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HTMLScriptElement

HTML <script> elements expose the HTMLScriptElement interface, which provides special properties and methods for manipulating the behavior and execution of <script> elements (beyond the inherited HTMLElement interface).

JavaScript files should be served with the application/javascript MIME type, but browsers are lenient and block them only if the script is served with an image type (image/*), video type (video/*), audio type (audio/*), or text/csv. If the script is blocked, its element receives an error event; otherwise, it receives a success event.

Properties

Inherits properties from its parent, HTMLElement.

Name Type Description
type DOMString Represents the MIME type of the script. It reflects the type attribute.
src DOMString Gets and sets the URL of an external script. It reflects the src attribute.
event DOMString An old, quirky way of registering event handlers on elements in an HTML document.
charset DOMString Represents the character encoding of an external script. It reflects the charset attribute.
async Boolean

The async and defer attributes are boolean attributes that control how the script should be executed. The defer and async attributes must not be specified if the src attribute is absent.

There are three possible execution modes:

  1. If the async attribute is present, then the script will be executed asynchronously as soon as it downloads.
  2. If the async attribute is absent but the defer attribute is present, then the script is executed when the page has finished parsing.
  3. If neither attribute is present, then the script is fetched and executed immediately, blocking further parsing of the page.

The defer attribute may be specified with the async attribute, so legacy browsers that only support defer (and not async) fall back to the defer behavior instead of the default blocking behavior.

Note: The exact processing details for these attributes are complex, involving many different aspects of HTML, and therefore are scattered throughout the specification. These algorithms describe the core ideas, but they rely on the parsing rules for <script> start and end tags in HTML, in foreign content, and in XML; the rules for the document.write() method; the handling of scripting; and so on.
defer Boolean
crossOrigin DOMString A DOMString reflecting the CORS setting for the script element. For scripts from other origins, this controls if error information will be exposed.
text DOMString

The IDL attribute text joins and returns the contents of all Text nodes inside the <script> element (ignoring other nodes like comments) in tree order. On setting, it acts the same way as the textContent IDL attribute.

Note: When inserted using the document.write() method, <script> elements execute (typically synchronously), but when inserted using innerHTML or outerHTML, they do not execute at all.
noModule Boolean This Boolean property stops the script's execution in browsers that support ES2015 modules — used to run fallback scripts in older browsers that do not support JavaScript modules.

Methods

No specific methods; inherits methods from its parent, HTMLElement.

Examples

Dynamically importing scripts

Let's create a function that imports new scripts within a document creating a <script> node immediately before the <script> that hosts the following code (through document.currentScript). These scripts will be asynchronously executed. For more details, see the defer and async properties.

function loadError(oError) {
  throw new URIError("The script " + oError.target.src + " didn't load correctly.");
}

function prefixScript(url, onloadFunction) {
  var newScript = document.createElement("script");
  newScript.onerror = loadError;
  if (onloadFunction) { newScript.onload = onloadFunction; }
  document.currentScript.parentNode.insertBefore(newScript, document.currentScript);
  newScript.src = url;
}

This next function, instead of prepending the new scripts immediately before the document.currentScript element, appends them as children of the <head> tag.

function loadError(oError) {
  throw new URIError("The script " + oError.target.src + " didn't load correctly.");
}

function affixScriptToHead(url, onloadFunction) {
  var newScript = document.createElement("script");
  newScript.onerror = loadError;
  if (onloadFunction) { newScript.onload = onloadFunction; }
  document.head.appendChild(newScript);
  newScript.src = url;
}

Sample usage:

affixScriptToHead("myScript1.js");
affixScriptToHead("myScript2.js", function () { alert("The script \"myScript2.js\" has been correctly loaded."); });

Specifications

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

Desktop
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support 1 Yes 1 Yes Yes Yes
async Yes Yes 3.6 10 No Yes
charset 1 Yes 1 Yes Yes Yes
crossOrigin 1 Yes 13 No No 4
defer Yes Yes 3.5 10
10
4 — 10
Non-standard implementation
No Yes
event 1 Yes 1 Yes Yes Yes
htmlFor 1 Yes 1 Yes Yes Yes
noModule Yes No 60
60
55 — 60
Disabled
Disabled From version 55 until version 60 (exclusive): this feature is behind the dom.moduleScripts.enabled preference (needs to be set to true). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.
No No No
src 1 Yes 1 Yes Yes Yes
text 1 Yes 1 Yes Yes Yes
type 1 Yes 1 Yes Yes Yes
Mobile
Android webview Chrome for Android Edge Mobile Firefox for Android Opera for Android iOS Safari Samsung Internet
Basic support Yes Yes Yes 4 Yes Yes ?
async Yes Yes Yes 4 Yes Yes ?
charset Yes Yes Yes 4 Yes Yes ?
crossOrigin Yes Yes Yes 14 Yes Yes ?
defer Yes Yes Yes 4 Yes Yes ?
event Yes Yes Yes 4 Yes Yes ?
htmlFor Yes Yes Yes 4 Yes Yes ?
noModule Yes Yes Yes 60
60
55 — 60
Disabled
Disabled From version 55 until version 60 (exclusive): this feature is behind the dom.moduleScripts.enabled preference (needs to be set to true). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.
Yes Yes ?
src Yes Yes Yes 4 Yes Yes ?
text Yes Yes Yes 4 Yes Yes ?
type Yes Yes Yes 4 Yes Yes ?

See also

© 2005–2018 Mozilla Developer Network and individual contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLScriptElement