If I create a JQuery widget (code example below), and then define a "public" method, is there any other way to call the method other than using the following form?
$("#list").list("publicMethod");
I would like to create a series of widgets that all define the same methods (basically implementing the same interface), and be able to call the method without knowing anything about which widget I currently am invoking the method on. In the current form, I need to know that I am executing the method on the "list" widget.
Below is an example of creating a widget with the "public" method.
(function($) {
var items = [];
var itemFocusIdx = 0;
$.widget("ui.list", {
// Standard stuff
options : { ... },
_create : function() { ... },
destroy : function() { ... },
// My Public Methods
publicMethod : function() { ... }
...
});
}(jQuery));
jQuery UI widgets use jQuery's $.data(...) method to indirectly associate the widget class with the DOM element. The preferred way to call a method on the widget is exactly what was described by Max...
$('#list').list('publicMethod');
...but if you want to field a return value, you'll have better luck calling it this way, via the data method:
$('#list').data('list').publicMethod();
However, using the second way side-steps the whole jQuery UI widget pattern, and should probably be avoided if possible.
Slightly off-topic, I know, but you may want to look at jquery Entwine.
This provides a form of inheritance and polymorphism which allows some clever behaviour with simple code. It sounds like this would do what you are trying to do.
lets say you have list
, list2
, and superList
... let's call "publicMethod" on for each of them:
$.fn.callWidgetMethod = function(method) {
var $this = this,
args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 1);
// loop though the data and check each piece of data to
// see if it has the method
$.each(this.data(), function(key, val) {
if ($.isFunction(val[method])) {
$this[key].apply($this, args);
// break out of the loop
return false;
}
});
}
$("#some-element").list();
$("#another-element").list2();
$("#hydrogen").superList();
$("#some-element").callWidgetMethod("publicMethod");
$("#another-element").callWidgetMethod("publicMethod");
$("#hydrogen").callWidgetMethod("publicMethod");
This solution is inspired by @Jiaaro's solution, but I needed a return value and implemented as a JavaScript function rather than extending jQuery:
var invokeWidgetMethod = function(methodName, widgetElem)
{
var $widgetElem = $(widgetElem),
widgetData = $widgetElem.data(),
dataName,
dataObject;
for(dataName in widgetData)
{
dataObject = widgetData[dataName];
if ($.isFunction(dataObject[methodName])) {
return dataObject[methodName]();
}
}
}
Try this:
$("#list").list("publicMethod");
How about this one:
$("#list").list.publicMethod
As you are extending ui.list with your key:value pair set