HTML Guide
The <script> tag allows authors to include dynamic scripts and data blocks in their documents. This tag accepts two optional attributes, type (which is unnecessary if it’s JavaScript, as that’s the default), and src to indicate the URL of the external script to use.
The language attribute is now obsolete and should not be used.
Learn more:
Related W3C validator issues
A <script> element has been found that is using the now obsolete charset attribute. You can safely remove this attribute.
For example, this is using both type and charset attributes, with their default values. Both can be removed:
<script src="app.js" type="text/javascript" charset="UTF-8"></script>and just use this:
<script src="app.js"></script>The combination of type="module" and defer is not allowed. The type="module" attribute itself implies that the script should be executed in a deferred way, hence using the defer attribute is unnecessary and invalid.
Steps to Fix the Issue:
- Remove the defer Attribute: When you use type="module", you should not include the defer attribute since module scripts defer automatically.
Incorrect Code:
<script type="module" defer src="example.js"></script>Corrected Code:
<script type="module" src="example.js"></script>The <script> tag allows authors to include dynamic scripts and data blocks in their documents. When the src is present, this tag accepts a type attribute which must be either:
- an empty string
- text/javascript (that’s the default, so it can be omitted)
- module
Examples:
<!-- This is valid, without a type it defaults to JavaScript -->
<script src="app.js"></script>
<!-- This is valid, but will warn that it can be omitted -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="app.js"></script>
<!-- An empty attribute is valid, but will warn that it can be omitted -->
<script type="" src="app.js"></script>
<!-- The module keyword is also valid as a type -->
<script type="module" src="app.js"></script>
<!-- Any other type is invalid -->
<script type="wrong" src="app.js"></script>
<script type="text/html" src="app.js"></script>
<script type="image/jpeg" src="app.js"></script>Ensure the src attribute on the script element is non-empty and points to a valid resource.
The src attribute in a script element specifies the URL of an external script file. An empty src attribute is invalid because it tells the browser to fetch a resource from a URL that is not provided, leading to loading errors. Instead, ensure that the src attribute contains a valid file path or URL to an existing script file. If the script content is meant to be inline, you should omit the src attribute altogether and include the script content directly within the script element.
Example of a Valid External Script
Here is a valid example of a script element with a non-empty src attribute:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Valid Script Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<script src="path/to/script.js"></script>
</body>
</html>Example of a Valid Inline Script
If the script is to be written inline, exclude the src attribute and write the JavaScript code directly within the script tags:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Inline Script Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<script>
console.log('This is an inline script.');
</script>
</body>
</html>Troubleshooting
Double-check the script’s file path:
- Ensure the file path you provide in the src is correct relative to the HTML file.
- Make sure the script file exists in the location specified.
- If using a network URL, verify that the URL is correct and accessible.
The value rocketlazyloadscript used in a <script> tag is not a valid one according to the HTML specification. It is introduced by the WP Rocket Wordpress extension.
The async attribute is boolean: the presence of a boolean attribute on an element represents the true value, and the absence of the attribute represents the false value. As a boolean attribute, it does not need to be passed any value such as true or 1 to activate the async property.
For classic scripts, if the async attribute is present, then the classic script will be fetched in parallel to parsing and evaluated as soon as it is available.
For module scripts, if the async attribute is present then the scripts and all their dependencies will be executed in the defer queue, therefore they will get fetched in parallel to parsing and evaluated as soon as they are available.
<script async src="app.js"></script>
<script async type="module">
/* JavaScript module code here */
</script>The issue arises from the space character in the src attribute value of the script element. In URLs, spaces are not allowed and should be properly encoded to avoid validation errors.
Fix
Replace spaces with %20, which is the URL-encoded representation of a space.
Example
Before:
<script src="https://example.com/media assets/app.js"></script>After:
<script src="https://example.com/media%20assets/app.js"></script>Explanation
In this example, the space between “media” and “assets” in the URL is replaced with %20. This change ensures that the URL conforms to standards and is correctly processed by browsers and servers. Spaces and other special characters in URLs must be encoded to ensure proper formatting and accessibility.
The specified type for an script element is not a valid MIME type as it’s missing a subtype.
A MIME type most-commonly consists of just two parts: a type and a subtype, separated by a slash (/) — with no whitespace between, for example:
text/javascriptThe async and defer boolean attributes of the <script> element control how an external script should be executed once it has been downloaded. The async attribute makes sense when an external script (defined with the src attribute) is loaded, or when defining a script of type module:
<script async src="app.js"></script>
<script async type="module">
/* JavaScript module code here */
</script>The charset attribute on a <script> element can be used to specify the character encoding of an external script, whose URL should be specified on the src attribute.
If the script is not external, then the charset attribute should not be used, as the character encoding of the HTML document will be used.