Develop Reference

Spy function with elementary JavaScript syntax [duplicate]

The main reason why I want it is that I want to extend my initialize function.
Something like this:
// main.js
window.onload = init();
function init(){
doSomething();
}
// extend.js
function extends init(){
doSomethingHereToo();
}
So I want to extend a function like I extend a class in PHP.
And I would like to extend it from other files too, so for example I have the original init function in main.js and the extended function in extended.js.

With a wider view of what you're actually trying to do and the context in which you're doing it, I'm sure we could give you a better answer than the literal answer to your question.
But here's a literal answer:
If you're assigning these functions to some property somewhere, you can wrap the original function and put your replacement on the property instead:
// Original code in main.js
var theProperty = init;
function init(){
doSomething();
}
// Extending it by replacing and wrapping, in extended.js
theProperty = (function(old) {
function extendsInit() {
old();
doSomething();
}
return extendsInit;
})(theProperty);
If your functions aren't already on an object, you'd probably want to put them there to facilitate the above. For instance:
// In main.js
var MyLibrary = {
init: function init() {
}
};
// In extended.js
(function() {
var oldInit = MyLibrary.init;
MyLibrary.init = extendedInit;
function extendedInit() {
oldInit.call(MyLibrary); // Use #call in case `init` uses `this`
doSomething();
}
})();
But there are better ways to do that. Like for instance, providing a means of registering init functions.
// In main.js
var MyLibrary = (function() {
var initFunctions = [];
return {
init: function init() {
var fns = initFunctions;
initFunctions = undefined;
for (var index = 0; index < fns.length; ++index) {
try { fns[index](); } catch (e) { }
}
},
addInitFunction: function addInitFunction(fn) {
if (initFunctions) {
// Init hasn't run yet, remember it
initFunctions.push(fn);
} else {
// `init` has already run, call it almost immediately
// but *asynchronously* (so the caller never sees the
// call synchronously)
setTimeout(fn, 0);
}
}
};
})();
Here in 2020 (or really any time after ~2016), that can be written a bit more compactly:
// In main.js
const MyLibrary = (() => {
let initFunctions = [];
return {
init() {
const fns = initFunctions;
initFunctions = undefined;
for (const fn of fns) {
try { fn(); } catch (e) { }
}
},
addInitFunction(fn) {
if (initFunctions) {
// Init hasn't run yet, remember it
initFunctions.push(fn);
} else {
// `init` has already run, call it almost immediately
// but *asynchronously* (so the caller never sees the
// call synchronously)
setTimeout(fn, 0);
// Or: `Promise.resolve().then(() => fn());`
// (Not `.then(fn)` just to avoid passing it an argument)
}
}
};
})();

There are several ways to go about this, it depends what your purpose is, if you just want to execute the function as well and in the same context, you can use .apply():
function init(){
doSomething();
}
function myFunc(){
init.apply(this, arguments);
doSomethingHereToo();
}
If you want to replace it with a newer init, it'd look like this:
function init(){
doSomething();
}
//anytime later
var old_init = init;
init = function() {
old_init.apply(this, arguments);
doSomethingHereToo();
};

The other methods are great but they don't preserve any prototype functions attached to init. To get around that you can do the following (inspired by the post from Nick Craver).
(function () {
var old_prototype = init.prototype;
var old_init = init;
init = function () {
old_init.apply(this, arguments);
// Do something extra
};
init.prototype = old_prototype;
}) ();

Another option could be:
var initial = function() {
console.log( 'initial function!' );
}
var iWantToExecuteThisOneToo = function () {
console.log( 'the other function that i wanted to execute!' );
}
function extendFunction( oldOne, newOne ) {
return (function() {
oldOne();
newOne();
})();
}
var extendedFunction = extendFunction( initial, iWantToExecuteThisOneToo );

2017+ solution
The idea of function extensions comes from functional paradigm, which is natively supported since ES6:
function init(){
doSomething();
}
// extend.js
init = (f => u => { f(u)
doSomethingHereToo();
})(init);
init();
As per #TJCrowder's concern about stack dump, the browsers handle the situation much better today. If you save this code into test.html and run it, you get
test.html:3 Uncaught ReferenceError: doSomething is not defined
at init (test.html:3)
at test.html:8
at test.html:12
Line 12: the init call, Line 8: the init extension, Line 3: the undefined doSomething() call.
Note: Much respect to veteran T.J. Crowder, who kindly answered my question many years ago, when I was a newbie. After the years, I still remember the respectfull attitude and I try to follow the good example.

