Question

Is there a way to get the element inside a function in an object that was set as ‘data’ of an element? If there is none, what are some alternative ways to implement this?

var m = function(options){
     // Some initialization code here
}

m.prototype.doSomething: function() {
    // How do i get the #an_element here?
}

$("#an_element").data('myObject', m);

Answer 1

The easiest way to do that it’s to give that element to constructor, you can check it on jsfiddle.

var m = function(options){
     // Some initialization code here
    $.extend(this, options);
}

m.prototype.doSomething= function() {
    // How do i get the #an_element here?
    var _this=this;
    if(_this.el && _this.el.length){
        _this.el.css({color:"black"}); 
    }
}
$(function(){
    var $el=$("#an_element");
    $el.data('myobject', new m({el:$el}));
    $el.click(function(){
        var nn=$(this).data("myobject");
        nn.doSomething();
        return false;
    });
});

The mistake what you did it’s that you trying to put into data the function itself, but you have to create a object before like this: $("#an_element").data('myObject', new m());