Can scripts be inserted with innerHTML?
JavascriptHtmlDomInnerhtmlJavascript Problem Overview
I tried to load some scripts into a page using innerHTML on a <div>. It appears that the script loads into the DOM, but it is never executed (at least in Firefox and Chrome). Is there a way to have scripts execute when inserting them with innerHTML?
Sample code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body onload="document.getElementById('loader').innerHTML = '<script>alert(\'hi\')<\/script>'">
Shouldn't an alert saying 'hi' appear?
<div id="loader"></div>
</body>
</html>
Javascript Solutions
Solution 1 - Javascript
Here is a method that recursively replaces all scripts with executable ones:
function nodeScriptReplace(node) {
if ( nodeScriptIs(node) === true ) {
node.parentNode.replaceChild( nodeScriptClone(node) , node );
}
else {
var i = -1, children = node.childNodes;
while ( ++i < children.length ) {
nodeScriptReplace( children[i] );
}
}
return node;
}
function nodeScriptClone(node){
var script = document.createElement("script");
script.text = node.innerHTML;
var i = -1, attrs = node.attributes, attr;
while ( ++i < attrs.length ) {
script.setAttribute( (attr = attrs[i]).name, attr.value );
}
return script;
}
function nodeScriptIs(node) {
return node.tagName === 'SCRIPT';
}
Example call:
nodeScriptReplace(document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]);
Solution 2 - Javascript
You have to use eval() to execute any script code that you've inserted as DOM text.
MooTools will do this for you automatically, and I'm sure jQuery would as well (depending on the version. jQuery version 1.6+ uses eval). This saves a lot of hassle of parsing out <script> tags and escaping your content, as well as a bunch of other "gotchas".
Generally if you're going to eval() it yourself, you want to create/send the script code without any HTML markup such as <script>, as these will not eval() properly.
Solution 3 - Javascript
Here is a very interesting solution to your problem: http://24ways.org/2005/have-your-dom-and-script-it-too
So use this instead of script tags:
<img src="empty.gif" onload="alert('test');this.parentNode.removeChild(this);" />
Solution 4 - Javascript
You can create script and then inject the content.
var g = document.createElement('script');
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
g.text = "alert(\"hi\");"
s.parentNode.insertBefore(g, s);
This works in all browsers :)
Solution 5 - Javascript
I used this code, it is working fine
var arr = MyDiv.getElementsByTagName('script')
for (var n = 0; n < arr.length; n++)
eval(arr[n].innerHTML)//run script inside div
Solution 6 - Javascript
I do this every time I wanna insert a script tag dynamically !
const html =
`<script>
alert('👋 there ! Wanna grab a 🍺');
</script>`;
const scriptEl = document.createRange().createContextualFragment(html);
parent.append(scriptEl);
NOTE: ES6 used
EDIT 1:
Clarification for you guys - I've seen a lot of answers use appendChild and wanted to let you guys know that it works exactly as append
Solution 7 - Javascript
I had this problem with innerHTML, I had to append a Hotjar script to the "head" tag of my Reactjs application and it would have to execute right after appending.
One of the good solutions for dynamic Node import into the "head" tag is React-helment module.
Also, there is a useful solution for the proposed issue:
No script tags in innerHTML!
It turns out that HTML5 does not allow script tags to be dynamically added using the innerHTML property. So the following will not execute and there will be no alert saying Hello World!
element.innerHTML = "<script>alert('Hello World!')</script>";
This is documented in the HTML5 spec:
> Note: script elements inserted using innerHTML do not execute when > they are inserted.
But beware, this doesn't mean innerHTML is safe from cross-site scripting. It is possible to execute JavaScript via innerHTML without using
Solution 8 - Javascript
You could do it like this:
var mydiv = document.getElementById("mydiv");
var content = "<script>alert(\"hi\");<\/script>";
mydiv.innerHTML = content;
var scripts = mydiv.getElementsByTagName("script");
for (var i = 0; i < scripts.length; i++) {
eval(scripts[i].innerText);
}
Solution 9 - Javascript
Here a solution that does not use eval, and works with scripts, linked scripts , as well as with modules.
