Access to selector from sub function?

Let's say I've created this plugin:

$.fn.my_namespace = function() {}开发者_JAVA百科

with level 1 sub functions:

$.fn.my_namespace.category_func = function() {}

and level 2 sub functions (actual application):

$.fn.my_namespace.category_func.app_func() {
   alert(this);
   alert(this.selector);
}

Execution:

$('div').my_namespace.category_func.app_func();

how can I now in my app_func retrieve the actual selector? In this case, 'this' seems to be the parent function (category_func) and not the jQuery object (selector).

How come? And how do I access the selector from app_func() ?

jQuerys .fn namespace is intended to hold functions which return a jQuery object / array of objects.

You can't just throw a new object in there and expect everything to work just like that.

I swear I've answered this before, but I can't seem to find it. this always refers to the object you are calling the method on. In this case you are using category_func as that object, and calling app_func().

The pattern that jQuery UI uses is one possible way to work around this issue. They allow you to call methods on a UI object by doing something like $elem.draggable('destroy');

Imagine for a moment:

$.fn.my_namespace = function(submethod, method) {
  var args = [].slice.call(arguments, 1);
  var func = $.fn.my_namespace[submethod];
  if (func && method) {
    if ($.isFunction(func[method])) {
      args.shift(); // remove the method 
      func = func[method];
    }
  }
  if ($.isFunction(func)) { 
    // using .apply() allows us to pass `this` along to our "method functions"
    return func.apply(this, args);
  } else {
    // didn't find the method, return... or do something else...
    console.log('my_namespace', this, arguments);
    return this; // jQuery chaining default
  }
}

$.fn.my_namespace.category_func = function() {
   console.log('category_func', this, arguments);
   return this;
}
$.fn.my_namespace.category_func.method_func = function() {
   console.log('method_func', this, arguments);
   return this;
}

$("body").my_namespace('category_func', 'method_func', 10);
//method_func jQuery(body) [10]
$("body").my_namespace('category_func', 10);
//category_func jQuery(body) [10]
$("body").my_namespace(10, 'slow');
//my_namespace jQuery(body) [10, "slow"]