I feel like this must have been asked, but I'm unable to find it through my searches.
Here's a complete example of the issue that's confusing me:
<html><head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function($){
$.fn.testPlugin = function(options){
settings = $.extend({val : "default"}, options);
return this.each(function(){
$(this).click(function(e){
e.preventDefault();
console.log(settings.val);
});
});
}
})(jQuery);
$(document).ready(function(){
$('a#a1').testPlugin();
$('a#a2').testPlugin({val : 'new val'});
});
</script>
</head><body>
<a href="#" id="a1">A1</a>
<a href="#" id="a2">A2</a>
</body>
</html>
Clicking on either link will log "new val" to your firebug console. You can probably imagine that I want the first link to keep the default settings, and the second to have my overwritten settings. There must be a standard pattern for achieving this for a plugin?