How do I include javascript files server-side?

Question

I want to include JS file inside another JS file, on server side, to prevent copy-paste and multiple JS files loading from client. Just like include('file.js') as PHP would do.

Answer 1

There is no built in way to include other JavaScript files from a JavaScript file ... but you can add them into the DOM ->

function addJavascript(jsname,pos) {
  var th = document.getElementsByTagName(pos)[0];
  var s = document.createElement('script');
  s.setAttribute('type','text/javascript');
  s.setAttribute('src',jsname);
  th.appendChild(s);
}

Example usage :

addJavascript('newExternal.js','body');

Answer 2

As Supercharging javascript article suggest - with PHP you can read all your .js files and create one big js file that you will send in one piece.

This is a simplification of the example from the article, just to get you started:

<?php 
define('SCRIPT_DIR', $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/script/');

$files = array(
    'jquery.js',
    'myLib.js',
    'site.js'
);

header('Content-Type: text/javascript');
foreach (files as $file) {
    if (@readfile(SCRIPT_DIR . $file) === false) {
        error_log("javascript.php: Error reading file '$file'");
    }
}
?>

I would also recommend to read the full article Supercharging JavaScript in PHP to get more info.