HTML5 Shiv Not Initializing with Modernizr

Question

I'm running the full development version of Modernizr on my site, and while html5shiv is included in Modernizr, it doesn't seem to be running. If I add html5shiv as a separate script to the page, everything works great. The rest of Modernizr is working fine, too. Do I have to initialize the html5shiv in Modernizr somehow? The docs make it seem like it automatically runs.

Here's the code at the head of my page:

<script src="/assets_site/js/head.load.min.js"></script>
<script>
  head.js(
    { modernizr: '/assets_site/js/modernizr.js' },
    { jquery: '//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.2/jquery.min.js' },
    { placeholder: '/assets_site/js/jquery.placeholder.min.js' },
    { response: '/assets_site/js/jquery.response.min.js' }
  );
</script>

And the separate html5shiv code that's been working where Modernizr hasn't:

<!--[if lt IE 9]>
  <script src="//html5shiv.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"></script>
<![endif]-->

Dumb question, but I'm rather puzzled. Thanks.

Answer 1

Ah, figured it out. The problem was that I'm a blockhead.

The html5shiv was loading fine in Modernizr, but I also had respond.js set to run inside that conditional IE snippet. When I removed the html5shiv script, I removed respond.js along with it, which caused the layout to go bonkers. I was completely ignoring the media queries part and assumed it was a html5 problem.

Mystery solved (though it's no mystery that I'm a blockhead).

Answer 2

2 things:

1. have you checked that the shiv is included in your download? http://modernizr.com/download/
2. where in your document are you loading modernizr.js? It may be necessary to load it in the head rather than at the bottom of the page.