Skip to main content

Preinitialize the widget JavaScript object

Calling Kapa's JavaScript functions, and listening to Kapa events, requires that the the global Kapa object is initialized. Preinitialization lets you call functions and listen to events immediately, regardless of the lifecycle state of the Kapa object. Calls invoked before the Kapa object has loaded are queued, and execute as soon as Kapa has completed initialization.

Setup​

To preinitialize the window.Kapa object, copy and paste the JavaScript snippet below inside a <script> tag on every page where you are currently rendering the Kapa widget.

(function () {
  let k = window.Kapa;
  if (!k) {
    let i = function () {
      i.c(arguments);
    };
    i.q = [];
    i.c = function (args) {
      i.q.push(args);
    };
    window.Kapa = i;
  }
})();

We recommend putting this script as early as possible in the DOM, such as within the page's <head> element:

<head>
  <script>
    (function () {
      let k = window.Kapa;
      if (!k) {
        let i = function () {
          i.c(arguments);
        };
        i.q = [];
        i.c = function (args) {
          i.q.push(args);
        };
        window.Kapa = i;
      }
    })();
  </script>
</head>

Usage​

The syntax for calling functions against a preinitialized Kapa object is slightly different to the regular function calls. For example, the regular syntax for calling the open() function to open the Kapa widget looks like this:

window.Kapa.open({ query: "how to get started" });

Whereas with a preinitialized object, you would call the function as follows:

window.Kapa("open", { query: "how to get started" });