/* this will likely break */
$('#something').text('weee!');
If you have your scripts at the end of the document, you dont need document.ready.
example: There is a button and on click of it, you need to show an alert.
You can put the bind the click event to button in document.ready.
You can write your jquery script at the end of the document or once the element is loaded in the markup.
Writing everything in document.ready event will make your page slug.
There is no harm not adding event handlers in ready() if you are calling your js functions in the href attribute. If you're adding them with jQuery then you must ensure the objects these handlers refer to are loaded, and this code must come after the document is deemed ready(). This doesn't mean they have to be in the ready() call however, you can call them in functions that are called inside ready() themselves.
What are the differences between JavaScript's window.onload and jQuery's $(document).ready() method?
The ready event occurs after the HTML document has been loaded, while the onload event occurs later, when all content (e.g. images) also has been loaded.
The onload event is a standard event in the DOM, while the ready event is specific to jQuery. The purpose of the ready event is that it should occur as early as possible after the document has loaded, so that code that adds functionality to the elements in the page doesn't have to wait for all content to load.
window.onload is the built-in JavaScript event, but as its implementation had subtle quirks across browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 8, and Opera), jQuery provides document.ready, which abstracts those away, and fires as soon as the page's DOM is ready (doesn't wait for images, etc.).
$(document).ready (note that it's not document.ready, which is undefined) is a jQuery function, wrapping and providing consistency to the following events:
DOMContentLoaded - a newish event which fires when the document's DOM is loaded (which may be some time before the images, etc. are loaded); again, slightly different in Internet Explorer and in rest of the world
and window.onload (which is implemented even in old browsers), which fires when the entire page loads (images, styles, etc.)
$(document).ready() is a jQuery event. JQuery’s $(document).ready() method gets called as soon as the DOM is ready (which means that the browser has parsed the HTML and built the DOM tree). This allows you to run code as soon as the document is ready to be manipulated.
For example, if a browser supports the DOMContentLoaded event (as many non-IE browsers do), then it will fire on that event. (Note that the DOMContentLoaded event was only added to IE in IE9+.)
Two syntaxes can be used for this:
$( document ).ready(function() {
console.log( "ready!" );
});
Or the shorthand version:
$(function() {
console.log( "ready!" );
});
Main points for $(document).ready():
It will not wait for the images to be loaded.
Used to execute JavaScript when the DOM is completely loaded. Put event handlers here.
Can be used multiple times.
Replace $ with jQuery when you receive "$ is not defined."
Not used if you want to manipulate images. Use $(window).load() instead.
window.onload() is a native JavaScript function. The window.onload() event fires when all the content on your page has loaded, including the DOM (document object model), banner ads and images. Another difference between the two is that, while we can have more than one $(document).ready() function, we can only have one onload function.
A little tip:
Always use the window.addEventListener to add an event to window. Because that way you can execute the code in different event handlers .
Correct code:
window.addEventListener('load', function () {
alert('Hello!')
})
window.addEventListener('load', function () {
alert('Bye!')
})
Invalid code:
window.onload = function () {
alert('Hello!') // it will not work!!!
}
window.onload = function () {
alert('Bye!')
}
This is because onload is just property of the object, which is overwritten.
By analogy with addEventListener, it is better to use $(document).ready() rather than onload.
A Windows load event fires when all the content on your page is fully loaded including the DOM (document object model) content and asynchronous JavaScript, frames and images. You can also use body onload=. Both are the same; window.onload = function(){} and <body onload="func();"> are different ways of using the same event.
jQuery $document.ready function event executes a bit earlier than window.onload and is called once the DOM(Document object model) is loaded on your page. It will not wait for the images, frames to get fully load.
Taken from the following article:
how $document.ready() is different from window.onload()
$(document).ready(function() {
// Executes when the HTML document is loaded and the DOM is ready
alert("Document is ready");
});
// .load() method deprecated from jQuery 1.8 onward
$(window).on("load", function() {
// Executes when complete page is fully loaded, including
// all frames, objects and images
alert("Window is loaded");
});
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
The $(document).ready() is a jQuery event which occurs when the HTML document has been fully loaded, while the window.onload event occurs later, when everything including images on the page loaded.
Also window.onload is a pure javascript event in the DOM, while the $(document).ready() event is a method in jQuery.
