I want to create common header and footer pages that are included on several html pages.
I'd like to use javascript. Is there a way to do this using only html and JavaScript?
I want to load a header and footer page within another html page.
166
votes
12 Answers
221
votes
You can accomplish this with jquery.
Place this code in index.html
<html>
<head>
<title></title>
<script
src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.3.1.js"
integrity="sha256-2Kok7MbOyxpgUVvAk/HJ2jigOSYS2auK4Pfzbm7uH60="
crossorigin="anonymous">
</script>
<script>
$(function(){
$("#header").load("header.html");
$("#footer").load("footer.html");
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="header"></div>
<!--Remaining section-->
<div id="footer"></div>
</body>
</html>
and put this code in header.html and footer.html, at the same location as index.html
<a href="http://www.google.com">click here for google</a>
Now, when you visit index.html, you should be able to click the link tags.
47
votes
39
votes
Must you use html file structure with JavaScript? Have you considered using PHP instead so that you can use simple PHP include object?
If you convert the file names of your .html pages to .php - then at the top of each of your .php pages you can use one line of code to include the content from your header.php
<?php include('header.php'); ?>
Do the same in the footer of each page to include the content from your footer.php file
<?php include('footer.php'); ?>
No JavaScript / Jquery or additional included files required.
NB You could also convert your .html files to .php files using the following in your .htaccess file
# re-write html to php
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html$ $1.php [L]
RewriteRule ^(.+)/$ http://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]
# re-write no extension to .php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^([^\.]+)$ $1.php [NC,L]
12
votes
You could also put: (load_essentials.js:)
document.getElementById("myHead").innerHTML =
"<span id='headerText'>Title</span>"
+ "<span id='headerSubtext'>Subtitle</span>";
document.getElementById("myNav").innerHTML =
"<ul id='navLinks'>"
+ "<li><a href='index.html'>Home</a></li>"
+ "<li><a href='about.html'>About</a>"
+ "<li><a href='donate.html'>Donate</a></li>"
+ "</ul>";
document.getElementById("myFooter").innerHTML =
"<p id='copyright'>Copyright © " + new Date().getFullYear() + " You. All"
+ " rights reserved.</p>"
+ "<p id='credits'>Layout by You</p>"
+ "<p id='contact'><a href='mailto:[email protected]'>Contact Us</a> / "
+ "<a href='mailto:[email protected]'>Report a problem.</a></p>";<!--HTML-->
<header id="myHead"></header>
<nav id="myNav"></nav>
Content
<footer id="myFooter"></footer>
<script src="load_essentials.js"></script>10
votes
I tried this: Create a file header.html like
<!-- Meta -->
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<!-- JS -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/lib/jquery-1.11.1.min.js" ></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/lib/angular.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/lib/angular-resource.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/lib/angular-route.min.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/bootstrap.min.css">
<title>Your application</title>
Now include header.html in your HTML pages like:
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/lib/jquery-1.11.1.min.js" ></script>
<script>
$(function(){ $("head").load("header.html") });
</script>
</head>
Works perfectly fine.
6
votes
I've been working in C#/Razor and since I don't have IIS setup on my home laptop I looked for a javascript solution to load in views while creating static markup for our project.
I stumbled upon a website explaining methods of "ditching jquery," it demonstrates a method on the site does exactly what you're after in plain Jane javascript (reference link at the bottom of post). Be sure to investigate any security vulnerabilities and compatibility issues if you intend to use this in production. I am not, so I never looked into it myself.
JS Function
var getURL = function (url, success, error) {
if (!window.XMLHttpRequest) return;
var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
request.onreadystatechange = function () {
if (request.readyState === 4) {
if (request.status !== 200) {
if (error && typeof error === 'function') {
error(request.responseText, request);
}
return;
}
if (success && typeof success === 'function') {
success(request.responseText, request);
}
}
};
request.open('GET', url);
request.send();
};
Get the content
getURL(
'/views/header.html',
function (data) {
var el = document.createElement(el);
el.innerHTML = data;
var fetch = el.querySelector('#new-header');
var embed = document.querySelector('#header');
if (!fetch || !embed) return;
embed.innerHTML = fetch.innerHTML;
}
);
index.html
<!-- This element will be replaced with #new-header -->
<div id="header"></div>
views/header.html
<!-- This element will replace #header -->
<header id="new-header"></header>
The source is not my own, I'm merely referencing it as it's a good vanilla javascript solution to the OP. Original code lives here: http://gomakethings.com/ditching-jquery#get-html-from-another-page
5
votes
I think, answers to this question are too old... currently some desktop and mobile browsers support HTML Templates for doing this.
