How to load up CSS files using Javascript?
Asked Answered
I

21

407

Is it possible to import css stylesheets into a html page using Javascript? If so, how can it be done?

P.S the javascript will be hosted on my site, but I want users to be able to put in the <head> tag of their website, and it should be able to import a css file hosted on my server into the current web page. (both the css file and the javascript file will be hosted on my server).

Immemorial answered 22/2, 2009 at 13:48 Comment(1)
There is also question about jQuery #2686114Outboard
H
542

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.

Halsted answered 23/2, 2009 at 9:25 Comment(7)
What about running a callback once the CSS file has loaded?Phiona
This is quite more complex to do reliably. The popular Javascript libraries now usually have some form of loading javascript and stylesheets with a callback. As an example, see YUI Get.Halsted
See Ext.util.CSS.swapStyleSheet for Ext JS libraryJumada
perhaps it would be better to use a different character than $ for the document shortcut, as it can interfere with jQuery easily (as did in my case) ;)Granthem
@jonnybojangles Using jQuery.noConflict would mean renaming all of your references to jQuery as $. It would be far simpler just to use a different variable name for the CSS loader.Sarisarid
@Phiona I was able to attach a callback by adding link.onload = function(){ ... } before appendingGuildroy
How to load using jQueryKhamsin
D
91

If you use jquery:

$('head').append('<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css">');
Dilapidate answered 28/10, 2015 at 9:13 Comment(1)
this does only work if the stylesheet is injected before the pageload right? When I run this command inside the console on a loaded page with a css file that I have hosted on dropbox it wont work. Any idea how i can make this work: $('head').append('<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ep1nzckmvgjq7jr/remove_transitions_from_page.css">');Agleam
S
57

I guess something like this script would do:

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

This JS file contains the following statement:

if (!document.getElementById) document.write('<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/versions4.css">');

The address of the javascript and css would need to be absolute if they are to refer to your site.

Many CSS import techniques are discussed in this "Say no to CSS hacks with branching techniques" article.

But the "Using JavaScript to dynamically add Portlet CSS stylesheets" article mentions also the CreateStyleSheet possibility (proprietary method for IE):

<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
if(document.createStyleSheet) {
  document.createStyleSheet('http://server/stylesheet.css');
}
else {
  var styles = "@import url(' http://server/stylesheet.css ');";
  var newSS=document.createElement('link');
  newSS.rel='stylesheet';
  newSS.href='data:text/css,'+escape(styles);
  document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(newSS);
}
//]]>
Sielen answered 22/2, 2009 at 13:56 Comment(4)
here's what I came up with to add document.createStyleSheet() to browsers which don't have it: #525196Blissful
Not sure exactly in which case, but in some cases, document.write isn't recommended because it overwrites the entire body of your website.Gwynethgwynne
@VonC, Is there a function to directly get the <style> element instead of assuming it's the first child of <head> via ("head")[0]?Pusan
@Pusan I believe you will find that discussed in groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/prototype-scriptaculous/…. That would be for instance: var style = document.getElementsByTagName("style")[0];Sielen
P
41

Element.insertAdjacentHTML has very good browser support, and can add a stylesheet in one line.

document.head.insertAdjacentHTML(
    'beforeend',
    '<link rel="stylesheet" href="path/to/style.css" />');
Pulley answered 12/6, 2018 at 17:22 Comment(0)
M
23

If you want to know (or wait) until the style itself has loaded this works:

// this will work in IE 10, 11 and Safari/Chrome/Firefox/Edge
// add ES6 poly-fill for the Promise, if needed (or rewrite to use a callback)

let fetchStyle = function(url) {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    let link = document.createElement('link');
    link.type = 'text/css';
    link.rel = 'stylesheet';
    link.onload = () => resolve();
    link.onerror = () => reject();
    link.href = url;

    let headScript = document.querySelector('script');
    headScript.parentNode.insertBefore(link, headScript);
  });
};

Usage:

fetchStyle(url)
 .then(
   () => console.log("style loaded succesfully"),
   () => console.error("style could not be loaded"),
);
Morrie answered 2/12, 2016 at 14:1 Comment(2)
how do i Use thisCulhert
You would do fetchStyle(url).then(function() {stuff goes here}) read up on promisesHarebell
A
16

