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up vote 6 down vote favorite
2

Is there any way to load some text from another file into javascript, without server side code?

I was thinking to use another element to hold the text inside some comments, but I don't know how to read it's source code with javascript.

Something like:

<script src="myfile.js"></script>

<script> function readMyText() { ... }</script>

In myfile.js: /* some text */

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Load text and do what with it? – Zirak Sep 15 '11 at 15:18

3 Answers 3

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Without using ajax or any server code... sorry mate but you can't :(

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up vote 0 down vote

Building on Pointy's answer, to import from local files do this:

<script src="foo.txt" id="text" type="text">
</script>

You could also use this to target an external file:

<script src="http://foo.txt"></script>
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1  
this doesn't work, how would you read the file contents? – mihai Jun 7 '14 at 17:58
up vote 9 down vote

You can put anything you want into a script tag if you give it a "type" that's not something the browser understands as meaning "JavaScript":

<script id='Turtle' type='text/poem'>
  Turtle, turtle, on the ground;
  Pink and shiny - turn around.
</script>

You can get the contents via the "innerHTML" property:

var poemScript = document.getElementById('Turtle');
var poem = poemScript.innerHTML;

Here is a jsfiddle to demonstrate.

That trick is popular lately with people doing client-side page building via templates.

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thanks for the answer, this works nicely when the text is added within the script tag, but if i change this to <script href="turtle.txt"></script> I can't access the contents :( . I'll edit the question to reflect this. – mihai Sep 15 '11 at 15:30
1  
Ah yes, that's true. Well, you could try pulling the script into a hidden <iframe> and then read it out of that. – Pointy Sep 15 '11 at 15:33

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