I've built a little example:
Tested OK in Chrome 61.0, Opera 48.0, Opera Neon 1.0, Android Browser 6.0, Chrome Mobile 61.0 and Adblocker Browser 54.0
Tested KO in Safari 10.1, Firefox 56.0, Edge 38.14 and IE 11
More compatibility info in canisue.com
index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>HTML Template Example</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">
<link rel="import" href="autoload-template.html">
</head>
<body>
<div class="template-container">1</div>
<div class="template-container">2</div>
<div class="template-container">3</div>
<div class="template-container">4</div>
<div class="template-container">5</div>
</body>
</html>
autoload-template.html
<span id="template-content">
Template Hello World!
</span>
<script>
var me = document.currentScript.ownerDocument;
var post = me.querySelector( '#template-content' );
var container = document.querySelectorAll( '.template-container' );
//alert( container.length );
for(i=0; i<container.length ; i++) {
container[i].appendChild( post.cloneNode( true ) );
}
</script>
styles.css
#template-content {
color: red;
}
.template-container {
background-color: yellow;
color: blue;
}
Your can get more examples in this HTML5 Rocks post
3
votes
Aloha from 2018. Unfortunately, I don't have anything cool or futuristic to share with you.
I did however want to point out to those who have commented that the jQuery load() method isn't working in the present are probably trying to use the method with local files without running a local web server. Doing so will throw the above mentioned "cross origin" error, which specifies that cross origin requests such as that made by the load method are only supported for protocol schemes like http, data, or https. (I'm assuming that you're not making an actual cross-origin request, i.e the header.html file is actually on the same domain as the page you're requesting it from)
So, if the accepted answer above isn't working for you, please make sure you're running a web server. The quickest and simplest way to do that if you're in a rush (and using a Mac, which has Python pre-installed) would be to spin up a simple Python http server. You can see how easy it is to do that here.
I hope this helps!
2
votes
It is also possible to load scripts and links into the header. I'll be adding it one of the examples above...
<!--load_essentials.js-->
document.write('<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/style.css" />');
document.write('<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.3/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css" />');
document.write('<script src="js/jquery.js" type="text/javascript"></script>');
document.getElementById("myHead").innerHTML =
"<span id='headerText'>Title</span>"
+ "<span id='headerSubtext'>Subtitle</span>";
document.getElementById("myNav").innerHTML =
"<ul id='navLinks'>"
+ "<li><a href='index.html'>Home</a></li>"
+ "<li><a href='about.html'>About</a>"
+ "<li><a href='donate.html'>Donate</a></li>"
+ "</ul>";
document.getElementById("myFooter").innerHTML =
"<p id='copyright'>Copyright © " + new Date().getFullYear() + " You. All"
+ " rights reserved.</p>"
+ "<p id='credits'>Layout by You</p>"
+ "<p id='contact'><a href='mailto:[email protected]'>Contact Us</a> / "
+ "<a href='mailto:[email protected]'>Report a problem.</a></p>";
<!--HTML-->
<header id="myHead"></header>
<nav id="myNav"></nav>
Content
<footer id="myFooter"></footer>
<script src="load_essentials.js"></script>
1
votes
another approach made available since this question was first asked is to use reactrb-express (see http://reactrb.org) This will let you script in ruby on the client side, replacing your html code with react components written in ruby.
1
votes
For a quick setup with plain javascript and because not answered yet, you could also use a .js file to store your redundant pieces (templates) of HTML inside a variable and insert it through innerHTML.
backticks are here the make it easy part this answer is about.
(you will also want to follow the link on that backticks SO Q/A if you read & test that answer).
example for a navbar that remains the same on each page :
<nav role="navigation'>
<a href="/" class="here"><img src="image.png" alt="Home"/></a>
<a href="/about.html" >About</a>
<a href="/services.html" >Services</a>
<a href="/pricing.html" >Pricing</a>
<a href="/contact.html" >Contact Us</a>
</nav>
You can keep inside your HTMl :
<nav role="navigation"></nav>
and set inside nav.js file the content of <nav> as a variable in between backticks:
const nav= `
<a href="/" class="here"><img src="image.png" alt="Home"/></a>
<a href="/about.html" >About</a>
<a href="/services.html" >Services</a>
<a href="/pricing.html" >Pricing</a>
<a href="/contact.html" >Contact Us</a>
` ;
Now you have a small file from which you can retrieve a variable containing HTML. It looks very similar to include.php and can easily be updated without messing it up (what's inside the backticks).