This is very simple and straight forward. Look at the code. Try to grasp the basic concept behind javascript extension.
First let us extend javascript function.
function Base(props) {
const _props = props
this.getProps = () => _props
// We can make method private by not binding it to this object.
// Hence it is not exposed when we return this.
const privateMethod = () => "do internal stuff"
return this
}
You can extend this function by creating child function in following way
function Child(props) {
const parent = Base(props)
this.getMessage = () => `Message is ${parent.getProps()}`;
// You can remove the line below to extend as in private inheritance,
// not exposing parent function properties and method.
this.prototype = parent
return this
}
Now you can use Child function as follows,
let childObject = Child("Secret Message")
console.log(childObject.getMessage()) // logs "Message is Secret Message"
console.log(childObject.getProps()) // logs "Secret Message"
We can also create Javascript Function by extending Javascript classes, like this.
class BaseClass {
constructor(props) {
this.props = props
// You can remove the line below to make getProps method private.
// As it will not be binded to this, but let it be
this.getProps = this.getProps.bind(this)
}
getProps() {
return this.props
}
}
Let us extend this class with Child function like this,
function Child(props) {
let parent = new BaseClass(props)
const getMessage = () => `Message is ${parent.getProps()}`;
return { ...parent, getMessage} // I have used spread operator.
}
Again you can use Child function as follows to get similar result,
let childObject = Child("Secret Message")
console.log(childObject.getMessage()) // logs "Message is Secret Message"
console.log(childObject.getProps()) // logs "Secret Message"
Javascript is very easy language. We can do almost anything. Happy JavaScripting... Hope I was able to give you an idea to use in your case.

Use extendFunction.js
init = extendFunction(init, function(args) {
doSomethingHereToo();
});
But in your specific case, it's easier to extend the global onload function:
extendFunction('onload', function(args) {
doSomethingHereToo();
});
I actually really like your question, it's making me think about different use cases.
For javascript events, you really want to add and remove handlers - but for extendFunction, how could you later remove functionality? I could easily add a .revert method to extended functions, so init = init.revert() would return the original function. Obviously this could lead to some pretty bad code, but perhaps it lets you get something done without touching a foreign part of the codebase.

