jquery using objects as filters
javascript, jquery
Solution
Extend jQuery with three methods:
jQuery.bindObj(data)
jQuery.unbindObj(data)
$.retrieve(data)
Your code looks like:
$('a').bindObj({blorg: 'shmorg'});
console.log($.retrieve({blorg: 'shmorg'})); // logs live result of $('a');
Full source: http://jsfiddle.net/nUUSV/6/.
The trick to this solution is storing the selectors/identifiers based to the jQuery constructor in one array, and the objects bound to those selectors/identifiers in another array, then using `$.inArray` to get the index of the object upon retrieval and using that index to grab the bound jQuery collection.
Problem
Is there any way to have DOM elements selectable through objects? For example I want to be able to associate objects to DOM elements like so: ``` var obj = { a: 1, b:2 }; $('a').click(function() { this.selectThing = obj }); ``` And later on... ``` $.something(obj); ``` Or even better: ``` $('a|selectThing?=', obj); ``` Something like that. You can see that I want to associate an object to a DOM element in such a way that I can grab the element with the object. I know this can be done with the `filter()` method, my question is if there's a more elegant way that doesn't use `filter()` to do this. EDIT: To clarify, I want to be able to use an object kind of like a selector, so I can do something similar to this `$(obj)` obviously that won't work, but you get the idea (I hope) EDIT #2: I want to be able to do something like this: ``` var obj = { prop: 'prop' }; $('a').bindTo(obj); $.retreive(obj) // should equal $('a') ``` I don't want it to alter `obj` in any way though (`obj` should still be `{prop: 'prop'}` only).