I've been doing a lot of work, lately, with JavaScript inheritance - namely for my work-in-progress JavaScript book - and in doing so have examined a number of different JavaScript classical-inheritance-simulating techniques. Out of all the ones that I've looked at I think my favorites were the implementations employed by base2 and Prototype.
I wanted to go about extracting the soul of these techniques into a simple, re-usable, form that could be easily understood and didn't have any dependencies. Additionally I wanted the result to be simple and highly usable. Here's an example of what you can do with it:
init: function (isDancing ) {
this. dancing = isDancing;
},
dance: function ( ) {
return this. dancing;
}
} );
var Ninja = Person.extend({
init: function(){
this._super( false );
},
dance: function(){
// Call the inherited version of dance()
return this._super();
},
swingSword: function(){
return true;
}
});
var p = new Person(true);
p.dance(); // => true
var n = new Ninja();
n.dance(); // => false
n.swingSword(); // => true
// Should all be true
p instanceof Person && p instanceof Class &&
n instanceof Ninja && n instanceof Person && n instanceof Class
A couple things to note about this implementation:
- Creating a constructor had to be simple (in this case simply providing an init method does the trick).
- In order to create a new 'class' you must extend (sub-class) an existing class.
- All of the 'classes' inherit from a single ancestor: Class. Therefore if you want to create a brand new class it must be a sub-class of Class.
- And the most challenging one: Access to overridden methods had to be provided (with their context properly set). You can see this with the use of
this._super()
, above, calling the originalinit()
anddance()
methods of thePerson
super-class.
I'm pleased with the result: It helps to enforce the notion of 'classes' as a structure, maintains simple inheritance, and allows for the super method calling.
Simple Class Creation and Inheritance
And here's the implementation (reasonably sized and commented well) - clocking in at around 25 lines. Feedback is welcome and appreciated.
* By John Resig http://ejohn.org/
* MIT Licensed.
*/
// Inspired by base2 and Prototype
( function ( ) {
var initializing = false, fnTest = /xyz/.test(function(){xyz;}) ? /\b_super\b/ : /.*/;
// The base Class implementation (does nothing)
this.Class = function(){};
// Create a new Class that inherits from this class
Class.extend = function(prop) {
var _super = this.prototype;
// Instantiate a base class (but only create the instance,
// don't run the init constructor)
initializing = true;
var prototype = new this();
initializing = false;
// Copy the properties over onto the new prototype
for (var name in prop) {
// Check if we're overwriting an existing function
prototype[name] = typeof prop[name] == "function" &&
typeof _super[name] == "function" && fnTest.test(prop[name]) ?
(function(name, fn){
return function() {
var tmp = this._super;
// Add a new ._super() method that is the same method
// but on the super-class
this._super = _super[name];
// The method only need to be bound temporarily, so we
// remove it when we're done executing
var ret = fn.apply(this, arguments);
this._super = tmp;
return ret;
};
})(name, prop[name]) :
prop[name];
}
// The dummy class constructor
function Class() {
// All construction is actually done in the init method
if ( !initializing && this.init )
this.init.apply(this, arguments);
}
// Populate our constructed prototype object
Class.prototype = prototype;
// Enforce the constructor to be what we expect
Class.prototype.constructor = Class;
// And make this class extendable
Class.extend = arguments.callee;
return Class;
};
})();
In my opinion the two trickiest parts are the "initializing/don't call init" and "create _super method" portions. I want to cover those briefly so that you will have a good understanding of what's being achieved in this method.
Initialization
In order to simulate inheritance with a function prototype we use the traditional technique of creating an instance of the super-class function and assigning it to the prototype. Without using the above it would look something like this:
function Ninja ( ) { }
Ninja. prototype = new Person ( );
// Allows for instanceof to work:
( new Ninja ( ) ) instanceof Person
What's challenging about this, though, is that all we really want is the benefits of 'instanceof', not the whole cost of instantiating a Person object and running its constructor. To counteract this we have a variable in our code, initializing
, that is set to true whenever we want to instantiate a class with the sole purpose of using it for a prototype.
Thus when it comes time to actually construct the function we make sure that we're not in an initialization mode and run the init method accordingly:
this. init. apply ( this, arguments );
What's especially important about this is that the init method could be running all sorts of costly startup code (connecting to a server, creating DOM elements, who knows) so circumventing this ends up working quite well.
Super Method
When you're doing inheritance, creating a class that inherits functionality from a super-class, a frequent desire is the ability to access a method that you've overridden. The final result, in this particular implementation, is a new temporary method (._super
) which is only accessible from within a sub-classes' method, referencing the super-classes' associated method.
For example, if you wanted to call a super-classes' constructor you could do that with this technique.
init: function (isDancing ) {
this. dancing = isDancing;
}
} );
var Ninja = Person.extend({
init: function(){
this._super( false );
}
});
var p = new Person(true);
p.dancing; // => true
var n = new Ninja();
n.dancing; // => false
Implementing this functionality is a multi-step process. To start, note the object literal that we're using to extend an existing class (such as the one being passed in to Person.extend
) needs to be merged on to the base new Person
instance (the construction of which was described previously). During this merge we do a simple check: Is the property that we're attempting merge a function and is what we're replacing also a function? If that's the case then we need to go about creating a way for our super method to work.
Note that we create an anonymous closure (which returns a function) that will encapsulate the new super-enhanced method. To start we need to be a good citizen and save a reference to the old this._super
(disregarding if it actually exists) and restore it after we're done. This will help for the case where a variable with the same name already exists (don't want to accidentally blow it away).
Next we create the new _super
method, which is just a reference to the method that exists on the super-class' prototype. Thankfully we don't have to make any additional changes, or re-scoping, here as the context of the function will be set automatically when it's a property of our object (this
will refer to our instance as opposed to the super-class').
Finally we call our original method, it does its work (possibly making use of _super
as well) after which we restore _super
to its original state and return from the function.
Now there's a number of ways in which a similar result, to the above, could be achieved (I've seen implementations that have bound the super method to the method itself, accessible from arguments.callee
) but I feel that this technique provides the best mix of usability and simplicity.
I'll be covering a lot more of the nitty-gritty behind the JavaScript prototype system in my completed work but I just wanted to get this Class implementation out there to get everyone trying it out and playing with it. I think there's a lot to be said for simplistic code (easier to learn, easier to extend, less to download) so I think this implementation is a good place to start and learn the fundamentals of JavaScript class construction and inheritance.
This topic will be discussed, in depth, in my work-in-progress book: Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja. To be released Fall 2008.