Member Avatar for PatrixCR

Hi all. I'm new to Javascript, and I want to ask about the best placement of the script tag.
For example, I have an external Javascript called test.js, which assign event listener with addEventListener function. The question is, where should I put this <script type="text/javascript" src = "test.js" /> ?
I saw the example on Yahoo, and they say the best place to put it is in the end of the body tag:

<body>
....
....
<script type="text/javascript" src = "test.js" />
</body>

But on Google Code University video, they give an example, that the best way to put it is in the head, then call one of the function on that script:

<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src = "test.js" />
</head>
<body>
...
init();
</body>

They say the init() function contains code for attaching event listeners to HTML elements, because, if I only put it in the head, the event listeners won't be attached, because the browser haven't parse the HTML elements yet.
But I've recently found an example, that I can still put the script tag in the head tag, without calling the init function in the body tag. Instead, I could write window.onload = init; on my javascript file.
Can you suggest what's the best way to do this, and why? Or if you have a better technique, could you please explain that to me?

Edited by PatrixCR because: n/a
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  • Latest Post Latest Post by MartinRinehart
Member Avatar for MartinRinehart

Steve Souders excellent book "High Performance Web Sites" recommends the end of the body. Prior to reading Souders, everyone used the <head> section.

If you have a single

document.getElementById()

in the code, you don't know if you will get your element or a null, unless your JavaScript is the last thing to load.

If you like irony, Sounders has moved from Yahoo to Google.

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