a basic javascript class and instance using jquery "$(this)" for XML parser

Question

I am (slowly) writing an XML parser for some "site definition" files that will drive a website. Many of the elements will be parsed in the same manner and I won't necessarily need to keep the values for each.

The XML

The parser so far

My question is actually pretty simple: How can I use jquery manipulators in an class function? How can I pass $(this)? I know that it sometimes refers to a DOM object and sometimes the jQuery object, but am a bit hazy.

For my function:

function parseXML(xml) {
 $("book, site", xml).children().each(function() {
  var label = $(this).get(0).tagName;
  var text = $(this).text();
  var key = toCamelCase(label);
  if ((key in siteData) && (text != -1)){
  if (isArray(siteData[key]))
  {   
   $(this).children().each(function (){
    var childLabel = $(this).get(0).tagName;
    var childText = $(this).text();
    var childKey = toCamelCase(childLabel);
    if(isArray(siteData[key][childKey]))
    {
      siteData[key][childKey].push(childText);  
    }
    else {
     siteData[key].push(childText);
    }
   });  
  }
  else 
  {
   siteData[key] = text;
   }
  };
 }); 
 }
 });

I want to place

var label = $(this).get(0).tagName; var text = $(this).text(); var key = toCamelCase(label);

in a class, so I can do something like

var child = new Element(); and var subchild = new Element();

and then use child.label , child.text and child.key... But again, not sure how to use the jquery methods with these... I have more nodes to process and I don't want to keep doing stuff like var label = $(this).get(0).tagName; and then var childLabel = $(this).get(0).tagName;

Thanks.

Answer 1

var app = {};
app.element = function(data) {
    return function() {
    var _text = data.get(0).tagName, _label= data.text(), _key = toCamelCase(_label);
        var that = {};
        that.label = function() {
            return _label;
        }
        that.text = function() {
            return _text;
        }
        that.key = function() {
            return _key;
        }
        return that;
    }();
};
app.instanceA = app.element($(this));
document.writeln(app.instanceA.label());

Ok so this works but, I'm not sure if it's the best way.