Use this code:

var element = document.createElement("link");
element.setAttribute("rel", "stylesheet");
element.setAttribute("type", "text/css");
element.setAttribute("href", "external.css");
document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(element);
Alcove answered 27/9, 2017 at 4:17 Comment(0)
F
15

In a modern browser you can use promise like this. Create a loader function with a promise in it:

function LoadCSS( cssURL ) {

    // 'cssURL' is the stylesheet's URL, i.e. /css/styles.css

    return new Promise( function( resolve, reject ) {

        var link = document.createElement( 'link' );

        link.rel  = 'stylesheet';

        link.href = cssURL;

        document.head.appendChild( link );

        link.onload = function() { 

            resolve(); 

            console.log( 'CSS has loaded!' ); 
        };
    } );
}

Then obviously you want something done after the CSS has loaded. You can call the function that needs to run after CSS has loaded like this:

LoadCSS( 'css/styles.css' ).then( function() {

    console.log( 'Another function is triggered after CSS had been loaded.' );

    return DoAfterCSSHasLoaded();
} );

Useful links if you want to understand in-depth how it works:

Official docs on promises

Useful guide to promises

A great intro video on promises

Fridafriday answered 5/7, 2018 at 3:41 Comment(0)
C
11

I know this is a pretty old thread but here comes my 5 cents.

There is another way to do this depending on what your needs are.

I have a case where i want a css file to be active only a while. Like css switching. Activate the css and then after another event deativate it.

Instead of loading the css dynamically and then removing it you can add a Class/an id in front of all elements in the new css and then just switch that class/id of the base node of your css (like body tag).

You would with this solution have more css files initially loaded but you have a more dynamic way of switching css layouts.

Citreous answered 25/1, 2012 at 8:4 Comment(0)
T
9

Have you ever heard of Promises? They work on all modern browsers and are relatively simple to use. Have a look at this simple method to inject css to the html head:

function loadStyle(src) {
    return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
        let link = document.createElement('link');
        link.href = src;
        link.rel = 'stylesheet';

        link.onload = () => resolve(link);
        link.onerror = () => reject(new Error(`Style load error for ${src}`));

        document.head.append(link);
    });
}

You can implement it as follows:

window.onload = function () {
    loadStyle("https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Raleway&display=swap")
        .then(() => loadStyle("css/style.css"))
        .then(() => loadStyle("css/icomoon.css"))
        .then(() => {
            alert('All styles are loaded!');
        }).catch(console.error);
}

It's really cool, right? This is a way to decide the priority of the styles using Promises.

To see a multi-style loading implementation see: https://mcmap.net/q/56737/-inject-css-stylesheet-as-string-using-javascript

Tyrrell answered 4/11, 2020 at 16:47 Comment(0)
T
8

Here's a one line example, that uses plain JavaScript to inject a CSS link into the head element based on the filename portion of the URL:

document.head.innerHTML += '<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css">';

Most browsers support it. See the browser compatibility.

Tyrrell answered 16/9, 2020 at 18:52 Comment(4)
Using this "one liner" will lead to multiple additions into the header in case it is used on page which can be loaded several times by the user (e.g. a subform loaded by ajax).Philae
@OSWOrX preventing multiple additions is not part of the question, but you can check if it's already in DOM by atributing an id to the element and adding it only if it does not existTyrrell
This is the sortest and best answer. Most of the answers don't provide logic to avoid duplicities. Just wrap this line in a function and with an ID or a variable check if the function has already been called.Laureen
This is definitely a bad idea. It will cause the whole DOM of the head to be stringified and then parsed again, which not only takes a lot of unnecessary computing power, but it will also lose any properties that are not persisted in the HTML code, such as event handler, and will probably run all JavaScripts again.Desinence
C
6

Answer from future. In 2022, we have import assertions api for import css file.

import mycss from "./style/mycss.css" assert { type: "css" };
    document.adoptedStyleSheets = [sheet];
    shadowRoot.adoptedStyleSheets = [sheet];

Browser support: till september 2022, only chromium based browsers and safari supported.