The function accepts 3 parameters :
- html : String with the html code to insert
- dest : reference to the target element
- append : boolean flag to enable appending at the end of the target element html
function insertHTML(html, dest, append=false){
// if no append is requested, clear the target element
if(!append) dest.innerHTML = '';
// create a temporary container and insert provided HTML code
let container = document.createElement('div');
container.innerHTML = html;
// cache a reference to all the scripts in the container
let scripts = container.querySelectorAll('script');
// get all child elements and clone them in the target element
let nodes = container.childNodes;
for( let i=0; i< nodes.length; i++) dest.appendChild( nodes[i].cloneNode(true) );
// force the found scripts to execute...
for( let i=0; i< scripts.length; i++){
let script = document.createElement('script');
script.type = scripts[i].type || 'text/javascript';
if( scripts[i].hasAttribute('src') ) script.src = scripts[i].src;
script.innerHTML = scripts[i].innerHTML;
document.head.appendChild(script);
document.head.removeChild(script);
}
// done!
return true;
}
Solution 10 - Javascript
For anyone still trying to do this, no, you can't inject a script using innerHTML, but it is possible to load a string into a script tag using a Blob and URL.createObjectURL.
I've created an example that lets you run a string as a script and get the 'exports' of the script returned through a promise:
function loadScript(scriptContent, moduleId) {
// create the script tag
var scriptElement = document.createElement('SCRIPT');
// create a promise which will resolve to the script's 'exports'
// (i.e., the value returned by the script)
var promise = new Promise(function(resolve) {
scriptElement.onload = function() {
var exports = window["__loadScript_exports_" + moduleId];
delete window["__loadScript_exports_" + moduleId];
resolve(exports);
}
});
// wrap the script contents to expose exports through a special property
// the promise will access the exports this way
var wrappedScriptContent =
"(function() { window['__loadScript_exports_" + moduleId + "'] = " +
scriptContent + "})()";
// create a blob from the wrapped script content
var scriptBlob = new Blob([wrappedScriptContent], {type: 'text/javascript'});
// set the id attribute
scriptElement.id = "__loadScript_module_" + moduleId;
// set the src attribute to the blob's object url
// (this is the part that makes it work)
scriptElement.src = URL.createObjectURL(scriptBlob);
// append the script element
document.body.appendChild(scriptElement);
// return the promise, which will resolve to the script's exports
return promise;
}
...
function doTheThing() {
// no evals
loadScript('5 + 5').then(function(exports) {
// should log 10
console.log(exports)
});
}
I've simplified this from my actual implementation, so no promises that there aren't any bugs in it. But the principle works.
If you don't care about getting any value back after the script runs, it's even easier; just leave out the Promise and onload bits. You don't even need to wrap the script or create the global window.__load_script_exports_ property.
Solution 11 - Javascript
Here is a recursive function to set the innerHTML of an element that I use in our ad server:
// o: container to set the innerHTML
// html: html text to set.
// clear: if true, the container is cleared first (children removed)
function setHTML(o, html, clear) {
if (clear) o.innerHTML = "";
// Generate a parseable object with the html:
var dv = document.createElement("div");
dv.innerHTML = html;
// Handle edge case where innerHTML contains no tags, just text:
if (dv.children.length===0){ o.innerHTML = html; return; }
for (var i = 0; i < dv.children.length; i++) {
var c = dv.children[i];
// n: new node with the same type as c
var n = document.createElement(c.nodeName);
// copy all attributes from c to n
for (var j = 0; j < c.attributes.length; j++)
n.setAttribute(c.attributes[j].nodeName, c.attributes[j].nodeValue);
// If current node is a leaf, just copy the appropriate property (text or innerHTML)
if (c.children.length == 0)
{
switch (c.nodeName)
{
case "SCRIPT":
if (c.text) n.text = c.text;
break;
default:
if (c.innerHTML) n.innerHTML = c.innerHTML;
break;
}
}
// If current node has sub nodes, call itself recursively:
else setHTML(n, c.innerHTML, false);
o.appendChild(n);
}
}
You can see the demo here.