need help understanding closures usage in this code

Here is a simplified snippet from some code I wrote for managing tablet gestures on canvas elements
first a function that accepts an element and a dictionary of callbacks and register the events plus adding other features like 'hold' gestures:
function registerStageGestures(stage, callbacks, recieverArg) {
stage.inhold = false;
stage.timer = null;
var touchduration = 1000;
var reciever = recieverArg || window;
stage.onLongTouch = function(e) {
if (stage.timer) clearTimeout(stage.timer);
stage.inhold = true;
if (callbacks.touchholdstart) callbacks.touchholdstart.call(reciever, e);
};
stage.getContent().addEventListener('touchstart', function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
calcTouchEventData(e);
stage.timer = setTimeout(function() {
stage.onLongTouch(e);
}, touchduration);
if (callbacks.touchstart) callbacks.touchholdstart.call(reciever, e);
});
stage.getContent().addEventListener('touchmove', function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
if (stage.timer) clearTimeout(stage.timer);
if (stage.inhold) {
if (callbacks.touchholdmove) callbacks.touchholdmove.call(reciever, e);
} else {
if (callbacks.touchmove) callbacks.touchmove.call(reciever, e);
}
});
stage.getContent().addEventListener('touchend', function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
if (stage.timer) clearTimeout(stage.timer);
if (stage.inhold) {
if (callbacks.touchholdend) callbacks.touchholdend.call(reciever, e);
} else {
if (callbacks.touchend) callbacks.touchend.call(reciever, e);
}
stage.inhold = false;
});
}
later I call registerStageGestures on a few elements (represented by 'View' objects) in the same page. Something like:
function View() {
var self=this;
..
function InitView() {
...
registerStageGestures(kineticStage, {
touchstart: function(e) {
// do something
},
touchmove: function(e) {
// do something
},
touchendunction(e) {
// do something
},
touchholdstart: function(e) {
// do something
},
touchholdmove: function(e) {
// do something
},
touchholdend: function(e) {
// do something
},
}, self);
Everything works fine, however I'm left wondering about two things in the implementation of registerStageGestures:
First, is it necessary to make inhold, timer and onLongTouch members of the stage ? or will closures make everything works well if they are local vars in registerStageGestures ?
Second, is it necessary to call the callbacks with '.call(receiver,' syntax ? I'm doing this to make sure the callback code will run in the context of the View but I'm not sure if it's needed ?
any input is much appreciated
Thanks!

First, is it necessary to make inhold, timer and onLongTouch members
of the stage ? or will closures make everything works well if they are
local vars in registerStageGestures ?
As far as registerStageGestures() is concerned, var inhold, var timer and function onLongTouch(e) {...}. would suffice. The mechanism by which an inner function has automatic access to its outer function's members is known as "closure". You would only need to set stage.inhold, stage.timer and stage.onLongTouch if some other piece of code needs access to these settings as properties of stage.
Second, is it necessary to call the callbacks with '.call(receiver,'
syntax ? I'm doing this to make sure the callback code will run in the
context of the View but I'm not sure if it's needed ?
Possibly, depending on how those callbacks are written. .call() and .apply() are sometimes used when calling functions that use this internally. In both cases, the first parameter passed defines the object to be interpreted as this. Thus, javascript gives you the means of defining general purpose methods with no a priori assumption about the object to which those methods will apply when called. Similarly, you can call a method of an object in such a way that it acts on another object.
EDIT:
For completeness, please note that even in the absence of this in a function, .apply() can be very useful as it allows multiple parameters to be specified as elements of a single array, eg the ubiquitous jQuery.when.apply(null, arrayOfPromises)...

There are some simple answers, here.
First, closure:
Closure basically says that whatever is defined inside of a function, has access to the rest of that function's contents.
And all of those contents are guaranteed to stay alive (out of the trash), until there are no more objects left, which ere created inside.
A simple test:
var testClosure = function () {
var name = "Bob",
recallName = function () { return name; };
return { getName : recallName };
};
var test = testClosure();
console.log(test.getName()); // Bob
So anything that was created inside can be accessed by any function which was also created inside (or created inside of a function created in a function[, ...], inside).
var closure_2x = function () {
var name = "Bob",
innerScope = function () {
console.log(name);
return function () {
console.log("Still " + name);
}
};
return innerScope;
};
var inner_func = closure_2x();
var even_deeper = inner_func(); // "Bob"
even_deeper(); // "Still Bob"
This applies not only to variables/objects/functions created inside, but also to function arguments passed inside.
The arguments have no access to the inner-workings(unless passed to methods/callbacks), but the inner-workings will remember the arguments.
So as long as your functions are being created in the same scope as your values (or a child-scope), there's access.
.call is trickier.
You know what it does (replaces this inside of the function with the object you pass it)...
...but why and when, in this case are harder.
var Person = function (name, age) {
this.age = age;
this.getAge = function () {
return this.age;
};
};
var bob = new Person("Bob", 32);
This looks pretty normal.
Honestly, this could look a lot like Java or C# with a couple of tweaks.
bob.getAge(); // 32
Works like Java or C#, too.
doSomething.then(bob.getAge);
? Buh ?
We've now passed Bob's method into a function, as a function, all by itself.
var doug = { age : 28 };
doug.getAge = bob.getAge;
Now we've given doug a reference to directly use bobs methid -- not a copy, but a pointer to the actual method.
doug.getAge(); // 28
Well, that's odd.
What about what came out of passing it in as a callback?
var test = bob.getAge;
test(); // undefined
The reason for this, is, as you said, about context...
But the specific reason is because this inside of a function in JS isn't pre-compiled, or stored...
this is worked out on the fly, every time the function is called.
If you call
obj.method();
this === obj;
If you call
a.b.c.d();
this === a.b.c;
If you call
var test = bob.getAge;
test();
...?
this is equal to window.
In "strict mode" this doesn't happen (you get errors really quickly).
test.call(bob); //32
Balance restored!
Mostly...
There are still a few catches.
var outerScope = function () {
console.log(this.age);
var inner = function () {
console.log("Still " + this.age);
};
inner();
};
outerScope.call(bob);
// "32"
// "Still undefined"
This makes sense, when you think about it...
We know that if a function figures out this at the moment it's called -- scope has nothing to do with it...
...and we didn't add inner to an object...
this.inner = inner;
this.inner();
would have worked just fine (but now you just messed with an external object)...
So inner saw this as window.
The solution would either be to use .call, or .apply, or to use function-scoping and/or closure
var person = this,
inner = function () { console.log(person.age); };
The rabbit hole goes deeper, but my phone is dying...

