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amp-script

Description

Runs custom JavaScript in a Web Worker.

 

Required Scripts

<script async custom-element="amp-script" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-script-0.1.js"></script>

Usage

The amp-script component allows you to run custom JavaScript. To maintain AMP's performance guarantees, your code runs in a Web Worker, and certain restrictions apply.

Virtual DOM

Your JavaScript can access the area of the page wrapped within the <amp-script> component. amp-script copies the component's children to a virtual DOM. Your code can access that virtual DOM as document.body.

For example, this <amp-script> component defines a DOM consisting of a single <p>.

<amp-script src="http://example.com/my-script.js" width="300" height="100">
  <p>A single line of text</p>
</amp-script>

If your code appends an element to document.body:

// my-script.js
const p = document.createElement('p');
p.textContent = 'A second line of text';
document.body.appendChild(p);

the new element will be placed after that <p>.

<amp-script src="http://example.com/my-script.js" width="300" height="100">
  <p>A single line of text</p>
  <p>A second line of text</p>
</amp-script>

Loading JavaScript

An amp-script element can load JavaScript in two ways:

  • remotely, from a URL
  • locally, from a <script> element on the page

From a remote URL

Use the src attribute to load JavaScript from a URL:

<amp-script layout="container" src="https://example.com/hello-world.js">
  <button>Hello amp-script!</button>
</amp-script>

From a local element

You can also include your JavaScript inline, in a script tag. You must:

  • Set the script attribute of your amp-script to the local script element's id.
  • Include target="amp-script" in your amp-script.
  • Include type="text/plain" in your script. This way, the browser won't execute your script, allowing amp-script to control it.
<!-- To use inline JavaScript, you must add a script hash to the document head. -->
<head>
  <meta
    name="amp-script-src"
    content="sha384-YCFs8k-ouELcBTgzKzNAujZFxygwiqimSqKK7JqeKaGNflwDxaC3g2toj7s_kxWG"
  />
</head>

...

<amp-script width="200" height="100" script="hello-world">
  <button>Hello amp-script!</button>
</amp-script>

<!-- Add [target="amp-script"] to the <script> element. -->
<script id="hello-world" type="text/plain" target="amp-script">
  const btn = document.querySelector('button');
  btn.addEventListener('click', () => {
    document.body.textContent = 'Hello World!';
  });
</script>

For security reasons, amp-script elements with a script or cross-origin src attribute require a script hash in a <meta name="amp-script-src" content="..."> tag. Also, same-origin src files must have Content-Type: application/javascript or text/javascript.

If your page contains multiple amp-script elements, each requiring a script hash, include each as a whitespace-delimited list in a single <meta name="amp-script-src" content="..."> tag (see examples/amp-script/example.amp.html for an example with multiple script hashes).

How does it work?

amp-script runs your custom JavaScript in a Web Worker. Normally Web Workers don't have access to the DOM. But amp-script gives your code access to a virtual DOM. When your JavaScript modifies this virtual DOM, amp-script updates the real DOM.

Under the hood, amp-script uses @ampproject/worker-dom. For design details, see the "Intent to Implement" issue.

Capabilities

Supported APIs

DOM elements and their properties are generally supported, with a few limits. For example, your code can't add a new <script> or <style> tag to the DOM.

amp-script recreates many commonly used DOM APIs and makes them available to your code. This "hello world" example uses getElementById(), addEventListener(), createElement(), textContent, and appendChild():

const button = document.getElementById('textarea');

button.addEventListener('click', () => {
  const h1 = document.createElement('h1');
  h1.textContent = 'Hello World!';
  document.body.appendChild(h1);
});

Supported DOM APIs include:

  • Element getters like getElementByName(), getElementsByClassName(), getElementsByTagName(), childNodes(), parentNode(), and lastChild()
  • Mutators like createTextNode(), appendChild(), insertBefore(), removeChild(), and replaceChild()
  • Methods involving events like addEventListener(), removeEventListener(), and createEvent()
  • Property and attribute getters like getAttribute(), hasAttribute()
  • Event properties like Event.target, Event.type, and Event.bubbles
  • Element properties like attributes, id, outerHTML, textContent, value, classList, and className
  • And many more.

