irrelon-synthesize

Synthesize

Automatically create simple methods to get and set properties for JavaScript modules, similar to the @synthesize directive in iOS Objective-C.

Usage

In this example we create a getter/setter method called name() on the MyClass prototype:

var MyClass = function () {};
synthesize(MyClass.prototype, 'name');

You can then call the name method with an argument to set or no argument to get:

// Instantiate MyClass
var myClass = new MyClass();

// Set name
myClass.name('Jerry');

// Get name
var name = myClass.name();

Custom Behaviour

The synthesize method takes a third argument that allows you to write code that executes when the method is called and can apply custom logic before a get or set action is done:

var MyClass = function () {};
synthesize(MyClass.prototype, 'name', function (name) {
	// Check if we were passed a name (setter mode)
	if (name !== undefined) {
		// Check if the name argument passes validation (in this case, it must be a string)
		if (typeof name === 'string') {
			// The passed name is a string, allow the setter to operate
			// by calling the getter / setter method by accessing it
			// through the this.$super() method:
			return this.$super(name);
		} else {
			throw('Passed name does not validate!');
		}
	} else {
		// Getter mode
		return this.$super();
	}
});