How do I wrap a function in Javascript?

Question

I\'m writing a global error handling \"module\" for one of my applications.

One of the features I want to have is to be able to easily wrap a function with a t

Answer 1

Object.extend(Function.prototype, { Object.extend in the Google Chrome Console gives me 'undefined' Well here's some working example:

    Boolean.prototype.XOR =
//  ^- Note that it's a captial 'B' and so
//      you'll work on the Class and not the >b<oolean object
        function( bool2 ) { 

           var bool1 = this.valueOf();
           //         'this' refers to the actual object - and not to 'XOR'

           return (bool1 == true   &&   bool2 == false)
               || (bool1 == false   &&   bool2 == true);
        } 

alert ( "true.XOR( false ) => " true.XOR( false ) );

so instead of Object.extend(Function.prototype, {...}) Do it like: Function.prototype.extend = {}

Answer 2

2017 answer: just use ES6. Given the following demo function:

function doThing(){
  console.log(...arguments)
}

You can make your own wrapper function without needing external libraries:

function wrap(someFunction){
  function wrappedFunction(){
    var newArguments = [...arguments]
    newArguments.push('SECRET EXTRA ARG ADDED BY WRAPPER!')
    console.log(`You're about to run a function with these arguments: \n  ${newArguments}`)
    return someFunction(...newArguments)
  }
  return wrappedFunction
}

In use:

doThing('one', 'two', 'three')

Works as normal.

But using the new wrapped function:

const wrappedDoThing = wrap(doThing)
wrappedDoThing('one', 'two', 'three')

Returns:

one two three SECRET EXTRA ARG ADDED BY WRAPPER!

2016 answer: use the wrap module:

In the example below I'm wrapping process.exit(), but this works happily with any other function (including browser JS too).

var wrap = require('lodash.wrap');

var log = console.log.bind(console)

var RESTART_FLUSH_DELAY = 3 * 1000

process.exit = wrap(process.exit, function(originalFunction) {
    log('Waiting', RESTART_FLUSH_DELAY, 'for buffers to flush before restarting')
    setTimeout(originalFunction, RESTART_FLUSH_DELAY)
});

process.exit(1);

Answer 3

As far as polluting the namespaces, I'm actually going to pollute them some more... Since everything that happens in JS is initiated by an event of some kind, I'm planning to call my magical wrapper function from within the Prototype Event.observe() method, so I don't need to call it everywhere.

I do see the downsides of all this, of course, but this particular project is heavily tied to Prototype anyway, and I do want to have this error handler code be as global as possible, so it's not a big deal.

Thanks for your answer!

Answer 4

Personally instead of polluting builtin objects I would go with a decorator technique:

var makeSafe = function(fn){
  return function(){
    try{
      return fn.apply(this, arguments);
    }catch(ex){
      ErrorHandler.Exception(ex);
    }
  };
};

You can use it like that:

function fnOriginal(a){
  console.log(1/a);
};

var fn2 = makeSafe(fnOriginal);
fn2(1);
fn2(0);
fn2("abracadabra!");

var obj = {
  method1: function(x){ /* do something */ },
  method2: function(x){ /* do something */ }
};

obj.safeMethod1 = makeSafe(obj.method1);
obj.method1(42);     // the original method
obj.safeMethod1(42); // the "safe" method

// let's override a method completely
obj.method2 = makeSafe(obj.method2);

But if you do feel like modifying prototypes, you can write it like that:

Function.prototype.TryCatchWrap = function(){
  var fn = this; // because we call it on the function itself
  // let's copy the rest from makeSafe()
  return function(){
    try{
      return fn.apply(this, arguments);
    }catch(ex){
      ErrorHandler.Exception(ex);
    }
  };
};

Obvious improvement will be to parameterize makeSafe() so you can specify what function to call in the catch block.

Answer 5

The following wrapping utility takes a function and enables the developer to inject a code or wrap the original:

function wrap(originalFunction, { inject, wrapper } = {}) {

    const wrapperFn = function(...args) {
        if (typeof inject === 'function') {
            inject(originalFunction, this);
        }
        if (typeof wrapper === 'function') {
            return wrapper(originalFunction, this, args);
        }
        return originalFunction.apply(this, args);
    };

    // copy the original function's props onto the wrapper
    for(const prop in originalFunction) {
      if (originalFunction.hasOwnProperty(prop)) {
        wrapperFn[prop] = originalFunction[prop];
      }
    }
    return wrapperFn;
}

Usage example:

// create window.a()
(function() {

    const txt = 'correctly'; // outer scope variable
    
    window.a = function a(someText) { // our target
        if (someText === "isn't") {
            throw('omg');
        }
        return ['a', someText, window.a.c, txt].join(' ');
    };
    
    window.a.c = 'called'; // a.c property example
})();

const originalFunc = window.a;
console.log(originalFunc('is')); // logs "a is called correctly"

window.a = wrap(originalFunc);
console.log(a('is')); // logs "a is called correctly"

window.a = wrap(originalFunc, { inject(func, thisArg) { console.log('injected function'); }});
console.log(a('is')); // logs "injected function\na is called correctly"

window.a = wrap(originalFunc, { wrapper(func, thisArg, args) { console.log(`doing something else instead of ${func.name}(${args.join(', ')})`); }});
console.log(a('is')); // logs "doing something else instead of a(is)"

window.a = wrap(originalFunc, {
    wrapper(func, thisArg, args) {
        try {
            return func.apply(thisArg, args);
        } catch(err) {
            console.error('got an exception');
        }
    }
});
a("isn't"); // error message: "got an exception"

The last example demonstrates how to wrap your function with a try-catch clause

Answer 6

Function wrapping in good old fashion:

//Our function
function myFunction() {
  //For example we do this:
  document.getElementById('demo').innerHTML = Date();
  return;
}

//Our wrapper - middleware
function wrapper(fn) {
  try {
    return function(){
      console.info('We add something else', Date());
      return fn();
    }
  }
  catch (error) {
    console.info('The error: ', error);
  }
}

//We use wrapper - middleware
myFunction = wrapper(myFunction);

The same in ES6 style:

//Our function
let myFunction = () => {
  //For example we do this:
  document.getElementById('demo').innerHTML = Date();
  return;
}

//Our wrapper - middleware
const wrapper = func => {
  try {
    return () => {
      console.info('We add something else', Date());
      return func();
    }
  }
  catch (error) {
    console.info('The error: ', error);
  }
}

//We use wrapper - middleware
myFunction = wrapper(myFunction);