For a complete list of supported DOM APIs, see the API compatibility table.

querySelector() is supported for simple selectors - element, id, class, and attribute. So, document.querySelector('.class') will work, but document.querySelector('.class1 .class2') will not. See the code for details.

amp-script supports common Web APIs like Fetch, WebSockets, localStorage, sessionStorage, and Canvas. Presently, the History API is not implemented, and neither are cookies.

amp-script does not support the entire DOM API or Web API, as this would make amp-script's own JavaScript too large and slow. If there's an API you'd like to see supported, please file an issue or suggest and contribute the change yourself.

For a set of samples showing amp-script in use, see here.

Frameworks and libraries

Presently, libraries like jQuery will not work with amp-script without modification, as they use unsupported DOM APIs. However, @ampproject/worker-dom was designed to support the APIs that popular JavaScript frameworks use. amp-script has been tested with React and Preact. To keep bundle sizes small, we recommend using Preact. Other frameworks may work but have not been thoroughly tested; if you're looking for support, please file an issue or contribute here.

Creating AMP elements

You can use amp-script to add an amp-img or amp-layout component to the DOM. Other AMP components are presently unsupported. If you need to create a different AMP element, please upvote on #25344 and add a comment describing your use case.

Referencing amp-state

amp-script supports getting and setting amp-state JSON. This lets amp-script interact with other AMP elements on the page via amp-bind bindings.

If you invoke AMP.setState() from amp-script after a user gesture, bindings can cause mutations to the DOM. Otherwise, state will be set, but binding will not occur (similar to amp-state initialization). For more information, see the section on user gestures.

AMP.setState() works as described in the <amp-bind> documentation, merging an object literal into the specified state. This example shows how it can affect the DOM:

<script id="myscript" type="text/plain" target="amp-script">
  const button = document.getElementsByTagName('button')[0];

  function changer() {
    AMP.setState({myText: "I have changed!"});
  }

  button.addEventListener('click', changer);
</script>

<amp-script layout="container" script="myscript">
  <p [text]="myText">Will I change?</p>
  <button>Change it!</button>
</amp-script>

AMP.getState() is asynchronous and returns a Promise. The promise resolves with the stringified value of the state variable it's passed. These examples demonstrate its use with different types:

async function myFunction() {
  AMP.setState({'text': 'I am a string'});
  let text = await AMP.getState('text');

  AMP.setState({'number': 42});
  let number = Number(await AMP.getState('number'));

  AMP.setState({'obj': {'text': 'I am a string', 'number': 42}});
  let obj = JSON.parse(await AMP.getState('obj'));
}

Here's another example. amp-state doesn't support WebSocket URLs in its src attribute, but we can use amp-script to pass in data from a WebSocket.

<amp-script width="1" height="1" script="webSocketDemo"> </amp-script>

<script type="text/plain" target="amp-script" id="webSocketDemo">
  const socket = new WebSocket('wss://websocket.example');
  socket.onmessage = event => {
    AMP.setState({socketData: event.data});
  };
</script>

To use AMP.setState(), you must include the amp-bind extension script in the document head.

Note that if something else changes the DOM inside your <amp-script>, that change will not propagate to the virtual DOM. The syncing process is unidirectional. Thus it's best to avoid code like the following:

<amp-script layout="container" script="myscript">
  <p [text]="myText">Will I change?</p>
</amp-script>
<button on="tap:AMP.setState({myText: 'I changed'})">
  Change this and amp-script won't know
</button>

Retrieving data for <amp-list>

You may export a function to act as the data source for an <amp-list>. The exported function must return either JSON, or a Promise that resolves with JSON.

The export API is available on the global scope and has the following signature:

/**
 * @param {string} name the name to identify the function by.
 * @param {Function} function the function to export.
 */
function exportFunction(name, function) {}

Restrictions

In order to maintain AMP's guarantees of performance and layout stability, amp-script imposes some restrictions.

