Dynamic Object Initialization In JavaScript (just like PHP Reflection allows)?

Question

Hi All,

Using Reflection in PHP I can dynamically create a object like so

$target = 'core_domain_Person';
$reflect = new ReflectionClass($target);
$obj = $reflect->newInstance();

I would like to replicate this same concept in JavaScript is there a way to do this out of the box? Or is there a way to replicate what Reflection is doing?

Answer 1

javascript has function eval. Read more on it here

http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/jsref_eval.asp

Answer 2

I don't think that there is such a thing like a Reflection API in JavaScript. But in JavaScript there are no classes, anyway. Prototypes / functions are (first-class) objects like anything else. Might be annoying, but might also be very useful.

function create_instance(prototypeName) {
    eval('return new ' + prototypeName + '()');

Didn't test this, though.

Answer 3

Your comment states:

So I can create "view controller" objects based on the requested view. I don't know until runtime what the view is that is being requested.

I suggest keeping all views in a views object like so:

var views = {
    Foo: function() {},
    Bar: function() {},
    Dah: function() {}
};

Then, using bracket notation, you can access any view constructor:

var viewName = 'Foo';
var instanceOfView = new views[viewName];