Override "private" function in JavaScript - javascript

I'm monkey-patching some of the jQuery's Draggable code*.
The goal is to avoid modifying the original source files and patch dynamically one of the internal functions.
The function _generatePosition is declared like this:
(function($) {
$.widget("ui.draggable", $.ui.mouse, {
...
_generatePosition: function(event) {
...
}
}
})(jQuery);
Is it possible to achieve the dynamic replacement of it?
*So it calculates the snapping grid relative to the top of parent element and not relative to the top of element being dragged. See here for more details.

You can manipulate individual instances:
.draggable().data("draggable")._generatePosition = function() {};
Or modify the prototype, affecting all instances:
$.ui.draggable.prototype._generatePosition = function() {};

You can actually modify these, but only on a per-element basic as far as I know. But you could easily create your own $.fn.draggable wrapper, and just call the original wrapper and run this: draggableElement.data('draggable')._generatePosition = fn
As Jörn Zaefferer pointed out, you could also modify the draggable prototype, by using $.ui.draggable.prototype._generatePosition = fn

Edit for below comments: It seems you can edit these (after the last widget re-write), but I would still steer clear. Here's an example of the base method, you can modify from there if you wish, but keep in mind this can and probably will break in a future release. Also any "inheritors" of the widget won't pick up these changes, not sure if that's an issue.
As for the reason, to deny you access isn't the reason really (not in this case). In library cases like this it's more to be clean than deny you access, or because the library may want to change architecture later, and still break as few people as possible when they do so...letting you only access the "public" members of their code gives the authors more flexibility in changing anything that's "private".
Case in point: jQuery UI 1.8 moved a lot of code into the position utility, allowing a lot of private code cleanup that you didn't see happen, since it was all private before this allowed a fairly big optimization/code reduction without breaking people left and right.

Related

Measuring pollution of global namespace

Background
I'm trying to refactor some long, ugly Javascript (shamefully, it's my own). I started the project when I started learning Javascript; it was a great learning experience, but there is some total garbage in my code and I employ some rather bad practices, chief among them being heavy pollution of the global namespace / object (in my case, the window object). In my effort to mitigate said pollution, I think it would be helpful to measure it.
Approach
My gut instinct was to simply count the number of objects attached to the window object prior to loading any code, again after loading third-party libraries and lastly after my code has been executed. Then, as I refactor, I would try to reduce the increase that corresponds to loading my code). To do this, I'm using:
console.log(Object.keys(window).length)
at various places in my code. This seems to work alright and I see the number grow, in particular after my own code is loaded. But...
Problem
Just from looking at the contents of the window object in the Chrome Developer console, I can see that its not counting everything attached to the object. I suspect it's not including some more fundamental properties or object types, whether they belong to the browser, a library or my own code. Either way though, can anyone think of a better and more accurate way to measure global namespace pollution that would help in refactoring?
Thanks in advance!
So after some of the comments left by Felix Kling and Lèse majesté, I have found a solution that works well. Prior to loading any libraries or my own code, I create the dashboard global object (my only intentional one) and store a list of objects attached to window via:
var dashboard = {
cache: {
load: Object.getOwnPropertyNames(window)
}
};
Then, after I load all of the libraries but prior to loading any of my own code, I modify the dashboard object, adding the pollution method (within a new debug namespace):
dashboard.debug = {
pollution: (function() {
var pollution,
base = cache.load, // window at load
filter = function(a,b) { // difference of two arrays
return a.filter(function(i) {
return !(b.indexOf(i) > -1);
});
},
library = filter(Object.getOwnPropertyNames(window), base),
custom = function() {
return filter(Object.getOwnPropertyNames(window),
base.concat(library));
};
delete cache.load;
pollution = function() {
console.log('Global namespace polluted with:\n ' +
custom().length + ' custom objects \n ' +
library.length + ' library objects');
return {custom: custom().sort(), library: library.sort()};
};
return pollution;
}())
};
At any point, I can call this method from the console and see
Global namespace polluted with:
53 custom objects
44 library objects
as well as two arrays listing the keys associated with those objects. The base and library snapshots are static, while the current custom measurement (via custom) is dynamic such that if I were to load any custom javascript via AJAX, then I could remeasure and see any new custom "pollution".
The general pattern you've selected works OK from experience. However, there are two things you might need to consider (as additions or alternatives):
Use JsLint.com or JSHint.com with your existing code and look at the errors produced. It should help you spot most if not all of the global variable usage quickly and easily (you'll see errors of 'undefined' variables for example). This is a great simple approach. So, the measurement in this case will be just looking at the total number of issues.
We've found that Chrome can make doing detection of leaking resources on the window object tricky (as things are added during the course of running the page). We've needed to check for example to see if certain properties returned are native by using RegExs: /\s*function \w*\(\) {\s*\[native code\]\s*}\s*/ to spot native code. In some code "leak detection" code we've written, we also try to (in a try catch) obtain the value of a property to verify it's set to a value (and not just undefined). But, that shouldn't be necessary in your case.

