basicclass v0.1.0

Basic Class

Bringing OOP to JS. Basic Class is meant to bring ease to creating and extending Classes. See Mozilla's Intro to OOP JS for more details.

Version

0.1.0

License

MIT

Dependencies

• Underscore
• jQuery
• Eventer

Usage

// Just an instance (kinda pointless...)
var myObj = new BasicClass();

// Exending for custom classes
var MyClass = BasicClass.extend({
    // Local fields
    myField : undefined, 
    
    // Extend localization of constructor parameters (See base functionality)
    _availableConfig : BasicClass.prototype._availableConfig.concat(['myField']),
    
    constructor : function(parms) {
        // Constructor code here
        this.myMethod(); // Call local method
        
        // Be sure to call 'super' constructor for base class initialization (See base functionality)
        BasicClass.prototype.constructor.apply(this, arguments);
    },
    
    myMethod : function() {
        // Method code here
        alert(this.myField); // Alert local field
    }
},{
    MY_CONSTANT : "A_CONSTANT_EXAMPLE", // Establish a constant/enum that can be used
    MyStaticMethod : function() { alert('statictastic!'); }
});

MyClass.MyStaticMethod(); // Call a static method
var myObj = new MyClass({myField : 'test'}); // Construct myField as 'test'

// Extend custom class
var EvenBetterClass = MyClass.extend({
    constructor : function(parms) {
        parms.myField = parms.myField + "ing"
        MyClass.prototype.constructor.apply(this, arguments);
    }
});
var myObj = new EvenBetterClass({myField : 'test'});
// Now myField will contain 'testing' upon construction

Base Functionality

Base functionality is mostly handled by the constructor of BasicClass. It is optional to run this constructor and provide your own API to your constructor. This was developed as a easy-button use from noticing patterns of Class development in JS.

Unique ID (this._id)

Upon instantiation a unique identifier is generated in order to keep track of this object, for logging or what have you. It plays into Eventer's internal creation of IDs for listeners. This ID is not used - just provided as a nicety. Also utilizes this._idPrefix, which can be overridden, to prefix the ID with a tag. Commonly used to group or easily identify the type of object/class in logs.

Localization and Object Parameter Constructor API

It's most commonly found that the constructor for JS classes will group parameters into an object that's passed in:

var myObj = new MyClass({ parm1 : 'testing', parm2 : 'some', parm3 : 'stuff'});

Not only does this clean up code for legibility but also satisfies code syntax checkers for excess/long parameter lists.
Also found to be common is to save off or 'localize' parameters being passed. Others may only be used in the constructor and forgotten. Those to be saved can be concatenated to the this._availableConfig array:

var MyClass = BasicClass.extend({
    MyClass.prototype.availableConfig.concat(['parm2'])
});

See next section (Events) for why it's concatenated.
With this Class configuration about, the following would be true:

var myObj = new MyClass({ parm1 : 'testing', parm2 : 'some', parm3 : 'stuff'});
myObj.parm1; // undefined - wasn't stored
myObj.parm2; // 'some' - was stored
myObj.parm3; // undefined - wasn't stored

Events

Eventer is mixed in and allows for initial events to be given. The base constructor will go through and register them.
Also the default _availableConfig will accept events to be passed in with the first parameter object and will be merged with those in this.events.

var MyClass = BasicClass.extend({
    events : {
        'myEvent' : 'myFunc'
    },
    // Method executed when 'myEvent' is triggered
    myFunc : function() {},
    
    // Just another method.. for now!
    anotherFunc : function() {}
});

var myObj = new MyClass({
    events : {
        // Add an event to run anotherFunc method!
        'myOtherEvent' : 'anotherFunc'
    }
});