I came across an issue with a plugin that uses object.create in jquery to create a date dropdown. I just noticed in IE 8 that it is throwing an error of:
SCRIPT438: Object doesn't support property or method 'create'
Here is the code:
var dropdateobj = Object.create(dropdatefuncs);
dropdateobj.create(options, this);
$.data(this, 'dropdate', dropdateobj);
What is a good work around for IE8 or more cross browser compatible?
Thanks in advance!
If you need Object.create
, there are good chances you may need to rely on other es5 features as well. Therefore, in most cases the appropriate solution would be to use es5-shim.
However, if Object.create
is the only thing you need and you only use it to purely setup the prototype chain, here's a lightweight poly-fill that doesn't support null
as the first argument and doesn't support the second properties
argument.
Here's the spec:
15.2.3.5 Object.create ( O [, Properties] )
The create function creates a new object with a specified prototype.
When the create function is called, the following steps are taken:
If Type(O) is not Object or Null throw a TypeError exception.
Let obj be the result of creating a new object as if by the expression
new Object() where Object is the standard built-in constructor with
that name
Set the [[Prototype]] internal property of obj to O.
If the argument Properties is present and not undefined, add own
properties to obj as if by calling the standard built-in function
Object.defineProperties with arguments obj and Properties.
Return obj.
Here's the lightweight implementation:
if (!Object.create) {
Object.create = function(o, properties) {
if (typeof o !== 'object' && typeof o !== 'function') throw new TypeError('Object prototype may only be an Object: ' + o);
else if (o === null) throw new Error("This browser's implementation of Object.create is a shim and doesn't support 'null' as the first argument.");
if (typeof properties != 'undefined') throw new Error("This browser's implementation of Object.create is a shim and doesn't support a second argument.");
function F() {}
F.prototype = o;
return new F();
};
}
There are several shims that provide this, including this one.
Note that Object.create
can't be perfectly shimmed, though, because amongst other things it can create non-enumerable properties or properties with getters and setters, which you can't do on all pre-ES5 browsers. (You can do getters and setters on some pre-ES5 browsers using proprietary syntax, but not on IE8 I don't believe.) It can only be pseudo-shimmed.
But a pseudo-shim will do for the use-case you've quoted.
Just for completeness, here's a simple version of the part that can be shimmed:
if (!Object.create) {
Object.create = function(proto, props) {
if (typeof props !== "undefined") {
throw "The multiple-argument version of Object.create is not provided by this browser and cannot be shimmed.";
}
function ctor() { }
ctor.prototype = proto;
return new ctor();
};
}
This will make Object.create() work in IE 8.
I tried the shim/sham but that didn't work for me.
if (typeof Object.create !== 'function') {
Object.create = function(o, props) {
function F() {}
F.prototype = o;
if (typeof(props) === "object") {
for (prop in props) {
if (props.hasOwnProperty((prop))) {
F[prop] = props[prop];
}
}
}
return new F();
};
}