How to extend jQuery.css from plugin

Question

I have written a very simple plugin that allows me to use 0xffccaa format for css colours instead of '#ffccaa' (mostly to avoid writing quotes - but also to allow easy modification of colours by simply adding to it as an integer).

I am implementing as $().xcss({}), but would prefer to just use $().css({}).

How can I extend the functionality of the $.fn.css function, and are there any pitfalls I need to watch out for?

Also, I guess I will want to do the same for $.animate.

Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/hB4R8/

// pugin wrapper
(function($){ $.fn.xcss = function(opts){
    // loop through css color properties 
    $.each(['background', 'backgroundColor','background-color', 'color', 'borderColor','border-color'],function(i,v){
        // if set as number (will be integer - not hex at this point)
        // convert the value to `#ffccaa` format (adds padding if needed)
        if(typeof opts[v] === 'number')
            opts[v] = ('00000'+opts[v].toString(16)).replace(/.*([a-f\d]{6})$/,'#$1')
    })
    // run css funciton with modified options
    this.css(opts)
    // allow chaining
    return this
} })(jQuery)

// test the plugin
$('body').xcss({
    'background-color': 0xffccFF,
    color: 0xccffcc,
    border: '3px solid red',
    borderColor:0x0ccaa,
    padding:50
}).html('<h1>This should be a funny color</h1>')

Answer 1

This seems to work for me: http://jsfiddle.net/frfdj/

(function($) {
    var _css = $.fn.css; // store method being overridden
    $.fn.css = function(opts) {
        $.each(['background', 'backgroundColor', 'background-color', 'color', 'borderColor', 'border-color'], function(i, v) {
            if (typeof opts[v] === 'number') opts[v] = ('00000' + opts[v].toString(16)).replace(/.*([a-f\d]{6})$/, '#$1')
        })
        return _css.apply(this, [opts]); // call original method
    }
})(jQuery)

Answer 2

https://github.com/aheckmann/jquery.hook/blob/master/jquery.hook.js

Based on this code for creating hooks for arbitrary functions, you can just override $.fn.css with a method that does what you want before calling the original function.