using javascript setTimeout causes a loss of data within an object? - javascript

Background:
I've written a javascript object called Step to implement a step-type event for any operation I might need to use for my website, e.g. smooth-motion functions. I can register functions in it to run each step by using the Step object's method, registerFunction(func).
To handle running the functions every step, the Step object has another method called run().
In this method I run through the list of registered functions, run them, and then call the setTimeout(...) function, passing the reference to the run function to recall it for the next step.
Problem:
The first 'step' is run by the onload event (attribute) in the <body> tag of my html page (indirectly, though: Step.run is called by a function initiateJS() which is called by onload). Nothing goes wrong in the first step. However, by the second step, the variables within the Step object seem to have been disposed; they all become undefined.
Questions:
I was thinking it might be due to the garbage collector? Maybe it somehow loses its reference?
Also, is using setTimeout(...) even the best method of making a step-type event implementation?
Details:
The Step object is declared in the js document somewhat as:
var Step = {
myVars: "somevalues",
anArray: [],
run: function() {
//run the registered functions
setTimeout(this.run,this.interval);
};
ALSO, in the next step, the Step object is still existent.
Some other minor details:
I'm using Chrome
I'm making my website with XAMPP full
I'm using Windows 7

setTimeout runs code in the global context. this is no longer defined the next time run() executes. You'll need to refactor your code to either declare variables on some kind of global object, or to pass references into the run function itself.
edit: since you said Step is global, this should work:
run: function() {
//run the registered functions
setTimeout(Step.run, Step.interval);
}

Change your run function to this:
run: function() {
var that = this;
setTimeout(that.run, that.interval);
}
The setTimeout function redefines the this variable and this is the simplest way I can think of to work around this issue.

Related

In this context, what exactly does $('id').on('click', this.method.bind(this)) do?

Here is the app I'm referring to:
I am trying to fundamentally understand the bind method in Javascript.
My understanding when I play around with it in the console is that bind returns a copy of the function, with "this" bound to whatever you pass into bind.
function logThis(){
console.log(this)
}
logThis.bind({today: 'Tuesday'})
//Will return a copy of the logThis function, with 'this' set to the
{today:'Tuesday'} object. The code does not run right away though.
var explicitlyLogThis = logThis.bind({today: 'Tuesday'});
explicitlyLogThis(); //This will run the code and display the {today: 'Tuesday'} object to the console.
This is my understanding so far. I understand that to actually run this new function that has 'this' explicitly bound using the bind method, you need to set it to a variable and then run it.
I see a contradiction when I look at the app in the above link. If you look at the bindEvents method on line 56, we have .on('keyup', this.create.bind(this)). I understand that we have to set 'this' to App when we run the create method because jQuery defaults to setting 'this' to the jQuery object itself. So this line is actually the same as: $('#new-todo').on('keyup', App.create.bind(App)).
That isn't where my confusion is. My question is:
How exactly are these copies of the functions with 'this' set to App actually being called? The app does not set them to a variable and then call that variable the way I had to when I was working in the console.
It just invokes the bound functions directly as soon as an event occurs on one of the jQuery elements. But I thought writing it this way would just return a copy of the function, and not run the function itself, if I am basing my assumptions on what I have figured out in the code I wrote above. I thought in order to invoke the function immediately, you would need to use call or apply.
I also realize that the app runs the bindEvents method when it starts (see line 46). So I understand that when you start the app, copies of the various functions are created with the correct 'this' bound to the functions. But...when/how do they actually get invoked without assigning them to variables? How are these copies accessed?
I think I have a flawed understanding of the bind method, so I would love some help. Thanks!
It sounds like you understand bind well enough. Perhaps there is some confusion with passing anonymous functions. As you know calling bind returns a new function and this can optionally be stored as a variable or passed as a function argument.
In the example below btn1 accepts a bound function as you've seen. This could also be written in a more long hand fashion with btn2. They're identical. btn3 doesn't receive a bound function, when its clicked its context is the button element, this looses all visibility of MagicalApp fucntions.
<button id="example1">button one bound</button>
<button id="example2">button one bound</button>
<button id="example3">button two unbound</button>
<script>
class MagicalApp {
add() {
console.log('this could do addition');
}
}
const app = new MagicalApp();
function contextOfEvent(event) {
console.log('contextSensitive', this.add)
}
const btn1 = document.querySelector("#example1");
btn1.addEventListener('click', contextOfEvent.bind(app));
const btn2 = document.querySelector("#example2");
const btn2ClickHandler = contextOfEvent.bind(app)
btn2.addEventListener('click', btn2ClickHandler);
const btn3 = document.querySelector("#example3");
btn3.addEventListener('click', contextOfEvent);
</script>