$(document).ready() is usually the wrapper for jQuery to make sure the elements all loaded in to be used in jQuery...
Look at to jQuery source code to understand how it's working:
jQuery.ready.promise = function( obj ) {
if ( !readyList ) {
readyList = jQuery.Deferred();
// Catch cases where $(document).ready() is called after the browser event has already occurred.
// we once tried to use readyState "interactive" here, but it caused issues like the one
// discovered by ChrisS here: http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/12282#comment:15
if ( document.readyState === "complete" ) {
// Handle it asynchronously to allow scripts the opportunity to delay ready
setTimeout( jQuery.ready );
// Standards-based browsers support DOMContentLoaded
} else if ( document.addEventListener ) {
// Use the handy event callback
document.addEventListener( "DOMContentLoaded", completed, false );
// A fallback to window.onload, that will always work
window.addEventListener( "load", completed, false );
// If IE event model is used
} else {
// Ensure firing before onload, maybe late but safe also for iframes
document.attachEvent( "onreadystatechange", completed );
// A fallback to window.onload, that will always work
window.attachEvent( "onload", completed );
// If IE and not a frame
// continually check to see if the document is ready
var top = false;
try {
top = window.frameElement == null && document.documentElement;
} catch(e) {}
if ( top && top.doScroll ) {
(function doScrollCheck() {
if ( !jQuery.isReady ) {
try {
// Use the trick by Diego Perini
// http://javascript.nwbox.com/IEContentLoaded/
top.doScroll("left");
} catch(e) {
return setTimeout( doScrollCheck, 50 );
}
// detach all dom ready events
detach();
// and execute any waiting functions
jQuery.ready();
}
})();
}
}
}
return readyList.promise( obj );
};
jQuery.fn.ready = function( fn ) {
// Add the callback
jQuery.ready.promise().done( fn );
return this;
};
Also I have created the image below as a quick references for both:
A word of caution on using $(document).ready() with Internet Explorer. If an HTTP request is interrupted before the entire document is loaded (for example, while a page is streaming to the browser, another link is clicked) IE will trigger the $(document).ready event.
If any code within the $(document).ready() event references DOM objects, the potential exists for those objects to be not found, and Javascript errors can occur. Either guard your references to those objects, or defer code which references those objects to the window.load event.
I have not been able to reproduce this problem in other browsers (specifically, Chrome and Firefox)
Events
$(document).on('ready', handler) binds to the ready event from jQuery. The handler is called when the DOM is loaded. Assets like images maybe still are missing. It will never be called if the document is ready at the time of binding. jQuery uses the DOMContentLoaded-Event for that, emulating it if not available.
$(document).on('load', handler) is an event that will be fired once all resources are loaded from the server. Images are loaded now. While onload is a raw HTML event, ready is built by jQuery.
Functions
$(document).ready(handler) actually is a promise. The handler will be called immediately if document is ready at the time of calling. Otherwise it binds to the ready-Event.
Before jQuery 1.8, $(document).load(handler) existed as an alias to $(document).on('load',handler).
Further Reading
The timing
On the function ready
An example
Promises
The removed event alias
window.onload: A normal JavaScript event.
document.ready: A specific jQuery event when the entire HTML has been loaded.
One thing to remember (or should I say recall) is that you cannot stack onloads like you can with ready. In other words, jQuery magic allows multiple readys on the same page, but you can't do that with onload.
The last onload will overrule any previous onloads.
A nice way to deal with that is with a function apparently written by one Simon Willison and described in Using Multiple JavaScript Onload Functions.
function addLoadEvent(func) {
var oldonload = window.onload;
if (typeof window.onload != 'function') {
window.onload = func;
}
else {
window.onload = function() {
if (oldonload) {
oldonload();
}
func();
}
}
}
// Example use:
addLoadEvent(nameOfSomeFunctionToRunOnPageLoad);
addLoadEvent(function() {
/* More code to run on page load */
});
Document.ready (a jQuery event) will fire when all the elements are in place, and they can be referenced in the JavaScript code, but the content is not necessarily loaded. Document.ready executes when the HTML document is loaded.
$(document).ready(function() {
// Code to be executed
alert("Document is ready");
});
The window.load however will wait for the page to be fully loaded. This includes inner frames, images, etc.