How can rewrite function instead of reference?

var BigObject = (function() {
function deepCalculate(a, b, c) {
return a + b + c;
}
function calculate(x) {
deepCalculate(x, x, x);
}
return {
calculate: calculate,
api: {
deepCalculate: deepCalculate
}
}
})();
This is basic self executing function with private function I keep in api.
The problem I have is that now I can't overwrite deepCalculate from the outside of the function.
How is that a problem? I use Jasmine and want to test if function was called. For example:
spyOn(BigObject, 'calculate').andCallThrough();
expect(BigObject.api.deepCalculate).toHaveBeenCalled();
fails. However as I debug, I am sure that Jasmine binds BigObject.api.deepCalculate as a spy, however from the inside calculate still calls original deepCalculate function and not the spy.
I would like to know how can I overwrite the function and not just a reference for it.

The simple answer would be:
(function ()
{
var overWriteMe = function(foo)
{
return foo++;
},
overWrite = function(newFunc)
{
for (var p io returnVal)
{
if (returnVal[p] === overWriteMe)
{//update references
returnVal[p] = newFunc;
break;
}
}
overWriteMe = newFunc;//overwrite closure reference
},
returnVal = {
overWrite: overWrite,
myFunc: overWriteMe
};
}());
Though I must say that, I'd seriously think about alternative ways to acchieve whatever it is you're trying to do. A closure, IMO, should be treated as a whole. Replacing parts of it willy-nilly will soon prove to be a nightmare: you don't know what the closure function will be at any given point in time, where it was changed, what the previous state was, and why it was changed.
A temporary sollution might just be this:
var foo = (function()
{
var calc = function(x, callback)
{
callback = callback || defaultCall;
return callback.apply(this, [x]);
},
defaultCall(a)
{
return a*a+1;
},
return {calc: calc};
}());
foo(2);//returns 5
foo(2,function(x){ return --x;});//returns 1
foo(2);//returns 5 again
IMO, this is a lot safer, as it allows you to choose a different "internal" function to be used once, without changing the core behaviour of the code.

Javascript Initialization Closure

I'm trying to create javascript closure that will tell me if the function has already been run:
This is what I have so far:
function do()
{
var isInitialized = function()
{
var init = false;
if (init == false)
{
init = true;
return false;
}
return init;
}
if (!isInitialized())
{
// do stuff
}
}
My function isInitialized always evaluates to true. I'm like 90% sure I'm not setting the internal variable correctly. How do I fix my code?

