Import JavaScript Files with CSS

Import JavaScript files with CSS

The spec states the URL has to point to a style sheet:

The '@import' rule allows users to import style rules from other style
sheets. Any @import rules must follow all @charset rules and precede
all other at-rules and rule sets in a style sheet. The '@import'
keyword must be followed by the URI of the style sheet to include. A
string is also allowed; it will be interpreted as if it had url(...)
around it.

CSS3 Syntax Specification: http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-syntax/#import

How to load up CSS files using Javascript?

Here's the "old school" way of doing it, which hopefully works across all browsers. In theory, you would use setAttribute unfortunately IE6 doesn't support it consistently.

var cssId = 'myCss';  // you could encode the css path itself to generate id..
if (!document.getElementById(cssId))
{
    var head  = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
    var link  = document.createElement('link');
    link.id   = cssId;
    link.rel  = 'stylesheet';
    link.type = 'text/css';
    link.href = 'http://website.example/css/stylesheet.css';
    link.media = 'all';
    head.appendChild(link);
}

This example checks if the CSS was already added so it adds it only once.

Put that code into a JavaScript file, have the end-user simply include the JavaScript, and make sure the CSS path is absolute so it is loaded from your servers.

VanillaJS

Here is an example that uses plain JavaScript to inject a CSS link into the head element based on the filename portion of the URL:

<script type="text/javascript">
var file = location.pathname.split( "/" ).pop();

var link = document.createElement( "link" );
link.href = file.substr( 0, file.lastIndexOf( "." ) ) + ".css";
link.type = "text/css";
link.rel = "stylesheet";
link.media = "screen,print";

document.getElementsByTagName( "head" )[0].appendChild( link );
</script>

Insert the code just before the closing head tag and the CSS will be loaded before the page is rendered. Using an external JavaScript (.js) file will cause a Flash of unstyled content (FOUC) to appear.

Why Would You Import CSS Files in a JS File?

The repository appears to be using Parcel. See
Parcel's docs on CSS:

Parcel includes support for CSS out of the box. To add a CSS file, either ... ... or import it from a JavaScript file:
import './index.css';

What it will do is, if that JavaScript module is included, when the module is imported, it will insert the CSS (from that ./css/styles.css path in the source code) onto the page. It's not a native JavaScript functionality of ES6 modules - it's something that a bundler (like Parcel, or Webpack, etc) manages. When bundling, the CSS text will be turned into a JavaScript string somewhere in the resulting bundle, and then put onto the page with something like

const style = document.createElement('style');
document.body.appendChild(style);
style.textContent = `<CONTENT OF IMPORTED CSS>`;

How can we import js file variable in css file

I do not believe this is possible in any way.

You can manipulate CSS with JavaScript to a certain extent, but it is mostly done through DOM manipulation (acting on class names) or generating CSS programmatically (but it is still CSS in the end).

I don't think it is ever possible to access "JavaScript world" from the scope of CSS.

However, if you want to use variable names in CSS to reference constants, like colors, sizes, etc., you can use the CSS custom properties feature : https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Using_CSS_custom_properties

HTML - how to import javascript and css to html file

For css

 <link rel="stylesheet" href="/file.css">

For javascript

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

Full document

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <link type="stylesheet" src="main.css"/>
  <title>Document</title>
</head>
<body>
<main>
</main>
</body>
<script type="text/javascript" src="main.js"></script>
</html>

As for file structure.
Learn about javascript and css modules after learning the basics.
in src folder
index.html
cssFolder > Shared.css - all css that is shared
cssFolder > Product > Product.css For the product related pages
javascriptFolder > Shared.js - All javascript that is shared
javascriptFolder > Product > Product.js for the product related pages
PagesFolder > Product > Product.Html

Etc etc

How do I include a JavaScript file in another JavaScript file?

The old versions of JavaScript had no import, include, or require, so many different approaches to this problem have been developed.

But since 2015 (ES6), JavaScript has had the ES6 modules standard to import modules in Node.js, which is also supported by most modern browsers.

For compatibility with older browsers, build tools like Webpack and Rollup and/or transpilation tools like Babel can be used.

ES6 Modules

ECMAScript (ES6) modules have been supported in Node.js since v8.5, with the --experimental-modules flag, and since at least Node.js v13.8.0 without the flag. To enable "ESM" (vs. Node.js's previous CommonJS-style module system ["CJS"]) you either use "type": "module" in package.json or give the files the extension .mjs. (Similarly, modules written with Node.js's previous CJS module can be named .cjs if your default is ESM.)

Using package.json:

{
    "type": "module"
}

Then module.js:

export function hello() {
  return "Hello";
}

Then main.js:

import { hello } from './module.js';
let val = hello();  // val is "Hello";

Using .mjs, you'd have module.mjs:

export function hello() {
  return "Hello";
}

Then main.mjs:

import { hello } from './module.mjs';
let val = hello();  // val is "Hello";

ECMAScript modules in browsers

Browsers have had support for loading ECMAScript modules directly (no tools like Webpack required) since Safari 10.1, Chrome 61, Firefox 60, and Edge 16. Check the current support at caniuse. There is no need to use Node.js' .mjs extension; browsers completely ignore file extensions on modules/scripts.