Javascript * is not a function (prototype function)

Coming from a C++ background, trying to work with an OO language that doesn't have explicit typing is a little more than a headache.
So I have dynamic elements for a webpage that are "controlled" by objects since there are tons of stuff I need to manage on each for it to work. The element is just the visual output of the data inside of the object itself, that's all I really need it for.
Except that I need the object to perform an internal function when it's clicked. That seems to be the biggest source of my headache thus far.
Javascript:
function onClick(file) //The external onClick function I use to try to get it to call from.
{
file.state = INUSE;
file.checkState();
}
function fileObject () { //The file object itself
this.element;
this.newElement();
//initialize stuff for the object
}
fileObject.prototype.newElement = function() { //creates a new element and sets its event listener
this.element.click(function() {onClick(this)});
}
fileObject.prototype.checkState = function() {/*does stuff*/} //apparently this is "not a function"
The error I get exactly is "file.checkState is not a function" from Firefox's console panel.
I'm still new to javascript, but after doing some debugging, I've come to find out that it's explicitly the onClick(this) function that is causing all of the errors. When used with something else, the onClick function works perfectly, but for some reason, the this keyword doesn't appear to actually be sending the reference to the fileObject since all checks show file being undefined when inside of the onClick scope.
Is there something fundamentally wrong about the way I'm trying to do this or am I just missing a step (or adding something that I don't need) that will help get this snippet working.
So you know, your initial problem isn't actually handling the action, but listening to it. click will trigger a synthetic click event, rather than liste for one.
You want ... .element.addEventListener("click", callback); that said, you face a second problem, immediately thereafter.
I will leave my example code as you've written it to not confuse the matter...
But when you see click( ) know that I mean subscribing with addEventListener, if element really does mean a browser DOM element. If it's not a standard browser element, and your own API, then ignore the previous portion, and carry on.
this is dynamically bound at the invocation time of the function (not at definition time).
The nearest function, scoped above, is your callback function that you are passing into .click( ... ).
Which is entirely different than the this which you mean outside of the callback.
Whatever is on the left-hand side of the dot is the this context for the duration of that particular invocation.
Needless to say, click() doesn't know enough to bind the this you mean, to the left-hand side of your callback.
The solution (or one of many) is to use lexical scoping and/or closure to retain the value of the object you mean.
// easy but messier
var fileObject = this;
... .click(function () { onClick(fileObject); });
// Cleaner with thunks:
function clickHandler (onClick, obj) {
return function () { onClick(obj); };
}
... .click(clickHandler(this));
Coming from c++ the way Javascript handles this will seem a little crazy, it looks like here you need to tell the function you've defined what this is - like so:
this.element.click(function() {onClick(this)}.bind(this));

HTML and Javascript Why must I perform all tasks in javascript inside functions that get called by the HTML?

It keeps me from easily defining global variables and its often a nuisance. Why doesn't the code outside functions that are called execute? For example, if I call the function myFunction from HTML, this works...
function myFunction() {
var myObject = document.getElementById("myHTMLObject");
myObject.style.backgroundColor = "blue";
}
but not this...
var myObject = document.getElementById("myHTMLObject");
function myFunction() {
myObject.style.backgroundColor = "blue";
}
If I call the function from the HTML, only the code inside that function will run (unless that function calls other functions). Am I making a mistake or is there a way around this? I don't want to encompass all my code in a window.onload function.
P.S. I run my html on Chrome if it makes a difference.
Thanks for any help.
It does execute, and does when when the script runs, which is when the <script> element is parsed.
If you try to get an element that is added to the DOM by HTML that appears after the <script>, then it won't exist when you look for it so you will get nothing back.
If the <script> appears after the element, then you won't have a problem.
If this example:
var myObject = document.getElementById("myHTMLObject");
function myFunction() {
myObject.style.backgroundColor = "blue";
}
doesn't work, then here are a couple possible reasons:
The script is running too early and thus when you do document.getElementById("myHTMLObject");, the page has not yet been loaded and thus myHTMLObject does not exist yet.
You have more than one global definition of myObject and one is overwriting the other.
Your second coding example is recommended for a number of reasons:
Doesn't use a global variables which is advantageous (variables are private to within the function and can't create conflicts with any other code or be interfered with by any other code).
The functionality is entirely contained within the function
There are no timing related issues with when the initialization code is run because the DOM is searched only when the operation is about to be carried out.
Getting DOM objects when needed works better with dynamically added HTML.
A simple user, triggered operation is plenty fast getting a DOM object when needed.

