Public functions from within a jQuery plugin

Question

I love the jQuery plugin architecture, however, I find it frustrating (probably due to a lack of understanding on my part) when I want to retain a reference to the plugin in

Answer 1

Most of the jQuery plugins that I see trying to accomplish this will use an anonymous scope and closures to reference functions and variables unique to that instance. For example, using the following pattern:

;(function ($) {
    // your code
})(jQuery);

Between the beginning and end of the module, you can declare any functions you want. You won't pollute the global namespace and you can retain access to local variables through closures, that could solve a lot of your problems. Also, don't be afraid to use the $.data functions.