Size of JavaScript code

amp-script has standards for the size of code:

  • Each inline script can contain up to 10,000 bytes
  • The scripts on a page can contain a total of up to 150,000 bytes
  • The scripts running in sandboxed mode on a page can contain a total of up to 300,000 bytes

User gestures

In some cases, amp-script will not apply DOM changes triggered by your JavaScript code unless the code was triggered by a user gesture - say, a button tap. This helps keep content layout shift from causing a poor user experience.

The rules are less restrictive for amp-script containers whose size cannot change. This is the case when the layout is not container and when the dimensions are specified in HTML. Let's call such containers "fixed-size". Containers whose size can change, we'll call "variable-sized".

Here are some examples of fixed-size containers:

<amp-script layout="fill" height="300" width="500" script="myscript"></amp-script>

<amp-script layout="fixed-height" height="300" script="myscript" ></amp-script>

Here are some examples of variable-sized containers:

<amp-script layout="responsive" script="myscript"></amp-script>

<amp-script layout="fixed" height="300" script="myscript"></amp-script>

<amp-script layout="container" height="300" width="500" script="myscript"></amp-script>

DOM changes are permitted as follows:

  • in fixed-size containers, your code can make any change at any time.
  • in variable-size containers, your code can only make a change after a user gesture. It then has 5 seconds to make changes. If your code makes one or more fetch()'s, it can continue to make changes until 5 seconds after the last fetch() completes.
fixed-size containervariable-size container
change on page loadallowed anytimenot allowed
change after user eventallowed anytimeallowed for 5 seconds + fetch()

See here for more information about AMP's layout system.

Calculating the script hash

Since custom JS run in amp-script is not subject to normal Content Security Policy, you need to add a script hash:

  • for inline JavaScript
  • for JavaScript loaded from a cross-origin source

Include the script hash in a meta[name=amp-script-src] element in the document head. You need a hash for each script that's used by an <amp-script> component. Here are a few ways to build the hash:

  • If you omit the <meta> tag, AMP will output a console error containing the expected hash string. You can copy this to create the appropriate <meta> tag.
  • The AMP Optimizer node module generates this hash and inserts the <meta> tag automatically.
  • Build it yourself, using the following steps:
  1. Compute the SHA384 hash sum of the script's contents. This sum should be expressed in hexadecimal.
  2. base64url-encode the result.
  3. Prefix that with sha384-.

Here's how you calculate the hash in Node.js:

const crypto = require('crypto');
const hash = crypto.createHash('sha384');

function generateCSPHash(script) {
  const data = hash.update(script, 'utf8');
  return (
    'sha384-' +
    data
      .digest('base64')
      .replace(/=/g, '')
      .replace(/\+/g, '-')
      .replace(/\//g, '_')
  );
}

The @ampproject/toolbox-script-csp node module computes the hash as well.

This example shows how to use the script hash in HTML:

<head>
  <!--
    A meta[name="amp-script-src"] element contains all script hashes for
    <amp-script> elements on the page, delimited by spaces.
  -->
  <meta
    name="amp-script-src"
    content="
      sha384-fake_hash_of_remote_js
      sha384-fake_hash_of_local_script
    "
  />
</head>
<body>
  <!--
    A "src" attribute with a cross-origin URL requires adding a script hash.

    If the hash of remote.js's contents is "fake_hash_of_remote_js",
    we'll add "sha384-fake_hash_of_remote_js" to the <meta> tag above.

-->
  <amp-script src="cross.origin/remote.js" layout="container"> </amp-script>

  <!--
    A "script" attribute also requires adding a script hash.

    If the hash of #myScript's text contents is "fake_hash_of_local_script",
    we'll add "sha384-fake_hash_of_local_script" to the <meta> tag above.
  -->
  <amp-script script="myScript" layout="container"> </amp-script>
  <script type="text/plain" target="amp-script" id="myScript">
    document.body.textContent += 'Hello world!';
  </script>
</body>

During development, you can disable the JavaScript size and script hash requirements by adding a data-ampdevmode attribute to either the amp-script element or the root html node. Adding this attribute to the root html node will suppress all validation errors on the page. Adding it to the amp-script element will simply suppress errors about the size and the script hash.

