Nested class in javascript, inheritance of private methods.

Question

Hi to all, i'm quite a newbie in javascript, and i'm spending some time trying to create namespaced objects in js.

Now, that's what i'm trying to do:

MainObject = function() {

    var privateVariable = "i'm private";

    var privateMethod = function() {
        // doSomething
    }

    this.publicMethod = function() {
        // doPublicSomething
    }
}

MainObject.prototype.nested = function() {

    this.publicNestedMethod = function() {

        // that's not working at all
        this.privateMethod(privateVariable);

    }
}

MyObject = new MainObject();

MyObject.publicMethod();
MyObject.publicNestedMethod();

I tried to include the nested class inside the first one, but it's not working also if i try:

this.nested = function() {

    var mainObject = this;

    return {
        publicNestedMethod = function() {
            mainObject.privateMethod();             
        }   
    }
}();

Someone can help me please? i'm gonna loose my mind on this.

Phaedra.

Answer 1

What OO system lets you inherit private methods? Part of being private is being unaccessible from other objects.

In JS in particular, "private members" are really just local variables of the function where they are declared. JS doesn't have typical OO notions of "class", "inheritance", "public", and "private", so you can't expect to copy your OOP techniques verbatim from other OOP languages.

Answer 2

Closures are a lexical feature, not a semantic one. If the object is outside the lexical scope of another, it can no longer be "nested" and access the former's local variables. In the code of your nested function/class, there's no such thing as this.privateMethod, because privateMethod is never made to be a property of MainObject. It's simply a local variable inside a function.

There's no such things as "private properties", "private methods" or "private members" in JavaScript. Hell, there's no such thing as a "class". Some people like to emulate private members using local variables as above, but doing so results in cases like this, where the discrepancy between the two concepts comes and bites one in the behind.

To conclude, it is a bad idea to write Java code, with all its OO techniques in JS, just as it is a bad idea to write C code, with all its pointers and unbounded buffers, in C#. Sure, in both cases you can do it, but you would be failing to appreciate and exploit the language's features this way.

And now that I'm done with the rant, you can do something like this to get "namespaced" functions:

MainObject = function() {
    var privateVariable = "I'm private";

    var privateMethod = function() {
        alert('Private');
    }

    this.publicMethod = function() {
        alert('Public');
    }

    this.nested = {
      publicNestedMethod: function() {
        privateMethod();
      }
    };

    // or

    this.nested = (function() {
      var nestedPrivate = 5;

      return {
        publicNestedMethod: function() {
          alert(nestedPrivate);
          privateMethod();
        }
      };
    })();
}

MyObject = new MainObject();

MyObject.publicMethod();
MyObject.nested.publicNestedMethod();​

Answer 3

This is my attempt at - Classical Object Oriented Programming style JavaScript library - http://code.google.com/p/oopsjs/

Answer 4

Using the convention of underscore for "private" methods is a reasonable way to keep things organized.

MainObject = function() {

   this._privateVariable = "i'm private";

   this._privateMethod = function() {
      // doSomething
   }

    this.publicMethod = function() {
      // doPublicSomething
    }

}