Solution 12 - Javascript
Yes you can, but you have to do it outside of the DOM and the order has to be right.
var scr = '<scr'+'ipt>alert("foo")</scr'+'ipt>';
window.onload = function(){
var n = document.createElement("div");
n.innerHTML = scr;
document.body.appendChild(n);
}
...will alert 'foo'. This won't work:
document.getElementById("myDiv").innerHTML = scr;
And even this won't work, because the node is inserted first:
var scr = '<scr'+'ipt>alert("foo")</scr'+'ipt>';
window.onload = function(){
var n = document.createElement("div");
document.body.appendChild(n);
n.innerHTML = scr;
}
Solution 13 - Javascript
Filter your script tags and run each of them with eval
var tmp= document.createElement('div');
tmp.innerHTML = '<script>alert("hello")></script>';
[...tmp.children].filter(x => x.nodeName === 'SCRIPT').forEach(x => eval(x.innerText));
Solution 14 - Javascript
Here's a more modern (and concise) version of mmm's awesome solution:
function executeScriptElements(containerElement) {
const scriptElements = containerElement.querySelectorAll("script");
Array.from(scriptElements).forEach((scriptElement) => {
const clonedElement = document.createElement("script");
Array.from(scriptElement.attributes).forEach((attribute) => {
clonedElement.setAttribute(attribute.name, attribute.value);
});
clonedElement.text = scriptElement.text;
scriptElement.parentNode.replaceChild(clonedElement, scriptElement);
});
}
Note: I've also tried alternative solutions using cloneNode() or outerHTML but that didn't work.
Solution 15 - Javascript
Krasimir Tsonev has a great solution that overcome all problems. His method doesn't need using eval, so no performance nor security problems exist. It allows you to set innerHTML string contains html with js and translate it immediately to an DOM element while also executes the js parts exist along the code. short ,simple, and works exactly as you want.
Enjoy his solution:
http://krasimirtsonev.com/blog/article/Convert-HTML-string-to-DOM-element
Important notes:
- You need to wrap the target element with div tag
- You need to wrap the src string with div tag.
- If you write the src string directly and it includes js parts, please take attention to write the closing script tags correctly (with \ before /) as this is a string.
Solution 16 - Javascript
Use $(parent).html(code) instead of parent.innerHTML = code.
The following also fixes scripts that use document.write and scripts loaded via src attribute. Unfortunately even this doesn't work with Google AdSense scripts.
var oldDocumentWrite = document.write;
var oldDocumentWriteln = document.writeln;
try {
document.write = function(code) {
$(parent).append(code);
}
document.writeln = function(code) {
document.write(code + "<br/>");
}
$(parent).html(html);
} finally {
$(window).load(function() {
document.write = oldDocumentWrite
document.writeln = oldDocumentWriteln
})
}
Solution 17 - Javascript
Try using template and document.importNode. Here is an example:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Sample</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1 id="hello_world">Sample</h1>
<script type="text/javascript">
var div = document.createElement("div");
var t = document.createElement('template');
t.innerHTML = "Check Console tab for javascript output: Hello world!!!<br/><script type='text/javascript' >console.log('Hello world!!!');<\/script>";
for (var i=0; i < t.content.childNodes.length; i++){
var node = document.importNode(t.content.childNodes[i], true);
div.appendChild(node);
}
document.body.appendChild(div);
</script>
</body>
</html>
Solution 18 - Javascript
You can also wrap your <script> like this and it will get executed:
<your target node>.innerHTML = '<iframe srcdoc="<script>alert(top.document.title);</script>"></iframe>';
Please note: The scope inside srcdoc refers to the iframe, so you have to use top like in the example above to access the parent document.
