Access page item from Javascript

Question

I have searched the forum, and based on my findings this is what I've done so far:
I have a page item where the Google Map key is stored. I want to access it from Javascript so that I can call the Google map with the key. (Note: The key can't be hardcoded as it will be pulled from DB according to the environment/url the app is running on. e.g. - dev, test, production.)
Here's a javascript code block:
<script>
   var google_key = $x('P1_GOOGLE_KEY').value;
   var l_url = "http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&amp;v=2&amp;key=" +
               google_key +
               "&sensor=false";
</script>I have tried, $v('P1_GOOGLE_KEY') , $x('P1_GOOGLE_KEY') , &P1_GOOGLE_KEY. and none of them work.
How do I access a page item from Javascript?
Thx!
Marc

Answer 1

Marc,
I am going to take a shot in the dark, but are you referencing this item outside of a function in your head tag? So basically it tries to reference the item on load? If so this is not going to work because the item does not exist yet. If you are using jQuery change your code to look like:
$(document).ready(function(){
   var google_key = $x('P1_GOOGLE_KEY').value;
   var l_url = "http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&amp;v=2&amp;key=" +
               google_key +
               "&sensor=false";
});This will tell the javascript to fire after everything has fully loaded. If you are not using jQuery then you can use a little javascript snippet from here to add a ready event to your page. or you can copy paste this into a script tag.
(function () {
  var ie = !!(window.attachEvent && !window.opera);
  var wk = /webkit\/(\d+)/i.test(navigator.userAgent) && (RegExp.$1 < 525);
  var fn = [];
  var run = function () { for (var i = 0; i < fn.length; i++) fn(); };
var d = document;
d.ready = function (f) {
if (!ie && !wk && d.addEventListener)
return d.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', f, false);
if (fn.push(f) > 1) return;
if (ie)
(function () {
try { d.documentElement.doScroll('left'); run(); }
catch (err) { setTimeout(arguments.callee, 0); }
else if (wk)
var t = setInterval(function () {
if (/^(loaded|complete)$/.test(d.readyState))
clearInterval(t), run();
}, 0);
document.ready(function (){
var google_key = $x('P1_GOOGLE_KEY').value;
var l_url = "http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&amp;v=2&amp;key=" +
google_key +
"&sensor=false";
Good Luck,
Tyson Jouglet