EmberJS - Adding a binding after creation of object

I am trying to bind a property of an object to a property that's bound in an ArrayController. I want all of this to occur after the object has already been created and added to the ArrayController.
Here is a fiddle with a simplified example of what I'm trying to achieve.
I am wondering if I'm having problems with scope - I've already tried to bind to the global path (i.e. 'App.objectTwoController.objectOne.param3') to set the binding to. I've also tried to bind directly to the objectOneController (which is not what I want to do, but tried it just to see if it worked) and that still didn't work.
Any ideas on what I'm doing incorrectly? Thanks in advance for taking the time to look at this post.
So in the example below (I simplified it a little bit, but same principles apply)... The method below ends up looking for "objectOne" on "objectTwo" instead of on the "objectTwoController".
var objectTwoController: Em.Object.create({
objectOneBinding: 'App.objectOne',
objectTwoBinding: 'App.objectTwo',
_onSomething: function() {
var objectTwo = this.get('objectTwo');
objectTwo.bind('param2', Em.Binding.from('objectOne.param3'));
}.observes('something')
});
The problem is that you can't bind between two none relative objects. If you look in the "connect" method in ember you will see that it only takes one reference object (this) in which to observe both paths (this is true for 9.8.1 from your example and the ember-pre-1.0 release).
You have few options (that I can think of at least).
First: You can tell the objects about each other and in turn the relative paths will start working. This will actually give "objectTwo" an object to reference when binding paths.
....
objectTwo.set('objectOne', this.get('objectOne');
....
Second: You could add your own observer/computed property that will just keep the two in sync (but it is a little more verbose). You might be able to pull off something really slick but it maybe difficult. Even go so far as writing your own binding (like Transforms) to allow you to bind two non-related objects as long as you have paths to both.
_param3: function(){
this.setPath('objectTwo.param2', this.getPath('objectOne.param3');
}.observes('objectOne.param3')
You can make these dynamically and not need to pre-define them...
Third: Simply make them global paths; "App.objectOneController.content.param3" should work as your binding "_from" path (but not sure how much this helps you in your real application, because with larger applications I personally don't like everything global).
EDIT: When setting the full paths. Make sure you wait until end of the current cycle before fetching the value because bindings don't always update until everything is flushed. Meaning, your alert message needs to be wrapped in Ember.run.next or you will not see the change.

