Access parent's parent from javascript object

Question

I simply added in first function

parentThis = this;

and use parentThis in subfunction. Why? Because in JavaScript, objects are soft. A new member can be added to a soft object by simple assignment (not like ie. Java where classical objects are hard. The only way to add a new member to a hard object is to create a new class) More on this here: http://www.crockford.com/javascript/inheritance.html

And also at the end you don't have to kill or destroy the object. Why I found here: http://bytes.com/topic/javascript/answers/152552-javascript-destroy-object

Hope this helps

JavaScript does not offer this functionality natively. And I doubt you could even create this type of functionality. For example:

var Bobby = {name: "Bobby"};
var Dad = {name: "Dad", children: [ Bobby ]};
var Mom = {name: "Mom", children: [ Bobby ]};

Who does Bobby belong to?

In this case, you could use life to reference the parent object. Or you could store a reference to life in the users object. There can't be a fixed parent available to you in the language, because users is just a reference to an object, and there could be other references...

var death = { residents : life.users };
life.users.smallFurryCreaturesFromAlphaCentauri = { exist : function() {} };
// death.residents.smallFurryCreaturesFromAlphaCentauri now exists
//  - because life.users references the same object as death.residents!

You might find it helpful to use something like this:

function addChild(ob, childName, childOb)
{
   ob[childName] = childOb;
   childOb.parent = ob;
}

var life= {
        mameAndDestroy : function(group){ },
        kiss : function(group){ }
};

addChild(life, 'users', {
   guys : function(){ this.parent.mameAndDestroy(this.girls); },
   girls : function(){ this.parent.kiss(this.boys); },
   });

// life.users.parent now exists and points to life

About Call:

You can sort of solve this issue by using .call() which:

• must be called on a function addName.call()
• you pass it an object of what you want to be the "this" addName.call({"name" : 'angela'});
• you can pass additional arguments that can be used in the function it is called on addName.call({"name": "angela"}, true); where perhaps addName accepts an argument of boolean append.

Use Call:

For this particular problem, we can pass the "parent" object through call to override the this normally present in the child object.

Look at our problem first

var app = {
    init: function() {
        var _this = this; // so we can access the app object in other functions

        $('#thingy').click(function(){
            alert(_this.options.thingy());
        });

        $('#another').click(function(){
            alert(_this.options.getAnother());
        });
    },
    options: {
      thingy: function() {
      // PROBLEM: the this here refers to options
        return this.getThingy();
      },
      getAnother: function() {
        // PROBLEM 2: we want the this here to refer to options,
        // but thingy will need the parent object
        return 'another ' + this.thingy();
      },
    },
    getThingy: function() {
        return 'thingy';
    }
};

Now, here's a solution use call

And JSFIDDLE to see it work.

var app = {
    init: function() {
        var _this = this; // so we can access the app object in other functions

        $('#thingy').click(function(){
            // SOLUTION: use call to pass _this as the 'this' used by thingy
            alert(_this.options.thingy.call(_this));
        });

        $('#another').click(function(){
            // SOLUTION 2: Use call to pass parent all the way through
            alert(_this.options.getAnother.call(_this)); 
        });
    },
    options: {
      thingy: function() {
        // SOLUTION in action, the this is the app object, not options.
        return this.getThingy(); 
      },
      getAnother: function() {
        // SOLUTION 2 in action, we can still access the options 
        // AND pass through the app object to the thingy method.
        return 'another ' + this.options.thingy.call(this); 
      },
    },
    getThingy: function() {
        return 'thingy';
    }
};

In conclusion

You can use .call() whenever you use a method on a property of your main object: app.options.someFunction(arg) should always be called with .call - app.options.someFunction.call(this, arg); - that way you can ensure that you'll always have access to every part of the object. It could give you access to another property's methods like app.helpers.anotherFunction().

A good idea is in the somefunction, store this in a variable _parentThis so it's obvious what the this reflects.

If I'm reading your question correctly, objects in general are agnostic about where they are contained. They don't know who their parents are. To find that information, you have to parse the parent data structure. The DOM has ways of doing this for us when you're talking about element objects in a document, but it looks like you're talking about vanilla objects.