'this' is magic, and can be changed by the calling program. jQuery
changes it to the target element in event handlers. If you want to use
the original object, you have to save a reference to it somewhere. In
your example, you are already saving that reference as 'myObject', so
the following would work:
var myObject = {
o : 'hello',
init : function() {
alert(myObject.o); //'myObject' doesn't change
}
}
More commonly this is a problem if you're creating multiple instances
of an object; then you have to create a variable inside it that
remembers what 'this' is supposed to be:
var myClass = function() {
me = this;
me.o = 'hello';
me.init = function() {
alert(me.o); //'me' doesn't change
}
}
myObject = new myClass();
The function assigned to init plus the reference to a variable defined
outside of it ('me') is called a closure. You'll see people use 'self
= this' or '$this = $(this)' for this purpose frequently.
Danny
On Dec 3, 5:10 pm, sawmac <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I'm trying to wrap my head around objects and object literals. I can't
> seem to figure out how to access the object within one of its methods,
> when the method is triggered by an event. In other words the context
> for 'this' shifts when the method is invoked by a handler. See simple
> example below:
>
> $(document).ready(function () {
>
> var myObject = {
> o : 'hello',
> init : function() {
> alert(this.o); //'this' changes
> }
>
> }
>
> myObject.init(); // 'hello'
> $(document).click(myObject.init); //'undefined'
>
> });
>
> When the click event calls the init() method, this in alert(this.o)
> changes to the document. Is there a way to make 'this.o' always refer
> to the object?
>
> thanks for any help
>
> --dave