javascript - how to call a function newly added from ajax

I have a coding difficulty which have been asked in this forum before:
Calling a JavaScript function returned from an Ajax response
But I didn't find the answers quite satisfying. To be more precise of the problem I'm dealing, here is the detail:
I dynamically load a document (HTML and javascript) using jquery
var url = 'document.php';
$('#container').load(url);
Example of what the document.php looks like:
<form>
<input name="firstname"></input>
</form>
<script>
function dosomething()
{
console.log($('input[name=firstname]').val());
}
</script>
*The dosomething() function is the one I'd like to call later
And then I want to call the functions from that document.php. Due to my requirement, I don't want to call the function after the documents' loaded, but rather to call it later when I need it. Because it was dynamically loaded, the DOM doesn't recognize the functions. How to properly call this function?
Thank you
the DOM doesn't recognize the functions
This sounds like your other functions are wrapped in $(document).ready() in the remote page. If that is the case they are out of scope for you to call them from code in the main page and you need to move them out of the ready handler to make them globally accessible.
EDIT: Other possibilities
Script tags in head- move to body after html, or use $.getScript in ajax callback to retrieve
I think that you're trying to implement the technique called on-demand javascript (or lazy-loading). In other words, your page should initially load just a small script - but use a bunch of objects and functions, which are available in some other files, but will be loaded when they're required.
If that's the case, I have to warn you: you'll probably need to update your existing code. Instead of just calling some function right as it is, in all gun-blazing glory, you should check for its existence first - and if it's not available, wait for its loading:
if (typeof lazyObjects.someLazyFunction !== 'function') {
lazyLoad('lazyFunction.js');
}
lazyObjects.someLazyFunction();
The key point here is that lazyLoad should be synchronous. In other words, you'll have to wait until the script containing your function is actually loaded. Otherwise someLazyFunction just won't be defined when it's called, even with this sort of checks.
lazyFunction.js, in turn, will contain some code that will alter lazyObjects, adding to them the required method as a property:
// in lazyFunction.js
lazyObjects.someLazyFunction = function() { ... }
While it's technically possible to use global (=window) object for these cases, I usually don't do this - and won't recommend doing it either.
See, it's not that simple. ) I'd recommend reading this article to find out more about this technique - and actually using some established components to implement it in your code (some of them are mentioned in the linked article).

Pass a callback in ExternalInterface

I want to call a Javascript function from Flash, which I can do with ExternalInterface, but the Javascript function takes a callback. Is there a way to give it a Flash callback?
I've thought of something like this:
ExternalInterface.addCallback("foo", function(){...});
ExternalInterface.call("theFunction", "foo");
But that wouldn't work since theFunction would attempt to do foo(), while it should really do swfObject.foo(). The problem is the page and its Javascript are not under my control (though I can request changes if really needed).
This is closely related to the first question in the related questions section.
Along the same lines as the answer to that question, you can do:
ExternalInterface.addCallback("foo", function() { /* ... */ }); // The callback
ExternalInterface.call("theFunction(function() { swfObject.foo(); })");
You're misunderstanding the documentation, I think. callback in this instance is just a reference to a function inside Flash, not a callback to something you call.
Basically, you use .call() to call a JS function from AS; and you use .addCallback() to tell the Flash Player which AS function should be called based on the name.
On your example, theFunction would get one parameter as being 'foo', which is the name that references your anonymous AS function. Not sure why you would want to pass the function like that, but if you need, you could just call it from JavaScript with
function theFunction(callback) {
// .. do something...
swfObject[callback]();
}
Now, if you don't have control over the JS/HTML side, I'm not sure if you can do that. Not sure why you'd need, anyway - JS calls are synchronous, as if they were running on the same thread, meaning the Flash Player will execute the JS code and only then return to the Flash Player... you don't have to wait for execution or anything.
Also, if you really need to control the page without touching the JS/HTML side, remember you can inject entire pieces of JS code via .call - it doesn't need to be a simple function call. You can create your entire functions from inside the SWF. For example,
var js:XML = <script><![CDATA[
// Javascript code...
]]></script>;
ExternalInterface.call(js);
Or, if you need the return data, you don't need a callback either - just do a simple call as in
// JS
function isNumberZero(__num) {
return __num == 0;
}
// AS
trace ("Is number zero = " + ExternalInterface.call("isNumberZero", 10));
Not sure if this helps at all. If not, it'd be good to have more information on what exactly you're trying to do.

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