Read more at: v8 import assertions post

tc39 github t39 import assertions proposal

Certifiable answered 22/9, 2022 at 13:26 Comment(1)
What are sheet and mycss variables / identifiers here?Evitaevitable
C
4

Below a full code using for loading JS and/or CSS

function loadScript(directory, files){
  var head = document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]
  var done = false
  var extension = '.js'
  for (var file of files){ 
    var path = directory + file + extension 
    var script = document.createElement("script")
    script.src = path        
    script.type = "text/javascript"
    script.onload = script.onreadystatechange = function() {
        if ( !done && (!this.readyState ||
            this.readyState == "loaded" || this.readyState == "complete") ) {
            done = true
            script.onload = script.onreadystatechange = null   // cleans up a little memory:
            head.removeChild(script)  // to avoid douple loading
        }
  };
  head.appendChild(script) 
  done = false
 }
}

function loadStyle(directory, files){
  var head = document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]
  var extension = '.css'
  for (var file of files){ 
   var path = directory + file + extension 
   var link = document.createElement("link")
   link.href = path        
   link.type = "text/css"
   link.rel = "stylesheet" 
   head.appendChild(link) 
 }
}

(() => loadScript('libraries/', ['listen','functions', 'speak', 'commands', 'wsBrowser', 'main'])) ();
(() => loadScript('scripts/', ['index'])) ();

(() => loadStyle('styles/', ['index'])) ();
Climax answered 6/9, 2016 at 12:8 Comment(1)
I think .onreadystatechange and this.readyState are not exists. When I try with script object, the only event work is .onload() from many events here ( developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/GlobalEventHandlers ) nothing else seems to work.Milk
D
4

This function uses memorization. And could be called many times with no conflicts of loading and running the same stylesheet twice. Also it's not resolving sooner than the stylesheet is actually loaded.

const loadStyle = function () {
    let cache = {};
    return function (src) {
        return cache[src] || (cache[src] = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
            let s = document.createElement('link');
            s.rel = 'stylesheet';
            s.href = src;
            s.onload = resolve;
            s.onerror = reject;
            document.head.append(s);
        }));
    }
}();

Please notice the parentheses () after the function expression.

Parallel loading of stylesheets:

Promise.all([
    loadStyle('/style1.css'),
    loadStyle('/style2.css'),
    // ...
]).then(() => {
    // do something
})

You can use the same method for dynamic loading scripts.

Distributee answered 2/5, 2022 at 5:14 Comment(3)
I think your functions is wrong implemented, you are using a array for cache ([]), when I think you must use a object ({})Interfile
OK. I think you are right, despite the excellent work of the first version of this code, it is conceptually more correct to use an object for caching, given the peculiar implementation of "associative" arrays in JS. I have corrected the code. Thank you.Distributee
Also, in the outer function, the parameter src is not used. The innner function is OK. But good example.Interfile
O
3

There is a general jquery plugin that loads css and JS files synch and asych on demand. It also keeps track off what is already been loaded :) see: http://code.google.com/p/rloader/

Orchidaceous answered 12/12, 2010 at 12:1 Comment(0)
G
3

Here's a way with jQuery's element creation method (my preference) and with callback onLoad:

var css = $("<link>", {
  "rel" : "stylesheet",
  "type" :  "text/css",
  "href" : "style.css"
})[0];

css.onload = function(){
  console.log("CSS IN IFRAME LOADED");
};

document
  .getElementsByTagName("head")[0]
  .appendChild(css);
Guildroy answered 22/10, 2014 at 18:18 Comment(0)
L
2

I'd like to share one more way to load not only css but all the assets (js, css, images) and handle onload event for the bunch of files. It's async-assets-loader. See the example below:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/async-assets-loader"></script>
<script>
var jsfile = "https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.4.1.min.js";
var cssfile = "https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/materialize/1.0.0/css/materialize.min.css";
var imgfile = "https://logos.keycdn.com/keycdn-logo-black.png";
var assetsLoader = new asyncAssetsLoader();
assetsLoader.load([
      {uri: jsfile, type: "script"},
      {uri: cssfile, type: "style"},
      {uri: imgfile, type: "img"}
    ], function () {
      console.log("Assets are loaded");
      console.log("Img width: " + assetsLoader.getLoadedTags()[imgfile].width);
    });
</script> 

According to the async-assets-loader docs

Ligule answered 26/11, 2019 at 18:42 Comment(0)
A
1

If you want no cache

var date = new Date().getTime();
document.head.innerHTML += '<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/styles.css?='+date+'">';
Asphalt answered 24/7, 2023 at 12:36 Comment(0)
G
0

The dynamic version using imports and assertion type css, when you want the style adopted just after an action.

