problem dynamically adding script tag to xhtml document

[James Black]

You can see the program at:
http://dante.acomp.usf.edu/Communica...ator/index.php

I am trying to dynamically add script tags to my webpage, but I get an
error that the first javascript literal object is not defined.

function initialize() {
insertScriptTags("http://dante.acomp.usf.edu/CommunicationSimulator/prototype.js");
insertScriptTags("http://dante.acomp.usf.edu/CommunicationSimulator/scriptaculous.js");
insertScriptTags("http://dante.acomp.usf.edu/CommunicationSimulator/commsim.js");
CommSim.initialize();
}
function insertScriptTags(libraryName) {
var
l=document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml","script");
l.setAttribute("type", "text/javascript");
l.setAttribute("src", libraryName);
document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(l);
}

CommSim is defined in commsim.js, and it does getting added to the
document, when I look, using Firebug.

How do I get it to be usable by my application?

I am trying to see how little I need in my webpage, for demo purposes.
Thanx for any help.

[Martin Honnen]

James Black wrote:

I am trying to dynamically add script tags to my webpage, but I get an
error that the first javascript literal object is not defined.

function initialize() {
insertScriptTags("http://dante.acomp.usf.edu/CommunicationSimulator/prototype.js");
insertScriptTags("http://dante.acomp.usf.edu/CommunicationSimulator/scriptaculous.js");
insertScriptTags("http://dante.acomp.usf.edu/CommunicationSimulator/commsim.js");
CommSim.initialize();
}
function insertScriptTags(libraryName) {
var
l=document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml","script");
l.setAttribute("type", "text/javascript");
l.setAttribute("src", libraryName);
document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(l);
}

CommSim is defined in commsim.js, and it does getting added to the
document, when I look, using Firebug.

The problem is simply that loading script documents and parsing and
executing them takes time meaning when your code does the appendChild
the browser starts fetching the script document aysnchronously but your
code continues directly.
Your best bet is to define a callback function and have the loaded
script document call that callback function, that way there aren't any
synchronization problems (at least as long as there is only one script
to load).
Some browsers also support setting up load handlers or readystatechange
handlers on script elements but doing that cross browser is difficult,
Mozilla should support a load event listener, IE/Win an
onreadystatechange event handler, and other browsers might not support
anything.
--

Martin Honnen
http://JavaScript.FAQTs.com/