In another SO question about whether to call a super-constructor or use the prototype chain the answer provided by one of the users seemed sensible but didn't work for me when I implemented it on my solution which has multiple layers of inheritance.
Here's the answer I'm referring to: https://stackoverflow.com/a/4389429/392591
So I've created a jsFiddle using this custom extend method to illustrate the problem: https://jsfiddle.net/68q7yghv/
I've added the jsFiddle code at the bottom.
In my test I've created a 4 tier class inheritance structure from baseClass through to subSubSubClass each of which (except the baseClass) use the 'extend' method to inherit from the previous sub-class. When you hit the test button I'm printing out class.baseClassMethod to see if it finds it, but it only finds it for the base class.
You should see the following results:
function () { this.output += "baseClassMethod"; }
undefined
undefined
undefined
Is it possible that the cause is that the call to the super constructor is messing with the 'this' context?
function extend(baseClass, subClass) {
var originalPrototype = subClass.prototype;
subClass.prototype = Object.create(baseClass.prototype);
for (var key in originalPrototype) {
subClass.prototype[key] = originalPrototype[key];
}
subClass.prototype.constructor = subClass;
Object.defineProperty(subClass.prototype, 'constructor', {
enumerable: false,
value: subClass
});
};
var baseClass = function() {
this.output = "Base: ";
this.toggleWizardHandlers = [];
this.baseClassMethod = function() {
this.output += "baseClassMethod";
};
};
baseClass.prototype.on = function(eventName, handler) {
switch (eventName.toLowerCase()) {
case "togglewizards":
return this.toggleWizardHandlers.push(handler);
break;
}
};
baseClass.prototype.toggleWizards = function(newWizard, newStepIndex) {
var handler, i, len, ref;
ref = this.toggleWizardHandlers;
for (var i = 0; i < ref.length; i++) {
handler = ref[i];
setTimeout(handler, 0, newWizard, newStepIndex);
}
};
var subClass = function() {
baseClass(this);
};
extend(baseClass, subClass);
var subSubClass = function() {
subClass(this);
};
extend(subClass, subSubClass);
var subSubSubClass = function() {
subSubClass(this);
};
extend(subSubClass, subSubSubClass);
var manager = function(settings) {
this.log = function(message) {
$("#log").html($("#log").html() + "<br />" + message);
};
this.clearLog = function() {
$("#log").html("");
};
this.testBaseClass = new baseClass();
this.testSubClass = new subClass();
this.testSubSubClass = new subSubClass();
this.testSubSubSubClass = new subSubSubClass();
//test.on("toggleWizards", function(param) { that.log(param); });
};
$(function() {
var manage = new manager("");
$("#btn").click(function() {
manage.log("start test");
manage.clearLog();
try {
manage.log(manage.testBaseClass.baseClassMethod);
} catch (e) {
manage.log(e);
}
try {
manage.log(manage.testSubClass.baseClassMethod);
} catch (e) {
manage.log(e);
}
try {
manage.log(manage.testSubSubClass.baseClassMethod);
} catch (e) {
manage.log(e);
}
try {
manage.log(manage.testSubSubSubClass.baseClassMethod);
} catch (e) {
manage.log(e);
}
});
});