Dynamically loading JavaScript synchronously

Question

I\'m using the module pattern, one of the things I want to do is dynamically include an external JavaScript file, execute the file, and then use the functions/variables in t

Answer 1

There is only one way to synchronously load and execute a script resource, and that is using a synchronous XHR

This is an example of how to do this

// get some kind of XMLHttpRequest
var xhrObj = createXMLHTTPObject();
// open and send a synchronous request
xhrObj.open('GET', "script.js", false);
xhrObj.send('');
// add the returned content to a newly created script tag
var se = document.createElement('script');
se.type = "text/javascript";
se.text = xhrObj.responseText;
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(se);

But you shouldn't in general use synchronous requests as this will block everything else. But that being said, there are of course scenarios where this is appropriate.

I would probably refactor the containing function into an asynchronous pattern though using an onload handler.