Does my jQuery plugin have a weakness (pattern-wise)?

I found a plugin pattern on Internet. ( I will submit the link as soon as I find it back ) and I modified it a bit to create my own dialog plugin. I'm afraid even if the code is working, the way I made it doesn't make sense.

I must :

• Be able to assign my plugin to multiple element (more then one dialog) -Implemented
• I must be able to access it's method : openDialog, closeDialog, assignOptions from outside it's scope -Not yet implemented
• I would like to send a reference to the current dialog when a button click occurs - Partially implemented. I'm using $(this).getDialog() method. this refer to the clicked button

Here is the plugin :

(function($) {
    var pluginName = "Dialog",
        dialogContent = { "Title" : "h2", "SubTitle" : "p.sub-title", "Body" : "div.content" }

    var infDialog = function( el, options ) {
        var $el = $(el),
            currentConfig = {
                position : [100, 100],
                autoOpen : true
            };

        $el.data( pluginName, $el);

        if ( options ) {
            currentConfig = $.extend( currentConfig, options );
        }

        $el.css({ "top" : currentConfig.position[1], "left" : currentConfig.position[0], "z-index" : 9999 });

        if ( currentConfig.autoOpen ) {
            $el.fadeIn( "slow" );
        }

        if ( currentConfig.buttons ) {
            $.each(currentConfig.buttons, function(i, j) {
                if ( $.isFunction( j ) && $(el).find("input[value='" + i + "']").length )
                {
                    var $currentButton = $(el).find("input[value='" + i + "']");

                    $(el).find("input[value='" + i + "']").click(function() {
                        j.call( $currentButton );
                    });
                }
            });
        }

        if ( currentConfig.onOpen ) {
            currentConfig.onOpen.call( $el );
        }

        if ( currentConfig.onClose ) {
            $el.bind("onclose", function() {
                currentConfig.onClose.call( $el );
            });
        }

        $el.getDialog().bind("click", function( e ) {
            var currentDialog = this.id,
                currentPosition = $(this).css("z-index");

            if ( currentPosition < 9999 || currentPosition == "auto" ) {
                $(".dialog").each(function(i) {
                    if ( this.id == currentDialog ) {
                        $(this).css("z-index", 9999);
                    } else {
                        $(this).css("z-index", 9990);
                    }
                });

                $(this).css("z-index");
            }
        });
    }

    $.fn.infDialog = function( options ) {
        return this.each(function() {
            ( new infDialog( this, options ) );
        });
    }

    $.fn.closeDialog = function() {
        return $(this).getDialog().fadeOut("slow", function() {
            $(this).trigger("onclose");
        });
    }

    $.开发者_运维问答fn.getDialog = function() {
        return ( ! $(this).is(".dialog") ) ? $(this).closest(".dialog") : $(this);
    }

    $.fn.assignOption = function( options ) {
        var $currentPlugin = $(this);

        $.each( options, function(i, j) {
            if ( dialogContent[ i ] ) {
                $currentPlugin.find( dialogContent[ i ] ).empty().html( j );
            }
        });
    }
})(jQuery);

and the HTML of a dialog :

<div id="dialogTest" class="dialog">
    <div>
        <h2>title</h2>
        <p class="sub-title">
            subtitle
        </p>
        <div class="content">
            Content
        </div>
        <p class="buttons"><input type="button" value="Action" /> <input type="button" value="Close" class="normal" /></p>
    </div>
</div>

and the jQuery code :

$("#dialogTest").infDialog({
    position : [400, 190],
    buttons : {
        "Action" : function() {
            var $dialog = $(this).getDialog(),
                obj = $dialog.data("Dialog"),
                $currentDialog = $(this).getDialog();

            $currentDialog.assignOption({
                "Title" : "New Title",
                "SubTitle" : "Lorem ipsum",
                "Bob" : "unknown body tag",
                "Body" : "testbody"
            });

            $(this).attr("value", Math.random());
        },
        "Close" : function() {
            $(this).closeDialog();
        }
    },
    onOpen : function() {

    },
    onClose : function() {
        var $currentDialog = $(this).getDialog();

        $currentDialog.fadeIn("fast");
    }
});

I am making something wrong or I'm actually heading the good way?

On a side note, I found that this code : $el.data( pluginName, $el); suggested by the design pattern doesn't work. In fact, every time I tried to retreive the object using $("#dialogTest").data("Dialog"), the returned object was empty.

Thank you

The jQuery Plugin Authoring tutorial gave me the jQuery plugin pattern I use.

Regarding your assignOptions task...

if you have a private settings object and pass your plugin the options it works nicely (this is outlined in the tutorial of course).

Example of extending

(function( $ ){

  $.fn.tooltip = function( options ) {  
    //private settings
    var settings = {
      'location'         : 'top',
      'background-color' : 'blue'
    };
    // returning this.each ensures your plugin works on multiple matched elements
    return this.each(function() {        
      // If options exist, lets merge them
      // with our default settings
      if ( options ) { 
        $.extend( settings, options );
      }

      // Tooltip plugin code here

    });

  };
})( jQuery );
//initiate plugin with an options object
var options = { 'location' : 'left' };
$('div').tooltip( options );

A couple of quick tips for you:

1. In a function expression that is assigned to the jquery.fn (The jQuery Prototype), this is already a jQuery object.

   $.fn.method = function( options ) {
       return this.each(function() {
           //do something
       });
   }
   

2. It's not usually a good idea for one plugin to use 4 method names on the jquery.fn namespace. Using the jQuery UI Widget framework, you would only use one method name

   $.widget("cybrix.coolDialog", {
       ...
       close: function() { ... },
       open: function() { ... },
       assign: function() { ... }
   }
   

   Then

   $("#dialogTest").coolDialog('close');
   $("#dialogTest").coolDialog('open');
   $("#dialogTest").coolDialog('assign');
   

   You'd could do this or something similar with out the dependency on jquery.ui.widget.js

3. The on prefix is unusual for most jQuery events