Chaining a function in JavaScript?

Question

I want to make a function that add an item to my localStorage object. E.g.:

alert(localStorage.getItem('names').addItem('Bill').getItem('names'));

The first method is getItem which gets the item for localStorage objects... but addItem would be a custom function. This chain of functions would finally alert Bill.

So, how would I make this function chain to localStorage?

Answer 1

This is possible if you create a wrapper/decorator object that makes chaining possible. This is how jQuery works for example. But it is useless in this case.

I made a possible implementation, though.

But getItem will break the chain (so it should always be used at the end).

storage().setItem('names', 'Bill').getItem('names'); // or
storage().setItem('names').addItem('Bill').getItem('names'); // or
storage().key('names').value('Bill').set().get('names');

Implementation

(function( window, undefined ) {

var storage = function( key, value ) {
  return new storage.init( key, value );
};

storage.init = function( key, value ) {
  this._key   = key;
  this._value = value;
};

storage.init.prototype = {

  key: function( key ) {
    this._key = key;
    return this;
  },

  value: function( value ) {
    this._value = value;
    return this;
  },

  get: function( key ) {
    key = isset(key) || this._key;
    return localStorage.getItem( key );
  },

  set: function( key, value ) {
    this._key   = key   = isset(key)   || this._key;
    this._value = value = isset(value) || this._value;
    if ( key && value ) {
      localStorage.setItem( key, value );
    }
    return this;
  },

  addItem: function( value ) {
    this._value = isset(value) || this._value;
    if ( this._key && value !== undefined ) {
      localStorage.setItem( this._key, value );
    }
    return this;
  },

  // aliases...
  getItem: function( key ) {
    return this.get( key );
  },
  setItem: function( key, value  ) {
    return this.set( key, value );
  }
};

function isset( value ) {
  return value !== undefined ? value : false;
}

window.storage = storage;

})( window );