jquery reusable component?

Question

I have a bunch of methods that make use of jquery to basically generate a list view. The problem is I need to use this thing multiple times, so I need to make it reusable.

1. Should I just write a jquery plugin?
2. Should I write a non-jquery plugin Js Object (like a class in non-prototype languages) and just create instances as I need?

The primary concern is how to handle the case where I need to modify one of the methods that make up my plugin. So my reusable component has to be modifyable. I know how to do it with approach 2, not sure how to do it with approach 1.

edit -- to give an idea of what this is: its basically a list view plugin. So, it takes an xhr response, parses the xml/json inside, and adds a list of divs to a containing div. I was surprised I couldn't find an existing plugin to do this. Other js frameworks have this.

The reason it needs to be extensible is, it might have to deal with xml/json in the response -- so the handling of response is different. It might have to deal with outputting different templates for each response. etc...

Answer 1

Just write a jQuery plugin. Your description is on the vague side, but I'd say that if you need to modify one of the methods in the plugin - and I'm not sure what degree of flexibility you need - you can just pass in a function that contains whatever specific logic, into your plugin's config object.

Answer 2

jQuery is basically a java script library, so writing you own library, or javascript file containing you user defined functions instead of a jQuery plug-in is not a sin. If there is no reason to make a plug-in, go ahead with option 2.

Answer 3

I found it's always better to write a plugin that takes a hash as an argument. You can then use the old callback ||= false; if( callback ) callback(); trick for adding funcionality to your plugin initializer.

Don't forget to be careful with the this and scope stuff. If in confusion, this guide always come handy.

Answer 4

If the functionality involves modifying a set of nodes that vary between calls then definitely create a jQuery plugin.