How best to use javascript?

Client Joined: Jan 29, 2004 Posts: 624

I have a javascript I want to use, it has a part that has to go in the head and another part that has to go just before the closing body tag at the end of the page. I can put the head part in javasc ript.php but where would the body part go? I'd like to make the two parts into separate .js files, I tried doing it with include(scripts/some.js) in header.php and some_foot.js in footer.php and it sort of worked except commented out text in the .js file showed lol so it's back to the drawing board... what about the custom header and footer folders in /includes? Thanks.

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Aug 27, 2002 Posts: 17088

Placing them in the custom folders will work.

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 6:37 pm

How is the Javascript getting called? I'm curious because I'm trying to understand why it would be important where it gets placed. In other words, if you put it in Javascript.php ... well the whole page gets laid down by the browser but the Javascript isn't executed until something in the page calls it. So why wouldn't it all work there?

registered · Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 9:25 pm

GCalendar sprinkles Javascript all over the place in the body. This is because the code GCalendar generates is dependent in many cases on the content of the page and changes dynamically. So I could not put it in the header as I don't know what it will be until the modules is called, and by then it is too late for the header.

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 11:58 pm

Southern isn't saying that it can't be put elsewhere. He is just trying to follow the instructions he has been given. Good conventional web design calls for as much style and javascript to be placed in the <head></head> section as possible and then invoked through method calls as in onload(), onchange(), etc.

<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="myscript.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="main.css" />
</head>

Here's a pretty good write up http://www.javascriptkit.com/javatutors/loadjavascriptcss.shtml

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 6:39 pm

Sure, but script tags are allowed in the body. I was just trying to answer fkelly's query about why you would need them in the body.

If we had a different CMS where each module was queried for its javascript before generating the head section it could all be put in the header. But that isn't how PHP-Nuke is designed.

registered · Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 5:55 am

hhhmmmm.... sounds like another good enhancement idea, similar to the CSS one that was done for 2.20.00... Wink

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:58 am

With regard to your earlier answer Gremmie, and I'm not saying it is desirable, but could not all your Javascript be put into javascript.php that's loaded in header.php? Your Gcalendar code could still access it from there, no? I realize you might not know what code gets accessed until you get to a certain point in the Calendar but couldn't it be loaded anyway ahead of time?

For post 2.20 we really should look at putting common JS code such as email checks, zip code checks, phone number checks etc. into Javascript.php so that any module could call them.

And just as a general note, just this week I ran into a validation problem with a code modification I'm making in YA/admin/index.php. I created a ya_javascript.php file that is used in YA administration. I was including it at the top of the index.php -- not in the functions within that file. So it was getting stuck at the top of the generated web page, before the doctype that header.php puts out. So of course the page would not validate. The solution was to move it into the function after header.php was called but maybe over the long run we can look at re-sequencing things so that header.php is always called first. And I know it's a can of worms.

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:48 am

For the GCalendar code I am thinking of in particular, I need to dynamically generate it based on _GET and _POST stuff. It's just easier to generate it with the rest of the module code while it is drawing the calendar, etc.

I'm sorry if we aren't answering Southern's original question or getting too far off topic here.