First of all, you can't use do as your function name as that's a keyword.
Secondly, you can attach properties right to your function so you don't need a closure or anything like this:
function f() {
if(f.initialized)
return;
f.initialized = true;
console.log('Doing things.');
}
f();
f();
That will give you just one "Doing things." in the console.
Demo (run with your JavaScript console open): http://jsfiddle.net/ambiguous/QK27D/

Functions are objects in JavaScript so they can be assigned properties which provides a convenient mechanism for achieving what you want to do:
function doit() {
if (typeof doit.isInitialized === "undefined") {
doit.isInitialized = true;
// do stuff
}
}

Try this:
function fn(){
if (typeof fn.hasrun!='undefined'){return;}
fn.hasrun=true;
// do stuff
}

Every time you call isinitialized, it'll reset all the variables to default, so init will ALWAYS start out false. The values set afterwards are NOT carried over to the next time isInitialiazed is called.
What you want is a 'static' variable, which JS doesn't directly support, but can be simulated as per this answer: Static variables in JavaScript

Javascript: Extend a Function

The main reason why I want it is that I want to extend my initialize function.
Something like this:
// main.js
window.onload = init();
function init(){
doSomething();
}
// extend.js
function extends init(){
doSomethingHereToo();
}
So I want to extend a function like I extend a class in PHP.
And I would like to extend it from other files too, so for example I have the original init function in main.js and the extended function in extended.js.

With a wider view of what you're actually trying to do and the context in which you're doing it, I'm sure we could give you a better answer than the literal answer to your question.
But here's a literal answer:
If you're assigning these functions to some property somewhere, you can wrap the original function and put your replacement on the property instead:
// Original code in main.js
var theProperty = init;
function init(){
doSomething();
}
// Extending it by replacing and wrapping, in extended.js
theProperty = (function(old) {
function extendsInit() {
old();
doSomething();
}
return extendsInit;
})(theProperty);
If your functions aren't already on an object, you'd probably want to put them there to facilitate the above. For instance:
// In main.js
var MyLibrary = {
init: function init() {
}
};
// In extended.js
(function() {
var oldInit = MyLibrary.init;
MyLibrary.init = extendedInit;
function extendedInit() {
oldInit.call(MyLibrary); // Use #call in case `init` uses `this`
doSomething();
}
})();
But there are better ways to do that. Like for instance, providing a means of registering init functions.
// In main.js
var MyLibrary = (function() {
var initFunctions = [];
return {
init: function init() {
var fns = initFunctions;
initFunctions = undefined;
for (var index = 0; index < fns.length; ++index) {
try { fns[index](); } catch (e) { }
}
},
addInitFunction: function addInitFunction(fn) {
if (initFunctions) {
// Init hasn't run yet, remember it
initFunctions.push(fn);
} else {
// `init` has already run, call it almost immediately
// but *asynchronously* (so the caller never sees the
// call synchronously)
setTimeout(fn, 0);
}
}
};
})();
Here in 2020 (or really any time after ~2016), that can be written a bit more compactly:
// In main.js
const MyLibrary = (() => {
let initFunctions = [];
return {
init() {
const fns = initFunctions;
initFunctions = undefined;
for (const fn of fns) {
try { fn(); } catch (e) { }
}
},
addInitFunction(fn) {
if (initFunctions) {
// Init hasn't run yet, remember it
initFunctions.push(fn);
} else {
// `init` has already run, call it almost immediately
// but *asynchronously* (so the caller never sees the
// call synchronously)
setTimeout(fn, 0);
// Or: `Promise.resolve().then(() => fn());`
// (Not `.then(fn)` just to avoid passing it an argument)
}
}
};
})();

There are several ways to go about this, it depends what your purpose is, if you just want to execute the function as well and in the same context, you can use .apply():
function init(){
doSomething();
}
function myFunc(){
init.apply(this, arguments);
doSomethingHereToo();
}
If you want to replace it with a newer init, it'd look like this:
function init(){
doSomething();
}
//anytime later
var old_init = init;
init = function() {
old_init.apply(this, arguments);
doSomethingHereToo();
};

