I'm reading the Javascript Guide from Mozilla
And when they contrasted JS to Java , It got me thinking, Java code is easily split up with each class in his own file. after futher search , I understand that the same can be accomplished in JS with namespacing and module pattern - I messed around with it but got very confused ( especially with calling a constructor declared in File1.js into File2.js )
so here is the hierarchy:
But i just can't figure out how to properly make it works
how do i simply go from
//employe.js
function Employee () {
this.name = "";
this.dept = "general";
}
function Manager () {
this.reports = [];
}
Manager.prototype = new Employee;
function WorkerBee () {
this.projects = [];
}
WorkerBee.prototype = new Employee;
function SalesPerson () {
this.dept = "sales";
this.quota = 100;
}
SalesPerson.prototype = new WorkerBee;
to this :
// employe.js
function Employee () {
this.name = "";
this.dept = "general";
}
// Manager.js
function Manager () {
this.reports = [];
}
Manager.prototype = new Employee;
// WorkerBee.js
function WorkerBee () {
this.projects = [];
}
WorkerBee.prototype = new Employee;
// SalesPerson.js
function SalesPerson () {
this.dept = "sales";
this.quota = 100;
}
SalesPerson.prototype = new WorkerBee;
You should have one global namespacing object which every module has to access and write to. Modify your files like so:
// employe.js
window.myNameSpace = window.myNameSpace || { };
myNameSpace.Employee = function() {
this.name = "";
this.dept = "general";
};
and Manager.js could look like
// Manager.js
window.myNameSpace = window.myNameSpace || { };
myNameSpace.Manager = function() {
this.reports = [];
}
myNameSpace.Manager.prototype = new myNameSpace.Employee;
This is of course a very simplified example. Because the order of loading files and dependencies is not child-play. There are some good librarys and patterns available, I recommend you looking at requireJS and AMD or CommonJS module patterns. http://requirejs.org/
You don't need to do anything differently. Just include the script files and they work as if it was a single file.
Javascript doesn't have file scope. Once the code is parsed it doesn't matter where the code came from.
For small and medium projects like a website or game, the native namespacing and constructors work very well. They are a poor choice when the loading order is too complex to handle without some sort of autoloading.
index.html:
<script src="Employee.js"></script>
<script src="Manager.js"></script>
Manager.js:
var Manager = function() {
var employee1 = new window.Employee(this);
var employee2 = new window.Employee(this);
};
Employee.js:
var Employee = function(boss) {
// work stuff here
this.wage = 5;
};
Note, properties inside the employee constructor function are visible to the manager. The new
word signals a constructor. This is also possible without a constructor by return public properties.