Compound Javascript Elements

I've got this page I'm doing some tests in Javascript and jQuery: JS Tests
I've got a few questions on how to create, not sure if this is right term, but compound controls via Javascript. In something like Flash, you'd create the Object class, have the getters and setters, draw your images, etc. In JS, it seems to be a very different thought process. My main question is How do you create multiple elements with getters and setters to be rendered, filtered, and interacted with in Javascript?
The main code regarding this example sits with:
var html = (function(){
// var FRAG = $(document.createDocumentFragment());
htmlBox = $(document.createElement("div"));
var eTitle = $(document.createElement("h4"));
var ePrice = $(document.createElement("p"));
// set class first
htmlBox.addClass("box")
htmlBox.css({
backgroundColor : color
})
// set text values
eTitle.text(title);
ePrice.text("$" + price);
htmlBox.append(eTitle)
htmlBox.append(ePrice)
return htmlBox;
})();
... inside the Box() class. If someone could take a look at the source and let me know what isn't quite right, that'd be great.
EDIT
Here's the final result for this example. Some logistics to work out, but what I'm after.
http://geerswitch.in/tests/obj/
As for the jQuery creating nodes, the built in JS version works fine for this, and some research on Google shows that the non-jquery way is faster in most cases anyway (and looks worse, imo)
You're doing it almost right. You've created a Box class to represent your higher-order UI element, you're instantiating it for each element, and your main program is manipulating the elements through its interface. The only thing you're missing is the split between the public interface and the private implementation. There's nothing to prevent me from doing myBox.price += 10 right now, even though the Box interface clearly implies that price should be set at construction and never modified.
JavaScript doesn't have visibility modifiers like "private" and "public", but you can create the same effect yourself. Check out Douglas Crockford's explanation for the details. Crockford is an opinionated genius when it comes to JavaScript, and he's the brains behind JSLint and JSON.

Is there an elegant way to overload a jQuery method inside of a plugin only?

I am having a bit of a dull moment today, where I can't think of an elegant solution for this problem.
I have inherited a plugin, and I need to modify it to allow passing a enabled or disabled state to it, to have it detach all of its events, show the disabled state, etc.
Like a jQuery UI plugin, I was simply going to use...
$('div').myPlugin('disabled');
This I have no problem with.
However, the plugin attaches many events which are not namespaced. I want the events to be namespaced, so I can remove the events easily.
There are many events that are bound, so I thought hey, why don't I overload bind() to attach the namespace automatically?
I came up with this...
(function(oldBind) {
$.fn.bind = function() {
if (arguments.length >= 2) {
arguments[0] += '.my-plugin';
}
return oldBind.apply(this, arguments);
}
})($.fn.bind);
I placed this at the top of the plugin, before the return this.each(fn) code.
It seemed to work nicely.
However, I tossed in a console.log(arguments[1].toString()) and noticed (as I expected) this overwrote the main jQuery bind() outside of the plugin.
What is the best way to have this overloaded bind() only available to this plugin?
Should I simply place at end of the plugin $.fn.bind = oldBind or is there an easier way?
Just save the function before, and then replace it after.
var oldBind = $.fn.bind;
$.fn.bind = ...what ever you wanted...
$.fn.bind = oldBind;
That should do the trick, it is untested, so let me know if it doesn't work.

Using $.data() in jQuery to store flag on element

I am authoring a simple jQuery plugin that turns an input tag into a time-formatted element (on blur it will change 245p into 2:45 pm).
Since I do not want to apply the time format events to the same element twice, I need a way to detect that the specific element in the list provided has not already had the format applied.
This is the relevant part of the code:
var methods = {
init : function(sel) {
var $this = $(sel);
return $this.each(function(){
var data = $(this).data('time_formatted');
if (data) {
return;
} else {
$(this).data('time_formatted', true);
I have heard that using $(sel).data() in a plugin is not a good idea; instead, use $.data(). I don't know why, that's just what I've heard; honestly, I don't know what the difference is.
So my question is, is this the way to accomplish checking if a specific element has had the time formatter applied to it in a plugin?
If you care to see the plugin in it's current development state, see http://jsfiddle.net/userdude/xhXCR/.
Thanks!
Jared
Where have you heard that using .data() is not good? jQuery's plugin autoring page says:
Often times in plugin development, you may need to maintain state or check if your plugin has already been initialized on a given element. Using jQuery's data method is a great way to keep track of variables on a per element basis. However, rather than keeping track of a bunch of separate data calls with different names, it's best to use a single object literal to house all of your variables, and access that object by a single data namespace.
So it should be perfectly fine.

Categories

Resources