What purpose does a <script> tag serve inside of a <noscript> tag?

Question

I've been on a "view source" spree lately on websites with interesting design and content. One of those websites, Squarespace, has blocks of <script> tags inside of a <noscript> tag, like so:

<!-- Page is at: http://squarespace.com -->
...
...
<noscript id="inline-deps">
  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="//cloud.typography.com/7811972/758964/css/fonts.css" />

  <script type="text/javascript" src="https://static.squarespace.com/static/ta/5134cbefe4b0c6fb04df8065/7400/assets/logomark/logomark.min.js?37"></script>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://static.squarespace.com/static/ta/5134cbefe4b0c6fb04df8065/7400/assets/logomark/logomark.min.css?37" type="text/css" />
</noscript>
...
...

It struck me as odd, and got me googling for info to see if there's some kind of hidden functionality/purpose for such an odd bit of HTML, but to no avail. Is there some kind of purpose to having <script> tags inside of <noscript> elements, or is this just an example of bad HTML?

Answer 1

I did some searching through their code and found this snippet (I've cleaned it up to make it more readable):

var DepLoader = (function () {
  function init() {
    var dependencies = document.getElementById("inline-deps");
    if (!dependencies || JS.hasClass(document.body, "deps--loaded")) {
      webfontsReady();
    } else {
      var html = dependencies.innerText || dependencies.textContent;
      JS.addClass(document.body, "deps--loaded");
      processRaw(html);
    }
  }

  function isListed(a, b) {
    for (var i = 0; i < b.length; i++) {
      if (a.indexOf(b[i]) !== -1) {
        return true;
      }
    }
    return false;
  }

  function webfontsReady() {
    JS.fireCustom("webfontsReady");
  }

  function processRaw(html) {
    var el = document.createElement("div");
    el.innerHTML = html;

    var scripts = el.querySelectorAll("script");
    var styles = el.querySelectorAll("link");
    var common, signup, dialog, systemPage, commerce;
    var others = [];
    var inline = [];
    var styleWhiteList = ["site.css", "dialog-", "signup-", "logomark"];
    var scriptBlackList = ["management-", "ckeditor-"];

    for (var i = 0; i < styles.length; i++) {
      var style = styles[i];
      if (style.href.indexOf("fonts.css") !== -1) load(style, webfontsReady);
      if (isListed(style.href, styleWhiteList)) load(style);
    }

    for (var i = 0; i < scripts.length; i++) {
      var script = scripts[i];
      var src = script.src;

      if (!src && script.getAttribute("data-sqs-type") !== "dynamic-assets-loader" && script.innerHTML.indexOf("SQUARESPACE_ROLLUPS") === -1) {
        eval(script.innerHTML);
      }
    }

    if (window.SQUARESPACE_ROLLUPS) {
      for (var key in SQUARESPACE_ROLLUPS) {
        var rollup = SQUARESPACE_ROLLUPS[key];
        var js = rollup.js;
        var css = rollup.css;

        if (key.indexOf("common") !== -1) {
          common = js;
        } else if (key.indexOf("commerce") !== -1) {
          commerce = js;
        } else if (key.indexOf("signup") !== -1) {
          signup = js;
        } else if (key.indexOf("dialog") !== -1) {
          dialog = js;
        } else if (key.indexOf("system-page") !== -1) {
          systemPage = js;
        } else if (key) {
          others = others.concat(js);
        } else {
          inline = inline.concat(js);
        }
      }
    }

    for (var i = 0; i < scripts.length; s++) {
      var script = scripts[i];
      var src = script.src;

      if (!isListed(src, scriptBlackList)) {
        if (src.indexOf("common-") !== -1) {
          common = script;
        } else if (src.indexOf("commerce-") !== -1) {
          commerce = script;
        } else if (src.indexOf("signup-") !== -1) {
          signup = script;
        } else if (src.indexOf("dialog-") !== -1) {
          dialog = script;
        } else if (src.indexOf("system-page-") !== -1) {
          systemPage = script;
        } else if (src) {
          others.push(script);
        } else {
          inline.push(script);
        }
      }
    }

    function loadOthers() {
      for (var i = 0; i < inline.length; i++) {
        if (inline[i].getAttribute("data-sqs-type") !== "dynamic-assets-loader") {
          load(inline[a]);
        }
      }

      for (var i = 0; i < others.length; i++) {
          load(others[i]);
      }

      JS.fireCustom("dependenciesLoaded");
    }

    var loadSystemPage = load.bind(this, systemPage, loadOthers, "system page");
    var loadSignup = load.bind(this, signup, loadSystemPage, "signup");
    var loadCommerce = load.bind(this, commerce, loadSignup, "commerce");
    var loadDialog = load.bind(this, dialog, loadCommerce, "dialog");
    var loadCommon = load.bind(this, common, loadDialog, "common");

    loadCommon();
  }

  function load(tag, callback, label) {
    var head = document.head;

    if (Array.isArray(tag)) tag = { nodeName: "SCRIPT", src: tag[0] };

    if (!tag) {
      if (callback) callback();
      return;
    }

    if (tag && (tag.src || tag.href)) {
      var child;
      if ("SCRIPT" === tag.nodeName) {
        child = document.createElement("script");
        child.src = tag.src;

        if (child.src.indexOf("combo") !== -1) {
          callback = function () {
            Y.Squarespace.FrontSite.Core.domReady(true)
          };
        }
      } else {
        if ("LINK" === tag.nodeName && "stylesheet" === tag.rel) {
          child = document.createElement("link");
          child.href = tag.href;
          child.rel = "stylesheet";
          child.tyle = "text/css";
        }

        if (child) {
          child.onload = callback;
          head.appendChild(child);
        }
      }
    } else {
      try {
        eval(tag.innerHTML);
      } catch (e) {}
    }
  }

  return { init: init, webfontsReady: webfontsReady };
})();

As you can see, the <noscript> tag has the ID #inline-deps, which is referenced in the code (line 3) to load dependencies asynchronously and on-demand.

They probably use a <noscript> element as it allows them to directly access DOM elements, instead of having to place it in a string or a comment (which I consider particularly bad, as comments are not meant for actual information) and then parse it. It also prevents the execution of scripts and CSS styles until specifically loaded.

I personally find this an abuse of the <noscript> tag. I'm not even sure if it's valid HTML5 code. Using other methods such as declaring dependencies in a JavaScript object with a script loader should be used where practicable.