Toplevel variables in vendor docs mean they are really on window

This is part of the Semicolon&Sons Code Diary - consisting of lessons learned on the job. You're in the javascript category.

Last Updated: 2024-03-29

I was using a library for the payment provider PayPal. I was supposed to import the code in my HTML as such

<script src="paypal.com/sdk.js">

Then, to use the code, I would need to write something like the following:

payal.Buttons.create(...)

This would be easy if inside an inline script tag following the bit above that downloaded the PayPal SDK. But I was working with ES6 via WebPack.

My code here failed to compile because paypal was not available in the context provided (Specifically: this was undefined here).

The solution was to call paypal on the window object.

window.payal.Buttons.create(...)