Check if jQuery plugin is loaded

The previous post checked if jQuery is loaded, now it is time to check if particular jQuery plugin is loaded. Checking if plugin exists or if plugin has been already loaded is useful if you are writing your jQuery code that depends on that plugin.

Here is how to check if some jQuery plugin is loaded or not:

if(jQuery().pluginMethod) {
    //jQuery plugin exists
} else {
    //jQuery plugin DOES NOT exist
}

As you know from previous post on namespacing javascript plugins are created as an additional namespace within jQuery namespace. All you have to do to check if plugin exists is to check if it’s namespace / function is defined.

For example, let’s assume that my plugin depends on jQuery Validation plugin. To check if validation plugin is loaded I would do the following:

if(jQuery().validate) {
    // Validation plugin exists
    // Now I can use $('#someId').validate()
} else {
    // Validation plugin DOES NOT exist
}