jQuery plugin design pattern (common practice?) for dealing with private functions [closed]

Answer 1

You might want to take a look at how the jQuery UI Widget Factory is implemented.

The basic approach is like this:

(function($){
    $.fn.myplugin = function(method)
    {
        if (mp[method]) // map $('foo').myplugin('bar', 'baz') to mp.bar('baz')
        {
            return mp[method].apply(this, Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 1));
        }
        else if (typeof method === 'object' || ! method)
        {
            return mp.init.apply(this, arguments); // if called without arguments, init
        }
        else
        {
            $.error('Method ' +  method + ' does not exist on $.myplugin');
        }
    };

    // private methods, internally accessible via this.foo, this.bar
    var foo = function() { … };
    var bar = function() { … };

    var private = { // alternative approach to private methods, accessible via this.private.foo
        foo : function() { … },
        bar : function() { … }
    }

    var mp = { // public methods, externally accessible via $.myplugin('foo', 'bar')
        init : function( options )
        {
            return this.each(function()
            {
                // do init stuff
            }
        },
        foo : function() { … },
        bar : function() { … }
    };
})(jQuery);