You can now link that file like any other javascript file and innerHTML the var nav inside <nav role="navigation"></nav> via
let barnav = document.querySelector('nav[role="navigation"]');
barnav.innerHTML = nav;
If you add or remove pages, you only have to update once nav.js
basic HTML page can be :
// code standing inside nav.js for easy edit
const nav = `
<a href="/" class="here"><img src="image.png" alt="Home"/></a>
<a href="/about.html" >About</a>
<a href="/services.html" >Services</a>
<a href="/pricing.html" >Pricing</a>
<a href="/contact.html" >Contact Us</a>
`;nav[role="navigation"] {
display: flex;
justify-content: space-around;
}<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Home</title>
<!-- update title if not home page -->
<meta name="description" content=" HTML5 ">
<meta name="author" content="MasterOfMyComputer">
<script src="nav.js"></script>
<!-- load an html template through a variable -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/styles.css?v=1.0">
</head>
<body>
<nav role="navigation">
<!-- it will be loaded here -->
</nav>
<h1>Home</h1>
<!-- update h1 if not home page -->
<script>
// this part can also be part of nav.js
window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => {
let barnav = document.querySelector('nav[role="navigation"]');
barnav.innerHTML = nav;
});
</script>
</body>
</html>This quick example works & can be copy/paste then edited to change variable names and variable HTML content.
-2
votes
Credits : W3 Schools How to Include HTML
Save the HTML you want to include in an .html file:
Content.html
<a href="howto_google_maps.asp">Google Maps</a><br>
<a href="howto_css_animate_buttons.asp">Animated Buttons</a><br>
<a href="howto_css_modals.asp">Modal Boxes</a><br>
<a href="howto_js_animate.asp">Animations</a><br>
<a href="howto_js_progressbar.asp">Progress Bars</a><br>
<a href="howto_css_dropdown.asp">Hover Dropdowns</a><br>
<a href="howto_js_dropdown.asp">Click Dropdowns</a><br>
<a href="howto_css_table_responsive.asp">Responsive Tables</a><br>
Include the HTML
Including HTML is done by using a w3-include-html attribute:
Example
<div w3-include-html="content.html"></div>
Add the JavaScript
HTML includes are done by JavaScript.
<script>
function includeHTML() {
var z, i, elmnt, file, xhttp;
/*loop through a collection of all HTML elements:*/
z = document.getElementsByTagName("*");
for (i = 0; i < z.length; i++) {
elmnt = z[i];
/*search for elements with a certain atrribute:*/
file = elmnt.getAttribute("w3-include-html");
if (file) {
/*make an HTTP request using the attribute value as the file name:*/
xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (this.readyState == 4) {
if (this.status == 200) {elmnt.innerHTML = this.responseText;}
if (this.status == 404) {elmnt.innerHTML = "Page not found.";}
/*remove the attribute, and call this function once more:*/
elmnt.removeAttribute("w3-include-html");
includeHTML();
}
}
xhttp.open("GET", file, true);
xhttp.send();
/*exit the function:*/
return;
}
}
}
</script>
Call includeHTML() at the bottom of the page:
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<script>
function includeHTML() {
var z, i, elmnt, file, xhttp;
/*loop through a collection of all HTML elements:*/
z = document.getElementsByTagName("*");
for (i = 0; i < z.length; i++) {
elmnt = z[i];
/*search for elements with a certain atrribute:*/
file = elmnt.getAttribute("w3-include-html");
if (file) {
/*make an HTTP request using the attribute value as the file name:*/
xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (this.readyState == 4) {
if (this.status == 200) {elmnt.innerHTML = this.responseText;}
if (this.status == 404) {elmnt.innerHTML = "Page not found.";}
/*remove the attribute, and call this function once more:*/
elmnt.removeAttribute("w3-include-html");
includeHTML();
}
}
xhttp.open("GET", file, true);
xhttp.send();
/*exit the function:*/
return;
}
}
};
</script>
<body>
<div w3-include-html="h1.html"></div>
<div w3-include-html="content.html"></div>
<script>
includeHTML();
</script>
</body>
</html>
