How to force a script reload and re-execute?
Here's a method which is similar to Kelly's but will remove any pre-existing script with the same source, and uses jQuery.
<script>
function reload_js(src) {
$('script[src="' + src + '"]').remove();
$('<script>').attr('src', src).appendTo('head');
}
reload_js('source_file.js');
</script>
Note that the 'type' attribute is no longer needed for scripts as of HTML5. (http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/scripting-1.html#the-script-element)
How about adding a new script tag to <head> with the script to (re)load? Something like below:
<script>
function load_js()
{
var head= document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
var script= document.createElement('script');
script.src= 'source_file.js';
head.appendChild(script);
}
load_js();
</script>
The main point is inserting a new script tag -- you can remove the old one without consequence. You may need to add a timestamp to the query string if you have caching issues.
Creating a new script tag and copying the contents of the existing script tag, and then adding it, works well.
var scriptTag = document.createElement('script');
scriptTag.innerText = "document.body.innerHTML += 'Here again ---<BR>';";
var head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
head.appendChild(scriptTag);
setInterval(function() {
head.removeChild(scriptTag);
var newScriptTag = document.createElement('script');
newScriptTag.innerText = scriptTag.innerText;
head.appendChild(newScriptTag);
scriptTag = newScriptTag;
}, 1000);
This won't work if you expect the script to change every time, which I believe is your case. You should follow Kelly's suggestion, just remove the old script tag (just to keep the DOM slim, it won't affect the outcome) and reinsert a new script tag with the same src, plus a cachebuster.
Small tweak to Luke's answer,
function reloadJs(src) {
src = $('script[src$="' + src + '"]').attr("src");
$('script[src$="' + src + '"]').remove();
$('<script/>').attr('src', src).appendTo('head');
}
and call it like,
reloadJs("myFile.js");
This will not have any path related issues.