$(window).load(function() {
//Fires when the page is loaded completely
alert("window is loaded");
});
The document.ready event occurs when the HTML document has been loaded, and the window.onload event occurs always later, when all content (images, etc) has been loaded.
You can use the document.ready event if you want to intervene "early" in the rendering process, without waiting for the images to load.
If you need the images (or any other "content") ready before your script "does something", you need to wait until window.onload.
For instance, if you are implementing a "Slide Show" pattern, and you need to perform calculations based on image sizes, you may want to wait until window.onload. Otherwise, you might experience some random problems, depending on how fast the images will get loaded. Your script would be running concurrently with the thread that loads images. If your script is long enough, or the server is fast enough, you may not notice a problem, if images happen to arrive in time. But the safest practice would be allowing for images to get loaded.
document.ready could be a nice event for you to show some "loading..." sign to users, and upon window.onload, you can complete any scripting that needed resources loaded, and then finally remove the "Loading..." sign.
Examples :-
// document ready events
$(document).ready(function(){
alert("document is ready..");
})
// using JQuery
$(function(){
alert("document is ready..");
})
// window on load event
function myFunction(){
alert("window is loaded..");
}
window.onload = myFunction;
Time flies, it's ECMAScript 2021 now and IE11 is used by people less and less. The most two events in contrast are load and DOMContentLoaded.
DOMContentLoaded fires after the initial HTML document has been completely loaded and parsed.
load fires after DOMContentLoaded and the whole page has loaded,
waiting for all dependent resources to finish loading. Example of resources: scripts, stylesheets, images and iframes etc.
IMPORTANT: Synchronous scripts will pause parsing of the DOM.
Both two events can be used to determine the DOM is able to use or not. For examples:
<script>
// DOM hasn't been completely parsed
document.body; // null
window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => {
// Now safely manipulate DOM
document.querySelector('#id');
document.body.appendChild();
});
/**
* Should be used only to detect a fully-loaded page.
*
* If you just want to manipulate DOM safely, `DOMContentLoaded` is better.
*/
window.addEventListener('load', () => {
// Safely manipulate DOM too
document.links;
});
</script>
window.onload is a JavaScript inbuilt function. window.onload trigger when the HTML page loaded. window.onload can be written only once.
document.ready is a function of the jQuery library. document.ready triggers when HTML and all JavaScript code, CSS, and images which are included in the HTML file are completely loaded.
document.ready can be written multiple times according to requirements.
When you say $(document).ready(f), you tell script engine to do the following:
get the object document and push it, since it's not in local scope, it must do a hash table lookup to find where document is, fortunately document is globally bound so it is a single lookup.
find the object $ and select it, since it's not in local scope, it must do a hash table lookup, which may or may not have collisions.
find the object f in global scope, which is another hash table lookup, or push function object and initialize it.
call ready of selected object, which involves another hash table lookup into the selected object to find the method and invoke it.
done.
In the best case, this is 2 hash table lookups, but that's ignoring the heavy work done by jQuery, where $ is the kitchen sink of all possible inputs to jQuery, so another map is likely there to dispatch the query to correct handler.
Alternatively, you could do this:
window.onload = function() {...}
which will
find the object window in global scope, if the JavaScript is optimized, it will know that since window isn't changed, it has already the selected object, so nothing needs to be done.
function object is pushed on the operand stack.
check if onload is a property or not by doing a hash table lookup, since it is, it is called like a function.
In the best case, this costs a single hash table lookup, which is necessary because onload must be fetched.
Ideally, jQuery would compile their queries to strings that can be pasted to do what you wanted jQuery to do but without the runtime dispatching of jQuery. This way you have an option of either
do dynamic dispatch of jquery like we do today.
have jQuery compile your query to pure JavaScript string that can be passed to eval to do what you want.
copy the result of 2 directly into your code, and skip the cost of eval.
window.onload is provided by DOM api and it says " the load event fires when a given resource has loaded".
"The load event fires at the end of the document loading process. At this point, all of the objects in the document are in the DOM, and all the images, scripts, links and sub-frames have finished loading."
DOM onload
But in jQuery $(document).ready() will only run once the page Document Object Model (DOM) is ready for JavaScript code to execute. This does not include images, scripts, iframes etc. jquery ready event
So the jquery ready method will run earlier than the dom onload event.