Question

I am trying to create a jquery plugin, and I want have the following options:

1. $.plugin_name(variable)

2. $(selector).plugin_name(variable)

The first case the plugin would not need to be applied to an element ( it could create one for example) the second case the same plugin will do whatever it does on the element/s selected

My question is: How do I specify inside the plugin this:

if (selector is not given) {
  create an element
} else {
  ( for example) insert variable in elements matching the selector
}

Answer 1

You can use jQuery.fn.myPluginName = function().... for plugins that operate on jQuery objects.

For a standalone function in the jQuery namespace, you can just set jQuery.func_name = function()....

An example:

jQuery.fn.erase = function() {
   return this.each(function() {
       jQuery(this).remove();
   });
};

jQuery("body").erase();

jQuery.erase = function(element) {
   jQuery(element).erase();
};

jQuery.erase("body"); // exact same result.