<script type="module">
  import { hello } from './hello.mjs'; // Or the extension could be just `.js`
  hello('world');
</script>

// hello.mjs -- or the extension could be just `.js`
export function hello(text) {
  const div = document.createElement('div');
  div.textContent = `Hello ${text}`;
  document.body.appendChild(div);
}

Read more at https://jakearchibald.com/2017/es-modules-in-browsers/

Dynamic imports in browsers

Dynamic imports let the script load other scripts as needed:

<script type="module">
  import('hello.mjs').then(module => {
      module.hello('world');
    });
</script>

Read more at https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/11/dynamic-import

Node.js require

The older CJS module style, still widely used in Node.js, is the module.exports/require system.

// mymodule.js
module.exports = {
   hello: function() {
      return "Hello";
   }
}

// server.js
const myModule = require('./mymodule');
let val = myModule.hello(); // val is "Hello"

There are other ways for JavaScript to include external JavaScript contents in browsers that do not require preprocessing.

AJAX Loading

You could load an additional script with an AJAX call and then use eval to run it. This is the most straightforward way, but it is limited to your domain because of the JavaScript sandbox security model. Using eval also opens the door to bugs, hacks and security issues.

Fetch Loading

Like Dynamic Imports you can load one or many scripts with a fetch call using promises to control order of execution for script dependencies using the Fetch Inject library:

fetchInject([
  'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/momentjs/2.17.1/moment.min.js'
]).then(() => {
  console.log(`Finish in less than ${moment().endOf('year').fromNow(true)}`)
})

jQuery Loading

The jQuery library provides loading functionality in one line:

$.getScript("my_lovely_script.js", function() {
   alert("Script loaded but not necessarily executed.");
});

Dynamic Script Loading

You could add a script tag with the script URL into the HTML. To avoid the overhead of jQuery, this is an ideal solution.

The script can even reside on a different server. Furthermore, the browser evaluates the code. The <script> tag can be injected into either the web page <head>, or inserted just before the closing </body> tag.

Here is an example of how this could work:

function dynamicallyLoadScript(url) {
    var script = document.createElement("script");  // create a script DOM node
    script.src = url;  // set its src to the provided URL
   
    document.head.appendChild(script);  // add it to the end of the head section of the page (could change 'head' to 'body' to add it to the end of the body section instead)
}

This function will add a new <script> tag to the end of the head section of the page, where the src attribute is set to the URL which is given to the function as the first parameter.

Both of these solutions are discussed and illustrated in JavaScript Madness: Dynamic Script Loading.

Detecting when the script has been executed

Now, there is a big issue you must know about. Doing that implies that you remotely load the code. Modern web browsers will load the file and keep executing your current script because they load everything asynchronously to improve performance. (This applies to both the jQuery method and the manual dynamic script loading method.)

It means that if you use these tricks directly, you won't be able to use your newly loaded code the next line after you asked it to be loaded, because it will be still loading.

For example: my_lovely_script.js contains MySuperObject:

var js = document.createElement("script");

js.type = "text/javascript";
js.src = jsFilePath;

document.body.appendChild(js);

var s = new MySuperObject();

Error : MySuperObject is undefined

Then you reload the page hitting F5. And it works! Confusing...

So what to do about it ?

Well, you can use the hack the author suggests in the link I gave you. In summary, for people in a hurry, he uses an event to run a callback function when the script is loaded. So you can put all the code using the remote library in the callback function. For example:

function loadScript(url, callback)
{
    // Adding the script tag to the head as suggested before
    var head = document.head;
    var script = document.createElement('script');
    script.type = 'text/javascript';
    script.src = url;

    // Then bind the event to the callback function.
    // There are several events for cross browser compatibility.
    script.onreadystatechange = callback;
    script.onload = callback;

    // Fire the loading
    head.appendChild(script);
}

Then you write the code you want to use AFTER the script is loaded in a lambda function:

var myPrettyCode = function() {
   // Here, do whatever you want
};

Then you run all that:

loadScript("my_lovely_script.js", myPrettyCode);

Note that the script may execute after the DOM has loaded, or before, depending on the browser and whether you included the line script.async = false;. There's a great article on Javascript loading in general which discusses this.

Source Code Merge/Preprocessing

As mentioned at the top of this answer, many developers use build/transpilation tool(s) like Parcel, Webpack, or Babel in their projects, allowing them to use upcoming JavaScript syntax, provide backward compatibility for older browsers, combine files, minify, perform code splitting etc.

Can you import JavaScript (or other non CSS) files using the @import CSS function?

Can you import JavaScript (or other non CSS) files using the @import CSS function?

The short answer is... no.

@import is built to import stylesheets. A common misconception is that you can import non-CSS files by doing the following:

@import url("chrome://communicator/skin/");

However, the only reason the line ending is dropped is because the URL for a native browser package need not actually specify a file; it can just specify the package name and part, and the appropriate file is chosen automatically (e.g. chrome://communicator/skin/). See here for details.

For more information, see the MDN docs here about @import.

Import JavaScript Files with CSS