Question

I have the following code in my javascript module, however this requires me to make the functions visible to the outside world.

var mymodule = function() {
    var self = null,
        init = function () { 
            self = this; 
            $('.actionButton').click(function () {
        var worklistId = $(this).data('worklistid'),
            action = $(this).data('action');
        self[action] && self[action](worklistId); //watchout methods marked as not used are used by this invocation
            })
        },
        send = function () {
             // some logic
        },
        finish = function () {
             // some logic
        },
        delete = function () {
             // some logic
        };

    return {
        init: init,
        send: send,
        finish: finish,
        delete: delete
    };
}();

mymodule.init();

So the only thing I want to return in my module is the init function. However when I do this I cant invoke the functions, because the object (self) only contains the init function visible on the outside.

return {
    init: init
};

Is there any solution to invoke my functions like this without making them visible to the outside world? Please no if else statements, because my workflow is bigger then the 3 actions in this example. I want to make my module as closed as possible because this reduces the dependencies.

Update

Here is a updated jsfiddle with one of the proposed solutions, however this is giving me another issue. http://jsfiddle.net/marcofranssen/bU2Ke/

Answer 1

Something like this would work:

var mymodule = function() {
        var self = this;
        init = function () { 

            $('.actionButton').click(function () {
        var worklistId = $(this).data('worklistid'), action = $(this).data('action');
        self[action] && self[action](worklistId); //watchout methods marked as not used are used by this invocation
            })
        }
        self.send = function () {
            console.log('send');
        }
        self.finish = function () {
            console.log('finish');
        }
        self.delete = function (item) {
            console.log('delete');
        };

    return {
        init: init,
    };
}();

mymodule.init();​

Here’s the fiddle:

http://jsfiddle.net/yngvebn/SRqN3/

By setting the self-variable to this, outside the init-function, and attaching the send, finish and delete functions to self, you can use the self[action] syntax from within the init-function