I have an issuer where I lose the 'this' inside this 'object'. The output of the following piece of javascript gives me "some-id" and then "undefined". When I use 'this' inside a callback function, the scope goes out of the object and it cannot use 'this' anymore. How can I get the callback to use 'this' or at least have access to the object?
Since I will make multiple objects, I won't be able to create a 'static' like storage. Please help this javascript n00b ;-)
here is my test code that you can use to reproduce my problem. What I would like to have is CheckBox.doSomething()
to return the value of this.id
which should match some-id
for this test case.
function CheckBox(input_id) {
this.id = input_id;
this.doSomething();
$('#some-element').click(this.doSomething);
}
Checkbox.prototype.doSomething = function() {
alert(this.input_id);
}
var some_box = new CheckBox('some-id');
some_box.doSomething();
$('#some-element').click();
edit: I can't even get this to work as I want it to:
function CheckBox2(input_id) {
this.id = input_id;
alert(this.id);
}
CheckBox2.prototype.doSomething = function() {
alert(this.input_id);
}
var some_box = new CheckBox2('some-id');
some_box.doSomething();
function CheckBox(input_id) {
this.id = input_id;
this.doSomething = $.proxy( this.doSomething, this );
$('#some-element').click(this.doSomething);
}
The "javascript equivalent" of this is Function#bind
but that is not available in every browser and since it seems you are using jQuery I am using the jQuery equivalent $.proxy
Your problem is with this line: $('#some-element').click(this.doSomething);
Why this is a problem
JavaScript methods don't know anything about the object that should be assigned to this
, it's set when the method is called either explicitly (with myFunction.call(obj)
) or implicitly (when called using obj.myFunction()
).
For example:
var x = {
logThis: function () {
console.log(this);
}
};
x.logThis(); // logs x
x.logThis.call(y); // logs y
var func = x.logThis;
func(); // logs window: the fallback for when no value is given for `this`
In your case, you're passing this.doSomething
to jQuery, which is then explicitly calling it with the element that was clicked as the value of this
. What's happening is (a slightly more complex version of) this:
var callback = this.doSomething;
callback.call(anElement, anEvent);
The solution
You need to make sure that doSomething
is called with the right value of this
. You can do that by wrapping it in another function:
var cb = this;
$('#some-element').click(function() {
return cb.doSomething();
});
jQuery provides a proxy
function lets you do this more simply:
$('#some-element').click(jQuery.proxy(this.doSomething, this));
Others have already explained the causes of the problem and how to fix it with jQuery. What's left is how you fix it with standard JavaScript. Instead of ...
$('#some-element').click(this.doSomething);
... you write:
document.getElementById('some-element').addEventListener('click', this.doSomething.bind(this));
This changes the context of this
inside doSomething
. You can also do that with anonymous functions - instead of ...
$('#some-element').click(function(event) {
console.log(this);
});
... you write:
document.getElementById('#some-element').addEventListener('click', (function(event) {
console.log(this);
}).bind(this));
That has been very useful to me in projects with lots of callbacks, e.g. in Node.js (where you don't have to care about outdated browsers).
Edit: getElementById()
and addEventListener()
instead of $(...).click(...)
.