In Javascript, what is an options object?

Question

Now I have googling this a lot, but I cant seem to find what I am looking for. I am not talking about the options object that does drop down menus, I am talking about seeing stuff like

options.remove, options.enable, options.instance, 

To be honest, I am not sure if the code I am trying to figure out already created some object called "options" or if its a pre-built javascript object. It lights up purple in my dreamweaver editor so I have a feeling its a pre-built object. I am new, sorry.

Answer 1

An options object is an object passed into a method (usually a method that builds a jQuery widget, or similar) which provides configuration info.

An options object is usually declared using object literal notation:

var options = {
 width: '325px',
 height: '100px'
};

The options that are valid depend on the method or widget that you are calling. There is nothing 'special' about an options object that makes it different from any other javascript object. The object literal syntax above gives the same result as:

var options = new Object();
options.width = '325px';
options.height = '100px';

Example:

$( ".selector" ).datepicker({ disabled: true });
//create a jQuery datepicker widget on the HTML elements matched by ".selector",
//using the option: disabled=true