Solution 19 - Javascript
My solution for this problem is to set a Mutation Observer to detect <script></script> nodes and then replace it with a new <script></script> node with the same src. For example:
let parentNode = /* node to observe */ void 0
let observer = new MutationObserver(mutations=>{
mutations.map(mutation=>{
Array.from(mutation.addedNodes).map(node=>{
if ( node.parentNode == parentNode ) {
let scripts = node.getElementsByTagName('script')
Array.from(scripts).map(script=>{
let src = script.src
script = document.createElement('script')
script.src = src
return script
})
}
})
})
})
observer.observe(document.body, {childList: true, subtree: true});
Solution 20 - Javascript
Gabriel Garcia's mention of MutationObservers is on the right track, but didn't quite work for me. I am not sure if that was because of a browser quirk or due to a mistake on my end, but the version that ended up working for me was the following:
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) {
var observer = new MutationObserver(mutations=>{
mutations.map(mutation=>{
Array.from(mutation.addedNodes).map(node=>{
if (node.tagName === "SCRIPT") {
var s = document.createElement("script");
s.text=node.text;
if (typeof(node.parentElement.added) === 'undefined')
node.parentElement.added = [];
node.parentElement.added[node.parentElement.added.length] = s;
node.parentElement.removeChild(node);
document.head.appendChild(s);
}
})
})
})
observer.observe(document.getElementById("element_to_watch"), {childList: true, subtree: true,attributes: false});
};
Of course, you should replace element_to_watch with the name of the element that is being modified.
node.parentElement.added is used to store the script tags that are added to document.head. In the function used to load the external page, you can use something like the following to remove no longer relevant script tags:
function freeScripts(node){
if (node === null)
return;
if (typeof(node.added) === 'object') {
for (var script in node.added) {
document.head.removeChild(node.added[script]);
}
node.added = {};
}
for (var child in node.children) {
freeScripts(node.children[child]);
}
}
And an example of the beginning of a load function:
function load(url, id, replace) {
if (document.getElementById(id) === null) {
console.error("Element of ID "+id + " does not exist!");
return;
}
freeScripts(document.getElementById(id));
var xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
// proceed to load in the page and modify innerHTML
}
Solution 21 - Javascript
Building up on Danny '365CSI' Engelman's comment, here is an universal solution:
<script>
alert("This script always runs.");
script01 = true;
</script>
<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7"
onload="if(typeof script01==='undefined') eval(this.previousElementSibling.innerHTML)">
Use this as innerHTML (i.e. loaded by XMLHttpRequest) or directly (i.e. inserted by PHP backend), the script always loads once.
Explanation: script loaded as innerHTML is not executed, but onload content atribute is. If the script was not executed (added as innerHTML) then the script is executed in image onload event. If the script was loaded (added by backend) then script01 variable is defined and onload will not run the script for the second time.
Solution 22 - Javascript
My own twist, using modern JS and typescript. Not sure why people are filtering on tagName etc when querySelector is right there.
Works a charm for me:
function makeScriptsExecutable(el: Element) {
el.querySelectorAll("script").forEach(script => {
const clone = document.createElement("script")
for (const attr of script.attributes) {
clone.setAttribute(attr.name, attr.value)
}
clone.text = script.innerHTML
script.parentNode?.replaceChild(clone, script)
})
}
Solution 23 - Javascript
simple, no eval, no functions:
fetch('/somepage')
.then(x=>x.text())
.then(x=>{
divDestination.innerHTML=x;
divDestination.querySelectorAll("script")
.forEach(x=>{
var sc=document.createElement("script");
sc.appendChild(document.createTextNode(x.innerText));
divDestination.appendChild(sc)
})
})
Solution 24 - Javascript
Execute
Solution 25 - Javascript
For me the best way is to insert the new HTML content through innerHtml and then use
setTimeout(() => {
var script_el = document.createElement("script")
script_el.src = 'script-to-add.js'
document.body.appendChild(script_el)
}, 500)
The setTimeout is not required but it works better. This worked for me.