(async ()=>{
   const sheet = await import('./css/style.css', {assert: { type: 'css' }});
   document.adoptedStyleSheets = [sheet]; // global 
   // or el.shadowRoot.adoptedStylesSheets = [sheet] for an element with shadow dom attached
})();

EDIT

When needing to adopt more styles just push to it, since adoptedStyleSheets is an array :

document.addoptedStyles.push(style)

Or initlialize with multiple imports :

(async ()=>{
   const sheet = await import('./css/style.css', {assert: { type: 'css' }});
   const commonSheet = await import('./css/common-style.css', {assert: { type: 'css' }});
   document.adoptedStyleSheets = [commonSheet, sheet]; // global 
   // or el.shadowRoot.adoptedStylesSheets = [commonSheet, sheet] for an element with shadow dom attached
})();
Goins answered 6/12, 2023 at 21:21 Comment(1)
Won't that replace the existing stylesheets inside document.adoptedStyleSheets? If I need to import multiple stylesheets this way, won't they overwrite the existing ones instead of appending?Evitaevitable
K
0

In 2024 with plain javascript I came out with this functions. If this may be any useful for someone else.

This functions can loads a CSS file/files and can be provided with a callback function nofifying you when the file/files is/are loaded and ready. This is tested and working code.

Edit: Also, this functions are safe to be called from a button click event for example, as it checks if a link to the css file already exist. If the css file is already loaded it will immediately call the onReady call back function.

/*
 * Load a CSS file.
 * @param {string} url : The url of the resourse to load.
 * @param {function} onReady : Call back when the resource has been loaded.
 */
function getCss(url, onReady)
{
    const links = document.querySelectorAll("link[href='" + url + "']");
    if (links.length === 0)
    {
        var head = document.getElementsByTagName( "head" )[0];
        var fileref = document.createElement("link");
            fileref.setAttribute("rel", "stylesheet");
            fileref.setAttribute("type", "text/css");
            fileref.setAttribute("href", url);
            if (onReady instanceof Function)
            {
                fileref.onload  = onReady;
                fileref.onreadystatechange = onReady;
            }
            head.insertBefore( fileref, head.firstChild );
    }
    else
    {
        if (onReady instanceof Function)
            onReady();
    }
}

/*
 * Loads a list of css files.
 * @param {array|string} urls : This can pass a single url, or an array of urls.
 * @param {function} onReady : This is the callback after each css file has been loaded.
 */
function getCssList(urls, onReady)
{
    if (Array.isArray(urls))
    {
        let awaiting = urls.length;
        function doneAwaiting()
        {
            awaiting--;
            if (awaiting === 0)
            {
                if (onReady instanceof Function)
                    onReady();
            }
        }
        for (let i = 0; i < urls.length; i++)
        {
            getCss(urls[i], doneAwaiting);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        getCss(urls, onReady);
    }
}

To use it simply

// Single css file.
getCss("url to css file", () => { /* do something when css is ready */ });

// a list of css files
getCssList
(
  ["url 1", "url 2", ...],
  () =>
  {
    // Do something where css files are ready.
  }
);
Kursk answered 23/1 at 21:30 Comment(0)
M
-1
var fileref = document.createElement("link")
fileref.setAttribute("rel", "stylesheet")
fileref.setAttribute("type", "text/css")
fileref.setAttribute("th:href", "@{/filepath}")
fileref.setAttribute("href", "/filepath")

I'm using thymeleaf and this is work fine. Thanks

Monovalent answered 21/10, 2014 at 4:45 Comment(1)
What's the point to add th:href attribute on a client side? It won't be processed by Thymeleaf so it seems redundant here.Anhedral
D
-1

use:

document.getElementById("of head/body tag")
        .innerHTML += '<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css">';
Difficult answered 10/8, 2020 at 20:4 Comment(1)
A month later, the same answer was given, but with an explanation, so it garnered more upvotes. This one has no use now.Chellman

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