Javascript - How to detect if document has loaded (IE 7/Firefox 3)

I want to call a function after a document loads, but the document may or may not have finished loading yet. If it did load, then I can just call the function. If it did NOT load, then I can attach an event listener. I can't add an eventlistener after onload has already fired since it won't get called. So how can I check if the document has loaded? I tried the code below but it doesn't entirely work. Any ideas?

var body = document.getElementsByTagName('BODY')[0];
// CONDITION DOES NOT WORK
if (body && body.readyState == 'loaded') {
    DoStuffFunction();
} else {
    // CODE BELOW WORKS
    if (window.addEventListener) {  
        window.addEventListener('load', DoStuffFunction, false);
    } else {
        window.attachEvent('onload', DoStuffFunction);
    }
}

There's no need for all the code mentioned by galambalazs. The cross-browser way to do it in pure JavaScript is simply to test document.readyState:

if (document.readyState === "complete") { init(); }

This is also how jQuery does it.

Depending on where the JavaScript is loaded, this can be done inside an interval:

var readyStateCheckInterval = setInterval(function() {
    if (document.readyState === "complete") {
        clearInterval(readyStateCheckInterval);
        init();
    }
}, 10);

In fact, document.readyState can have three states:

Returns "loading" while the document is loading, "interactive" once it is finished parsing but still loading sub-resources, and "complete" once it has loaded. -- document.readyState at Mozilla Developer Network

So if you only need the DOM to be ready, check for document.readyState === "interactive". If you need the whole page to be ready, including images, check for document.readyState === "complete".


No need for a library. jQuery used this script for a while, btw.

http://dean.edwards.name/weblog/2006/06/again/

// Dean Edwards/Matthias Miller/John Resig

function init() {
  // quit if this function has already been called
  if (arguments.callee.done) return;

  // flag this function so we don't do the same thing twice
  arguments.callee.done = true;

  // kill the timer
  if (_timer) clearInterval(_timer);

  // do stuff
};

/* for Mozilla/Opera9 */
if (document.addEventListener) {
  document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", init, false);
}

/* for Internet Explorer */
/*@cc_on @*/
/*@if (@_win32)
  document.write("<script id=__ie_onload defer src=javascript:void(0)><\/script>");
  var script = document.getElementById("__ie_onload");
  script.onreadystatechange = function() {
    if (this.readyState == "complete") {
      init(); // call the onload handler
    }
  };
/*@end @*/

/* for Safari */
if (/WebKit/i.test(navigator.userAgent)) { // sniff
  var _timer = setInterval(function() {
    if (/loaded|complete/.test(document.readyState)) {
      init(); // call the onload handler
    }
  }, 10);
}

/* for other browsers */
window.onload = init;

You probably want to use something like jQuery, which makes JS programming easier.

Something like:

$(document).ready(function(){
   // Your code here
});

Would seem to do what you are after.