title: how to utilize javascript in the anchor href and not navigate away from the page
body: <p>I need to load some dependency java-scripts onto a page if they don't already exist, through java-script. This is done by checking to see if variables are defined, if they are not then generate a script element and add it to the head of the page. </p>
  
  <p>It works the way I'd expect in Chrome. It seems to open a new window when I call the code directly in the href in IE/Firefox. Oddly it works the way I'd expect when I call it indirectly in the href. Here's a trimmed example showing the behaviors (with loading jquery)</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;!DOCTYPE html&gt;
  &lt;html&gt;
  &lt;head&gt;
  
      &lt;script&gt;
      function test(){
          if (typeof jQuery == 'undefined') {
              var js = document.createElement('script');
              js.setAttribute('type','text/javascript');
              js.setAttribute('src', 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js');
              var head= document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
              head.appendChild(js);
          }
      }
      &lt;/script&gt;
  &lt;/head&gt;
  
  &lt;body&gt;
  
   &lt;a href="javascript: if (typeof jQuery == 'undefined') {var js = document.createElement('script');js.setAttribute('type','text/javascript');js.setAttribute('src', 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js');var head= document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];head.appendChild(js);}"&gt; navigates to new page &lt;/a&gt; 
   |
   &lt;a href="javascript: test();"&gt;executes on page&lt;/a&gt;
  
  &lt;/body&gt;
  &lt;/html&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If you view this page you'll notice the second link actually loads jquery and puts it on the dom. It also works in chrome. On IE/FF you'll navigate to a new page with <code>&lt;body&gt;[object HTMLScriptElement]&lt;/body&gt;</code> as the body contents. </p>
  
  <p>I am perplexed as to why it behaves differently for the second link, and am looking for a solution.</p>
  
  <p>FYI: The reason this needs to be executed in a url is because I'm actually calling this within an AS2 SWF using getURL(), and I cannot alter the pages html to include the java-scripts necessary.</p>