How to link external javascript file onclick of button

I have to agree with the comments above, that you can't call a file, but you could load a JS file like this, I'm unsure if it answers your question but it may help... oh and I've used a link instead of a button in my example...

<a href='linkhref.html' id='mylink'>click me</a>

<script type="text/javascript">

var myLink = document.getElementById('mylink');

myLink.onclick = function(){

    var script = document.createElement("script");
    script.type = "text/javascript";
    script.src = "Public/Scripts/filename.js."; 
    document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(script);
    return false;

}


</script>

By loading the .js file first and then calling the function via onclick, there's less coding and it's fairly obvious what's going on. We'll call the JS file zipcodehelp.js.

HTML:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Button to call JS function.</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>Use Button to execute function in '.js' file.</h1>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="zipcodehelp.js"></script>
    <button onclick="ZipcodeHelp();">Get Zip Help!</button>
</body>
</html>

And the contents of zipcodehelp.js is :

function ZipcodeHelp() {
  alert("If Zipcode is missing in list at left, do: \n\n\
    1. Enter any zipcode and click Create Client. \n\
    2. Goto Zipcodes and create new zip code. \n\
    3. Edit this new client from the client list.\n\
    4. Select the new zipcode." );
}

Hope that helps! Cheers!

–Ken


It is totally possible, i did something similar based on the example of Mike Sav. That's the html page and ther shoul be an external test.js file in the same folder

example.html:

<html>
<button type="button" value="Submit" onclick="myclick()" >
Click here~!
<div id='mylink'></div>
</button>
<script type="text/javascript">
function myclick(){
    var myLink = document.getElementById('mylink');
    myLink.onclick = function(){
            var script = document.createElement("script");
            script.type = "text/javascript";
            script.src = "./test.js"; 
            document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(script);
            return false;
    }
    document.getElementById('mylink').click();
}
</script>
</html>

test.js:

alert('hello world')

If you want your button to call the routine you have written in filename.js you have to edit filename.js so that the code you want to run is the body of a function. For you can call a function, not a source file. (A source file has no entry point)

If the current content of your filename.js is:

alert('Hello world');

you have to change it to:

function functionName(){
	alert('Hello world');
}

Then you have to load filename.js in the header of your html page by the line:

<head>
	<script type="text/javascript" src="Public/Scripts/filename.js"></script>
</head>

so that you can call the function contained in filename.js by your button:

<button onclick="functionName()">Call the function</button>

I have made a little working example. A simple HTML page asks the user to input her name, and when she clicks the button, the function inside Public/Scripts/filename.js is called passing the inserted string as a parameter so that a popup says "Hello, <insertedName>!".

Here is the calling HTML page:

<html>

	<head>
		<script type="text/javascript" src="Public/Scripts/filename.js"></script>
	</head>

	<body>
		What's your name? <input  id="insertedName" />
		<button onclick="functionName(insertedName.value)">Say hello</button>
	</body>

</html>

And here is Public/Scripts/filename.js

function functionName( s ){
	alert('Hello, ' + s + '!');
}

Tags:

Javascript