I am delivering a JS response from a PHP file. When setting the Content-Type header which value should I use, application/javascript or text/javascript?
What’s the difference between the two?
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4Similar to stackoverflow.com/questions/876561/…Asif Mulla– Asif Mulla2010-10-21 12:33:59 +00:00Commented Oct 21, 2010 at 12:33
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4 Answers
According to the IANA Registered MIME media type list, JS has two registered MIME types; the obsolete application/javascript and the now official text/javascript.
Thus, use text/javascript.
Note: This answer previously claimed the exact opposite (based on RFC 4329), but since RFC 9239 was published in May 2022 the text/javascript media type is preferred over application/javascript.
3 Comments
You
@some: Wikipedia implies otherwise, but this is the correct MIME type. The obsolete one may be used instead, if IE would choke in the correct one.
Paul D. Waite
@some: I think, as per annevankesteren.nl/2006/05/javascript-mime-type, that
application/javascript doesn’t work inside the type attribute in script tags in IE 7 and older, but is fine for your HTTP Content-Type header. I haven’t tested that though.
Weston Ruter
I believe this answer is obsolete. See the HTML5 spec which states “Servers should use text/javascript for JavaScript resources. Servers should not use other JavaScript MIME types for JavaScript resources”: html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/… h/t stackoverflow.com/questions/21098865/…
According to IANA, on 2022-05-10, text/javascript should be used.
Who knows what it'll be in a year!
answered May 11, 2022 at 15:36
Stefan van den Akker
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From Wikipedia on Internet Media Types
application/javascript:JavaScript; Defined in RFC 4329 but not accepted in IE 8 or earlier
There is also the deprecated text/javascript (which IE will probably not choke on).
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you should only use
text/javascript. It's the only MIME type guaranteed to work now and into the future. ~ MDN webdocs
top-voted answer to use application/javascript is obsolete
