how to access parent object properties

kaos_frack · February 7th, 2007, 03:39 AM

I have nested objects and a child object needs to access parent object's properties and/or methods. How do I accomplish that?
I've seen somewhere '__parent__' property of objects that point to the parent object, but it's not working?

Thanks

Dj Kat · February 11th, 2007, 09:00 PM

Hi,

Are you talking about javascript DOM?
What exactly are you trying to access you can access and manipulate html for example

Code:

<script>
function changeDivContent()
{
document.getById['myDiv'].innerHTML="new text";
}
</script>
<div id="myDiv">
   this you can change
</div>
<button onClick="changeDivContent()"></button>

with this code you will change the text inside the div

Is this what you are trying to do? methods you cant acces with javascript.

Post your code to show what you mean.
__________________________________________________ ________
I am DJ Kat...that's my name. Its a D and a J and a Kat with a K.

kaos_frack · February 12th, 2007, 02:27 AM

Hi Dj Kat,

I'm not about DOM elements
I have create user defined objects:

Code:

var Garage = {
   location: "2920 6th Ave",
   car1: {
      color: "red",
      sayColor: function() {
         alert(this.color);
      },
      getGarage: function() {
         return [parent].name;
      }
   }
};

In the above code how can car1 access Garage's location property?
__parent___ property does not work on IE

kaos_frack · February 17th, 2007, 09:52 AM

I've found solution! Here's the code:

Code:

Object.prototype.addChild = function(property, child) {
   child._parent = this;
   this[property] = child;
   return;
};

You shoud enter the above code before any other code, then you should add a child object in this way:

Code:

garage.addChild("mycar", new car())
// from now on 'mycar' object inside 'garage' object will have a property
// '_parent' that points to the 'garage' object

danforemanpike · July 31st, 2007, 04:31 AM

Thanks for the code kaos_frack. Below is a simple modification that allows the parent's child object be an array of objects, with each object in the array having access to the parent:

Object.prototype.addChildArray = function(property, childArray) {
   for(var i=0;i<childArray.length;++i){
     childArray[i]._parent = this;
   }
   this[property] = childArray;
   return;
};

Dan@FP