The other methods are great but they don't preserve any prototype functions attached to init. To get around that you can do the following (inspired by the post from Nick Craver).
(function () {
var old_prototype = init.prototype;
var old_init = init;
init = function () {
old_init.apply(this, arguments);
// Do something extra
};
init.prototype = old_prototype;
}) ();

Another option could be:
var initial = function() {
console.log( 'initial function!' );
}
var iWantToExecuteThisOneToo = function () {
console.log( 'the other function that i wanted to execute!' );
}
function extendFunction( oldOne, newOne ) {
return (function() {
oldOne();
newOne();
})();
}
var extendedFunction = extendFunction( initial, iWantToExecuteThisOneToo );

2017+ solution
The idea of function extensions comes from functional paradigm, which is natively supported since ES6:
function init(){
doSomething();
}
// extend.js
init = (f => u => { f(u)
doSomethingHereToo();
})(init);
init();
As per #TJCrowder's concern about stack dump, the browsers handle the situation much better today. If you save this code into test.html and run it, you get
test.html:3 Uncaught ReferenceError: doSomething is not defined
at init (test.html:3)
at test.html:8
at test.html:12
Line 12: the init call, Line 8: the init extension, Line 3: the undefined doSomething() call.
Note: Much respect to veteran T.J. Crowder, who kindly answered my question many years ago, when I was a newbie. After the years, I still remember the respectfull attitude and I try to follow the good example.

This is very simple and straight forward. Look at the code. Try to grasp the basic concept behind javascript extension.
First let us extend javascript function.
function Base(props) {
const _props = props
this.getProps = () => _props
// We can make method private by not binding it to this object.
// Hence it is not exposed when we return this.
const privateMethod = () => "do internal stuff"
return this
}
You can extend this function by creating child function in following way
function Child(props) {
const parent = Base(props)
this.getMessage = () => `Message is ${parent.getProps()}`;
// You can remove the line below to extend as in private inheritance,
// not exposing parent function properties and method.
this.prototype = parent
return this
}
Now you can use Child function as follows,
let childObject = Child("Secret Message")
console.log(childObject.getMessage()) // logs "Message is Secret Message"
console.log(childObject.getProps()) // logs "Secret Message"
We can also create Javascript Function by extending Javascript classes, like this.
class BaseClass {
constructor(props) {
this.props = props
// You can remove the line below to make getProps method private.
// As it will not be binded to this, but let it be
this.getProps = this.getProps.bind(this)
}
getProps() {
return this.props
}
}
Let us extend this class with Child function like this,
function Child(props) {
let parent = new BaseClass(props)
const getMessage = () => `Message is ${parent.getProps()}`;
return { ...parent, getMessage} // I have used spread operator.
}
Again you can use Child function as follows to get similar result,
let childObject = Child("Secret Message")
console.log(childObject.getMessage()) // logs "Message is Secret Message"
console.log(childObject.getProps()) // logs "Secret Message"
Javascript is very easy language. We can do almost anything. Happy JavaScripting... Hope I was able to give you an idea to use in your case.

as I understand it, you are trying to fetch the applications connected to the user account. You can do this by making a request on the API, I don't know if discord.js covers this part of the API
endpoint: https://discord.com/api/users/#me/connections
Request type: GET Header:
Authorization: "Beareryou token"
response: [
{...}
]

Use extendFunction.js
init = extendFunction(init, function(args) {
doSomethingHereToo();
});
But in your specific case, it's easier to extend the global onload function:
extendFunction('onload', function(args) {
doSomethingHereToo();
});
I actually really like your question, it's making me think about different use cases.
For javascript events, you really want to add and remove handlers - but for extendFunction, how could you later remove functionality? I could easily add a .revert method to extended functions, so init = init.revert() would return the original function. Obviously this could lead to some pretty bad code, but perhaps it lets you get something done without touching a foreign part of the codebase.