Question

I have a main.js file in my Firefox add-on which requires a class which is defined in another file and then adds a toolbar item.

// lib/main.js

var widgets = require('widgets'),
    disabler = require('./disabler');

var toolbarOptions = {
  id: 'the-id',
  label: 'The Widget',
  contentURL: self.data.url('icon-16.png')
};

// Add the toolbar item to the browser. Because this is a CommonJS environment,
// this reference to the toolbar is locally scoped.
var toolbar = widgets.Widget(toolbarOptions);

What I would like to do is to change the contentURL of the toolbar from within the disabler file. However, I don’t have access to the toolbar variable in that file.

How can I get access to toolbar from disabler?

By the way, I’m using version 1.10 of the add-on SDK.

Answer 1

Each module runs in its own context. If you want another module to have the variable then you should give that variable to it explicitly. For example, in main.js:

var toolbar = widgets.Widget(...);
disabler.setToolbar(toolbar);

And in disabler.js:

var toolbar = null;
exports.setToolbar = function(tb)
{
  toolbar = tb;
};

...

doSomething(toolbar);