jQuery Plugin Namespacing Functions

Question

I\'m creating a jQuery plugin that that is rather large in scope. In fact, the plugin technically consists of a few plugins that all work together.

(function($){         


        

Answer 1

I'm a fan of the pattern I've seen on Eric Martin's SimpleModal. This works well for when I'm NOT acting on DOM elements -- in this case a wrapper to utilize localStorage.

This way I can easily refer to the constructor:

$.totalStorage('robo', 'cop');

...or a public method:

$.totalStorage.getItem('robo'); //returns 'cop'

Here's the internals:

;(function($){

/* Variables I'll need throghout */

var ls;
var supported = true;
if (typeof localStorage == 'undefined' || typeof JSON == 'undefined') {
    supported = false;
} else {
    ls = localStorage;
}

/* Make the methods public */

$.totalStorage = function(key, value, options){
    return $.totalStorage.impl.init(key, value);
}

$.totalStorage.setItem = function(key, value){
    return $.totalStorage.impl.setItem(key, value);
}

$.totalStorage.getItem = function(key){
    return $.totalStorage.impl.getItem(key);
}

/* Object to hold all methods: public and private */

$.totalStorage.impl = {

    init: function(key, value){
        if (typeof value != 'undefined') {
            return this.setItem(name, value);   
        } else {
            return this.getItem(name);
        }
    },

    setItem: function(key, value){
        if (!supported){
            $.cookie(key, value);
            return true;
        }
        ls.setItem(key, JSON.stringify(value));
        return true;
    },

    getItem: function(key){
        if (!supported){
            return this.parseResult($.cookie(key));
        }
        return this.parseResult(ls.getItem(key));
    },  

    parseResult: function(res){
        var ret;
        try {
            ret = JSON.parse(res);
            if (ret == 'true'){
                ret = true;
            }
            if (ret == 'false'){
                ret = false;
            }
            if (parseFloat(ret) == ret){
                ret = parseFloat(ret);
            }
        } catch(e){}
        return ret;
    }
}})(jQuery);

Answer 2

Well, I'm sure there are many ways to skin this cat. The jQuery UI library uses a pattern like this:

// initialize a dialog window from an element:
$('#selector').dialog({});

// call the show method of a dialog:
$('#selector').dialog('show');

Answer 3

I know this has already been answered but I have created a plugin that does exactly what you want:

http://code.google.com/p/jquery-plugin-dev/source/browse/trunk/jquery.plugin.js

I've included a small example below, but check out this jQuery Dev Group post for a more in-depth example: http://groups.google.com/group/jquery-dev/browse_thread/thread/664cb89b43ccb92c/72cf730045d4333a?hl=en&q=structure+plugin+authoring#72cf730045d4333a

It allows you to create an object with as many methods as you want:

var _myPlugin = function() {
    // return the plugin namespace
    return this;
}

_myPlugin.prototype.alertHtml = function() {
    // use this the same way you would with jQuery
    alert($(this).html());
}

$.fn.plugin.add('myPlugin', _myPlugin);

now you can go:

$(someElement).myPlugin().alertHtml();

There are, of course, many, many other possibilities with this as explained in the dev group post.

Answer 4

As soon as you use $.fn.foo.bar() -- this points to $.fn.foo, which is what you would expect in JavaScript (this being the object that the function is called on.)

I have noticed in plugins from jQuery UI (like sortable) where you call functions like:

$(...).sortable("serialize");
$(...).sortable({options});

If you were doing something like this - you could extend jQuery itself:

$.foo_plugin = {
  bar: function() {},
  baz: function() {}
}

$.fn.foo = function(opts) {
  if (opts == 'bar') return $.foo_plugin.bar.call(this);
  if (opts == 'baz') return $.foo_plugin.baz.call(this);
}