Injecting a javascript file with the fewest possible characters?

Question

I'm working on a bookmarklet, and thought I'd throw down a challenge: how to inject an external javascript file from a link in as few characters as possible.

Here's the shortest I was able to come up with:

javascript:(function(d){d.body.appendChild(d.createElement('script')).src='URL'})(document)

That's 88 characters without the URL.

Can the Stack Overflow javascript gurus here do better? I'll be accepting the working answer with the fewest characters, so put on your thinking caps!

(One thing: the bookmarklet must work in all major browsers. This is a clever solution, but doesn't work in all major browsers, because it returns a value.)

When you say ALL browsers do you mean the big 3 (Firefox, IE, Safari) or do you mean ALL browsers. — Kredns, May 11 '09 at 23:04
How about all of those supported by the latest jQuery? From their site: IE 6.0+, FF 2+, Safari 3.0+, Opera 9.0+, Chrome — Jed Schmidt, May 11 '09 at 23:07

score 6 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:01

6

javascript:void(with(document)body.appendChild(createElement('script')).src='URL')

79 characters. Credit to Ben Blank for the use of void.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:01

Community

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answered May 12 '09 at 00:14

Jed Schmidt

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but you're using with, which is frowned on in some circles. – antony.trupe Jun 04 '09 at 05:07
Well, being that the only scope of this code is a bookmarklet, I don't think the usual reasons to avoid it apply. – Jed Schmidt Jun 04 '09 at 16:00
Most things are frowned on in some circles. For example, some people frown upon IF, saying that GOTOs were much simpler. They are, of course, completely wrong. :-) – Lucas Jones Jun 09 '09 at 18:11
Never use with, unless your scope is pretty simple. In this case, it's OK. – EndangeredMassa Jun 09 '09 at 18:14

Ben Blank · Answer 2 · 2009-05-11T23:53:33.397

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I'm not sure why you're wrapping this in a function enclosure — it seems to work perfectly well without and is almost a dozen characters shorter:

javascript:void(document.body.appendChild(document.createElement('script')).src='URL')

Aside from that, however, your implementation looks pretty minimalist.

edited May 11 '09 at 23:53

answered May 11 '09 at 23:19

Ben Blank

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This is why: http://subsimple.com/bookmarklets/rules.asp#ReturnValues This approach will return the URL, so it won't work in some browsers. – Jed Schmidt May 11 '09 at 23:33
I see, fixed. Still shorter, though not by as much. :-) – Ben Blank May 11 '09 at 23:54

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 09 '09 at 18:08

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Assuming that String.prototype isn't contaminated, we can save some chars.

javascript:with(document)(body.appendChild(createElement('script')).src='URL')._

answered Jun 09 '09 at 18:08

matyr

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I like how you used the word "contaminated" haha – ajax333221 Mar 21 '12 at 23:41

Injecting a javascript file with the fewest possible characters?

3 Answers3