I learned something interesting yesterday. All these past years, when I have to use javascript in a web page, I have always put one of these as my link to my javascript inside my head tags:

script type=”text/javascript” src=”scripts/anyscript.js”
script src=”scripts/anyscript.js”

However, in my endeavors to write cleaner pages, use new code instead of obsolete or deprecated code, and also to learn Dreamweaver CS4, I set my tag to be:

script type=”application/javascript” src=”scripts/anyscript.js”

Usually I test all my pages before I let my clients know that they’re done… but this time I didn’t. Shortly after releasing them, I found that the javascript, which I use in many pages only worked in Firefox or Safari, but it did not work in Microsoft IE.

I went through all my code trying to figure out what the deal was… you know, looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack! Couldn’t find it. Finally, it occurred to me that I had tried this new thing that Dw offered, type=”application/javascript”. I quickly changed back to my tried and true, type=”text/javascript”.

Apparently, The W3C (HTML) specification suggests using text/javascript instead of application/javascript.

I found a post by Microsoft that says, “This is an expected by-design behavior. IE currently does not have support for these media types.” This was in reference to the media type of “application/javascript” or “application/ecmascript.”

Well, this web designer is sticking to the old tried and true “text/javascript” for now. No use making more trouble in my designs.

More later…

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