If you specify a src attribute as part of a script element, any code within the script element tags themselves will not be executed. However, you can add this functionality with the following code. I got this technique from Crockford (I believe it was him), where he uses it in of his talks on the unrelated topic of rendering performance and asynchronously loading scripts into a page to that end.
JavaScript:
(function() {
// Using inner class example from bobince's answer
var _gat = (function() {
var data= null;
return {
init: function(d) {
console.info("Configuration data: ", d);
data = d;
}
}
})();
// Method 1: Extract configuration by ID (SEE FOOT NOTE)
var config = document.getElementById("my-counter-apps-unique-and-long-to-avoid-collision-id").innerHTML;
// Method 2: search all script tags for the script with the expected name
var scripts = document.getElementsByTagName("script");
for ( var i=0, l=scripts.length; i<l; ++i ) {
if ( scripts[i].src = "some-script.js" ) {
config = scripts[i].innerHTML;
break;
}
}
_gat.init( eval("(" +config+ ")") );
})();
HTML:
<script type="text/javascript" src="some-script.js" id="my-counter-apps-unique-and-long-to-avoid-collision-id">
{some: "foo", config: "bar", settings: 123}
</script>
Both methods have their draw backs:
Using a unique and non-colliding ID will make determining the proper script element more precise and faster; however, this is not valid HTML4/XHTML markup. In HTML5, you can define arbitrary attributes, so it wont be an issue at that time
This method is valid HTML markup; however, the simple comparison that I have shown can be easily broken if your url is subject to change (e.g.: http vs https) and a more robust comparison method may be in order
A note on eval
Both methods make use of eval. The typical mantra concerning this feature is that "eval is evil." However, that goes with say that using eval without knowing the dangers of eval is evil.
In this case, AFAIK, the data contained within the script tags is not subject to inject attack since the eval'ing script (the code shown) is executed as soon as that element is reached when parsing the HTML into the DOM. Scripts that may have been defined previously are unable to access the data contained within the counter's script tags as that node does not exist in the DOM tree at the point when they are executed.
It may be the case that a well timed setTimeout executed from a previously included script may be able to run at the time between the counter's script's inclusion and the time of the eval; however, this may or may not be the case, and if possible, may not be so consistently depending on CPU load, etc.
Moral of the story, if you're worried about it, include a non-eval'ing JSON parser and use that instead.