Attributes

src

For executing remote scripts.

The URL of a JS file that will be executed in the context of this <amp-script>. The URL's protocol must be HTTPS. The HTTP response's Content-Type must be application/javascript or text/javascript.

script

For executing local scripts.

The id of a script[type=text/plain][target=amp-script] element whose text content contains JS that will be executed in the context of this <amp-script>.

sandbox

Applies extra restrictions to DOM that may be mutated by this <amp-script>. Similar to the iframe[sandbox] attribute, the value of the attribute can either be empty to apply all restrictions, or space-separated tokens to lift particular restrictions:

  • allow-forms: Allows form elements to be created and modified. AMP requires special handling to prevent unauthorized state changing requests from user input. See amp-form's security considerations for more detail.

max-age

Requires the script attribute. This attribute is optional, but required for signed exchanges if script is specified.

The max-age attribute specifies the maximum lifetime in seconds the local script is allowed to be served from the time of signed exchange (SXG) publishing. AMP Packager uses this value to compute the SXG expires time.

The value of max-age should be chosen carefully:

  • A longer max-age increases the potential security impact of a SXG downgrade.

  • A shorter max-age may prevent inclusion in AMP Caches that have a minimum SXG lifetime. For instance, the Google AMP Cache requires at least 4 days (345600 seconds). Note that there's currently no reason to select max-age longer than 7 days (604800 seconds), due to the maximum set by the SXG spec.

If you don't publish signed exchanges, max-age does nothing.

nodom

The optional nodom attribute optimizes <amp-script> for use as a data-layer rather than as a UI layer. It removes the ability for the <amp-script> to make DOM modifications, in favor of a signficantly smaller bundle size and therefore better performance. It also automatically hides the <amp-script>, so you may omit the height and width attributes.

sandboxed

Not to be confused with the sandbox attribute.

If set, this will signal that worker-dom should activate sandboxed mode. In this mode the Worker lives in its own crossorigin iframe, creating a strong security boundary. It also forces nodom mode. Because of the strong security boundary, sandboxed scripts do not need to provide a script hash.

common attributes

This element includes common attributes extended to AMP components.

Errors and warnings

A few runtime errors may be encountered when using amp-script.

The inline script is (...) bytes, which exceeds the limit of 10,000.

No inline script can exceed 10,000 bytes. See Size of JavaScript code above.

Maximum total script size exceeded (...)

The total of all non-sandboxed scripts used by a page cannot exceed 150,000 bytes. See Size of JavaScript code above.

The total of all sandboxed scripts (see Sandboxed Mode) used by a page cannot exceed 300,000 bytes. See Size of JavaScript code above.

Script hash not found.

For local scripts and cross-origin scripts, you need to add a script hash for security.

(...) must have "sha384-(...)" in meta[name="amp-script-src"]

Again, you need the script hash. Simply copy the value in this error into your <meta> tag.

JavaScript script hash requirements are disabled in sandboxed mode.

JavaScript size and script hash requirements are disabled in development mode.

If your <amp-script> includes the data-ampdevmode attribute, AMP won't check your script hash or the size of your code.

Blocked (...) attempts to modify (...)

To avoid undesirable content layout shift, amp-script disallows DOM mutations under certain conditions. See User gestures above.

amp-script... was terminated due to illegal mutation

If a script attempts too many disallowed DOM changes, amp-script may halt the script so that it doesn't get too far out of sync with the DOM.

AMP.setState only updated page state and did not reevaluate bindings due to lack of recent user interaction.

If you modify a state variable in a variable-sized container before a user interaction, amp-script will not upate the DOM to avoid undesirable content layout shift. See Referencing amp-state above.

Form elements (...) cannot be mutated unless your <amp-script> includes the attribute sandbox="allow-forms".

This attribute is required for security. See common attributes above.

Sanitized node: (...)

If your code adds a disallowed element (like <script>, <style>, or an unsupported AMP component), amp-script will remove it.

Need more help?

You've read this document a dozen times but it doesn't really cover all of your questions? Maybe other people felt the same: reach out to them on Stack Overflow.

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