Setting / Getting Property Values from within JQuery Plugin

Greetings.

I am trying to modify Shawn Mayzes JQuery Google Maps plugin to support retrieving a "current" latlng property.

Shawn's plugin and examples can be found here: http://www.mayzes.org/googlemaps.jquery.examples.html

The example on which I am focusing is "Map Geocoding Simple" (http://www.mayzes.org/fragments/new/geocode.html). The relevant function within the plugin is:

    if ( opts.geocode ) {
        geocoder = new GClientGeocoder();
        geocoder.getLatLng(opts.geocode, function(center) {
            if (!center) {
                alert(address + " not found");
            }
            else {
            $.googleMaps.gMap.setCenter(center, opts.depth);
                $.googleMaps.latitude = center.x;
                $.googleMaps.longitude = center.y;
            }
    });
    }
    else {
        // Latitude & Longitude Center Point
        var center  = $.googleMaps.mapLatLong(opts.latitude, opts.longitude);
        // Set the center of the Map with the new Center Point and Depth
        $.googleMaps.gMap.setCenter(center, opts.depth);
    }

Now, what I want to do is retrieve the "center point", the lat / long value of the center point, after passing ad address to the plugin.

So, in my code when I pass an address, thus:

$('#map').googleMaps({
    geocode: add
}); 

I would like some means of of retrieving the lat / long like this:

$('#map').getLatLng();

...or as a callback function within the plugin instantiation (like they do in the JQuery UI Tabs control).

Those would be the "ideal" solutions, but in the mea开发者_运维问答ntime, I was willing to "content myself" with a hack. Why not use the Jquery "data" function like this?

    if ( opts.geocode ) {
        geocoder = new GClientGeocoder();
        geocoder.getLatLng(opts.geocode, function(center) {
            if (!center) {
                alert(address + " not found");
            }
            else {

            alert('center--'+center);
            **$(this).data('latlng', center);**

            $.googleMaps.gMap.setCenter(center, opts.depth);
                $.googleMaps.latitude = center.x;
                $.googleMaps.longitude = center.y;
            }
    });
    }
    else {
        // Latitude & Longitude Center Point
        var center  = $.googleMaps.mapLatLong(opts.latitude, opts.longitude);
        // Set the center of the Map with the new Center Point and Depth
        $.googleMaps.gMap.setCenter(center, opts.depth);
    }

Then I would be able to retrieve the latlng value by simply referencing:

 $('#map').data('latlng');

But, alas, this does not work at all.

Any guidance / hints / solutions to similar problems would be of great assistance.

Shameless

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Response to Matchu ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Thank you for the idea. Here is what I tried:

$.googleMaps = {
    mapsConfiguration: function(opts) {
    var ThisMap = this;
        // GEOCODE
        if ( opts.geocode ) {
            geocoder = new GClientGeocoder();
            geocoder.getLatLng(opts.geocode, function(center) {
                if (!center) {
                    alert(address + " not found");
                }
                else {

                alert('center--'+center);
                ThisMap.data('latlng', center);

                    $.googleMaps.gMap.setCenter(center, opts.depth);...

The "var ThisMap = this" is on Line 3 of the plugin, which seems pretty "up high" to me :)

I try to retrieve the "latlng" using:

    var map = $('#map').googleMaps({
        geocode: add
    }); 

alert('latlng--'+map.data('latlng'));

I know that what needs to happen here is possible because I have used similar usage pattersn with other plugins. Unfortunately, those plugins seem to be pretty "advanced" and I have not seen an example of storing and retrieving current property values in any of the simple JQuery Plugin tutorials. Has anyone else?

My first guess is that this doesn't refer to the element anymore. Without seeing the entire code, my guess is that this is reset inside the anonymous function started on line 3 of that snippet. Try storing it to a variable above that:

if ( opts.geocode ) {
    geocoder = new GClientGeocoder();
    var element = this; // really you should move the var declaration up higher
    geocoder.getLatLng(opts.geocode, function(center) {
        // ...
    });
}

Of course, even there, $(this) still may refer to something else, since I haven't gone through the whole plugin. Try logging (alert, console.log, whatever) what is stored in this if you're ever unsure.