Object Oriented Programming with DatumJs

Introduction

This is a lightweight library which enables object oriented programming with JavaScript.

Background

I was having trouble with implementing OOP concepts with JavaScript which led me to come up with a library which will enable OOP with native JavaScript. I hope you have heard there are two ways to implement OOP with JavaScript which are Classical model and Prototype model, unfortunately none of those gave me what it really means to have OOP.

Using the Code

Simply include datum.js in to your project. Check out the samples here.

Features

• Support multi-level inheritance
• Enables to access base class via this.base property

Methods

• define: define a class

  var Mobile = datum.define({
      //Meta data of the class
      __meta: {
          name: 'Mobile' // Name of the class
      },
  
      //properties
      manufacturer: '',
      operatingSystem: '',
      model: '',
      cost: '',
  
      //Constructor
      constructor: function (manufacturer, operatingSystem, model, cost) {
          this.manufacturer = manufacturer;
          this.operatingSystem = operatingSystem;
          this.model = model;
          this.cost = cost;
      },
  
      //Methods  
      getModel: function () {
          return this.model;
      },
      sendText: function(receiver, text){
          console.log('Text sent to ' + receiver);
      }
  });

• create: Create an instance of a defined class

  var mobile = datum.create(Mobile, "Nokia", "Win8", "Lumia", 10000);

• clone: Clone an object

  var mobileClone = datum.clone(mobile);

Inheritance

//Android
var Android = datum.define({
    //Meta data of the class
    __meta: {
        name: 'Android', // Name of the class
        extends: Mobile // Base class object
    },

    //Constructor
    constructor: function (manufacturer, operatingSystem, model, cost) {
        this.base(manufacturer, operatingSystem, model, cost);
    },

    //Methods
    getModel: function () {
        return "This is Android Mobile - " + this.model;
    }    
});

Browsers Support

• Internet Explorer 8+
• Firefox 3.1+
• Safari 4+
• Chrome 3+