Reading text files in javascript - seperating text and function

[amicodavid]

I have an html web page that displays a box with question and answer fields. I have one JavaScript program that contains all the questions and operational functions. (All learnt in the last 18 months).
The user initially selects a set of questions by a radio button, and setting the initial selection results in the chosen questions being copied into the question and answer arrays.
As more sets of questions are added, I thought it would be better management to have the different sets of questions in text files (obviously on the server) separated from the function code.
I can't quite see how to do this; as clearly, it's not so straight forward, as the JavaScript is downloaded to the users browser - so how can it access a file?
I'm prepared to do the homework, but can you please advise me as to how I might possibly go about this task of separating out the coded questions from the function code.

[gits]

for an idea: you might use an AJAX-call (XMLHttpRequest ) for that purpose and then work with the corresponding responseText in you JavaScript code ... there are many ajax-tutorials out there for a start ... and then ask more specific questions when you have such ones regarding this issue ...

[rnd me]

just code your questions and answers in javascript.
you can then simply add more scripts to the page to reach the different tests.

something like:

questions=[
 { text: "what is 5+5",
   offers: [3,10,43,75],
   answer: 1
 }
]//end questions

if(window.popQuestions){
  popQuestions();
}

the popQuestions function should be pre-defined from your main page and fill in the html by examining the javascript data. when adding the script, it defines new questions and shows the html automatically; all you have to do is dynamically add the new script tag to link to a new questions file.

[gits]

yes - that is probably the best solution for a 'database-less' environment. the AJAX method i had in mind would be more a preparation for a later database driven solution - since the data then would just be read from the db ... of course a serverside script could even write a javascript file that could be included like in the mentioned js-file solution above :) ... it seems a bit like a personal preference then ... probably i would prefer the AJAX solution - while the shown 'include a js-file' solution would avoid the XMLHttpRequest and the needed processing of a response - and it seems a bit more straight forward for some people ... especially when they don't have experiences with AJAX and async coding ...