Load external JS from bookmarklet?

Question

How can I load an external JavaScript file using a bookmarklet? This would overcome the URL length limitations of IE and generally keep things cleaner.

Answer 1

2015 Update

Content security policy will prevent this from working in many sites now. For example, the code below won't work on Facebook.

2008 answer

Use a bookmarklet that creates a script tag which includes your external JS.

As a sample:

javascript:(function(){document.body.appendChild(document.createElement('script')).src='** your external file URL here **';})();

Answer 2

If I can add method tested in FF & Chrome (for readibility split to multiple lines):

javascript:var r = new XMLHttpRequest();
           r.open("GET", "https://...my.js", true);
           r.onloadend = function (oEvent) {
               new Function(r.responseText)();
               /* now you can use your code */
           };
           r.send();
           undefined

Answer 3

I always prefer to use a popular open source project loadjs

it is cross browser tested and has more functionality/comfort features.

So the code will look like this:

loadjs=function(){function e(e,n){var t,r,i,c=[],o=(e=e.push?e:[e]).length,f=o;for(t=function(e,t){t.length&&c.push(e),--f||n(c)};o--;)r=e[o],(i=s[r])?t(r,i):(u[r]=u[r]||[]).push(t)}function n(e,n){if(e){var t=u[e];if(s[e]=n,t)for(;t.length;)t[0](e,n),t.splice(0,1)}}function t(e,n,r,i){var o,s,u=document,f=r.async,a=(r.numRetries||0)+1,h=r.before||c;i=i||0,/(^css!|\.css$)/.test(e)?(o=!0,(s=u.createElement("link")).rel="stylesheet",s.href=e.replace(/^css!/,"")):((s=u.createElement("script")).src=e,s.async=void 0===f||f),s.onload=s.onerror=s.onbeforeload=function(c){var u=c.type[0];if(o&&"hideFocus"in s)try{s.sheet.cssText.length||(u="e")}catch(e){u="e"}if("e"==u&&(i+=1)<a)return t(e,n,r,i);n(e,u,c.defaultPrevented)},!1!==h(e,s)&&u.head.appendChild(s)}function r(e,n,r){var i,c,o=(e=e.push?e:[e]).length,s=o,u=[];for(i=function(e,t,r){if("e"==t&&u.push(e),"b"==t){if(!r)return;u.push(e)}--o||n(u)},c=0;c<s;c++)t(e[c],i,r)}function i(e,t,i){var s,u;if(t&&t.trim&&(s=t),u=(s?i:t)||{},s){if(s in o)throw"LoadJS";o[s]=!0}r(e,function(e){e.length?(u.error||c)(e):(u.success||c)(),n(s,e)},u)}var c=function(){},o={},s={},u={};return i.ready=function(n,t){return e(n,function(e){e.length?(t.error||c)(e):(t.success||c)()}),i},i.done=function(e){n(e,[])},i.reset=function(){o={},s={},u={}},i.isDefined=function(e){return e in o},i}();
loadjs('//path/external/js', {
    success: function () {
        console.log('something to run after the script was loaded');
    });

Answer 4

Firefox and perhaps others support multiline bookmarklets, no need for one liner. When you paste in the code it just replaces newlines with spaces.

javascript:
var q = document.createElement('script');
q.src = 'http://svnpenn.github.io/bm/yt.js';
document.body.appendChild(q);
void 0;

Example