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: 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.

Overriding a JavaScript function while referencing the original

I have a function, a(), that I want to override, but also have the original a() be performed in an order depending on the context. For example, sometimes when I'm generating a page I'll want to override like this:
function a() {
new_code();
original_a();
}
and sometimes like this:
function a() {
original_a();
other_new_code();
}
How do I get that original_a() from within the over-riding a()? Is it even possible?
Please don't suggest alternatives to over-riding in this way, I know of many. I'm asking about this way specifically.

You could do something like this:
var a = (function() {
var original_a = a;
if (condition) {
return function() {
new_code();
original_a();
}
} else {
return function() {
original_a();
other_new_code();
}
}
})();
Declaring original_a inside an anonymous function keeps it from cluttering the global namespace, but it's available in the inner functions.
Like Nerdmaster mentioned in the comments, be sure to include the () at the end. You want to call the outer function and store the result (one of the two inner functions) in a, not store the outer function itself in a.

The Proxy pattern might help you:
(function() {
// log all calls to setArray
var proxied = jQuery.fn.setArray;
jQuery.fn.setArray = function() {
console.log( this, arguments );
return proxied.apply( this, arguments );
};
})();
The above wraps its code in a function to hide the "proxied"-variable. It saves jQuery's setArray-method in a closure and overwrites it. The proxy then logs all calls to the method and delegates the call to the original. Using apply(this, arguments) guarantees that the caller won't be able to notice the difference between the original and the proxied method.

Thanks guys the proxy pattern really helped.....Actually I wanted to call a global function foo..
In certain pages i need do to some checks. So I did the following.
//Saving the original func
var org_foo = window.foo;
//Assigning proxy fucnc
window.foo = function(args){
//Performing checks
if(checkCondition(args)){
//Calling original funcs
org_foo(args);
}
};
Thnx this really helped me out

You can override a function using a construct like:
function override(f, g) {
return function() {
return g(f);
};
}
For example:
a = override(a, function(original_a) {
if (condition) { new_code(); original_a(); }
else { original_a(); other_new_code(); }
});
Edit: Fixed a typo.

Passing arbitrary arguments:
a = override(a, function(original_a) {
if (condition) { new_code(); original_a.apply(this, arguments) ; }
else { original_a.apply(this, arguments); other_new_code(); }
});

The answer that #Matthew Crumley provides is making use of the immediately invoked function expressions, to close the older 'a' function into the execution context of the returned function. I think this was the best answer, but personally, I would prefer passing the function 'a' as an argument to IIFE. I think it is more understandable.
var a = (function(original_a) {
if (condition) {
return function() {
new_code();
original_a();
}
} else {
return function() {
original_a();
other_new_code();
}
}
})(a);

The examples above don't correctly apply this or pass arguments correctly to the function override. Underscore _.wrap() wraps existing functions, applies this and passes arguments correctly. See: http://underscorejs.org/#wrap

In my opinion the top answers are not readable/maintainable, and the other answers do not properly bind context. Here's a readable solution using ES6 syntax to solve both these problems.
const orginial = someObject.foo;
someObject.foo = function() {
if (condition) orginial.bind(this)(...arguments);
};

I had some code written by someone else and wanted to add a line to a function which i could not find in the code. So as a workaround I wanted to override it.
None of the solutions worked for me though.
Here is what worked in my case:
if (typeof originalFunction === "undefined") {
originalFunction = targetFunction;
targetFunction = function(x, y) {
//Your code
originalFunction(a, b);
//Your Code
};
}

I've created a small helper for a similar scenario because I often needed to override functions from several libraries. This helper accepts a "namespace" (the function container), the function name, and the overriding function. It will replace the original function in the referred namespace with the new one.
The new function accepts the original function as the first argument, and the original functions arguments as the rest. It will preserve the context everytime. It supports void and non-void functions as well.
function overrideFunction(namespace, baseFuncName, func) {
var originalFn = namespace[baseFuncName];
namespace[baseFuncName] = function () {
return func.apply(this, [originalFn.bind(this)].concat(Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 0)));
};
}
Usage for example with Bootstrap:
overrideFunction($.fn.popover.Constructor.prototype, 'leave', function(baseFn, obj) {
// ... do stuff before base call
baseFn(obj);
// ... do stuff after base call
});
I didn't create any performance tests though. It can possibly add some unwanted overhead which can or cannot be a big deal, depending on scenarios.

So my answer ended up being a solution that allows me to use the _this variable pointing to the original object.
I create a new instance of a "Square" however I hated the way the "Square" generated it's size. I thought it should follow my specific needs. However in order to do so I needed the square to have an updated "GetSize" function with the internals of that function calling other functions already existing in the square such as this.height, this.GetVolume(). But in order to do so I needed to do this without any crazy hacks. So here is my solution.
Some other Object initializer or helper function.
this.viewer = new Autodesk.Viewing.Private.GuiViewer3D(
this.viewerContainer)
var viewer = this.viewer;
viewer.updateToolbarButtons = this.updateToolbarButtons(viewer);
Function in the other object.
updateToolbarButtons = function(viewer) {
var _viewer = viewer;
return function(width, height){
blah blah black sheep I can refer to this.anything();
}
};

Not sure if it'll work in all circumstances, but in our case, we were trying to override the describe function in Jest so that we can parse the name and skip the whole describe block if it met some criteria.
Here's what worked for us:
function describe( name, callback ) {
if ( name.includes( "skip" ) )
return this.describe.skip( name, callback );
else
return this.describe( name, callback );
}
Two things that are critical here:
We don't use an arrow function () =>.
Arrow functions change the reference to this and we need that to be the file's this.
The use of this.describe and this.describe.skip instead of just describe and describe.skip.
Again, not sure it's of value to anybody but we originally tried to get away with Matthew Crumley's excellent answer but needed to make our method a function and accept params in order to parse them in the conditional.