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I'm now developing an instant messaging system but I'm a little confused: I can't decide which approach I have to choose!

I want you to tell me what is good/bad with this programming approach. One friend of mine said it's difficult to read, but it works.

/*! | (c) 2012, 2013 by Bellashh*/
 /// <reference path="jquery-2.0.0-vsdoc.js" />
$(document).ready(function () {
  var ChatProvider = {
    "Friends": [],
    "People": [],
    "Conferences": [],
    "UI": {},
    "Utils": {
      "functions": {
        "alert": function (str) {
          alert(str);
        } /*ChatProvider.Utils.functions.alert*/ ,

        "addFriend": function (friend) {
          ChatProvider.Friends.push(friend);
          alert(ChatProvider.Friends.pop().Names);
        } /*ChatProvider.Utils.functions.addFriend*/ ,

      } /*ChatProvider.Utils.functions*/ ,

      "events": {} /*ChatProvider.Utils.events*/ ,

      "settings": {

      } /*ChatProvider.Utils.settings*/
    }
  } //var ChatProvider

  ChatProvider.Utils.functions.addFriend({
    "Names": "bellash"
  });

}); //$(document).ready

P.S: for visibility sake, I added some space between line separating objects' properties.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Quick question, from a user's (not developer's) point of view: How do we access Friends, People and Conferences? Do we get them through a function or do we access the arrays directly? \$\endgroup\$
    – Joseph
    Commented Apr 25, 2013 at 16:37
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ Is this the real code you want reviewed, or some kind of example? I ask because addFriend pushes something onto the Friends array and then immediately pops it back off, which makes no sense, and the alert function seems contrived; it just wraps window.alert. In other words, it wouldn't do much good to review this code, as the code doesn't do anything useful. \$\endgroup\$
    – Dagg
    Commented Apr 25, 2013 at 18:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ Dagg It is only an example. But I wonder if this is the best approach of coding in javascript instead of creating(bubling) separated functions in a .js file, my approach is good because it avoids conflicts between js file: am I wrong ? @JosephtheDreamer for example, to access the Friends array, you just need to write ChatProvider.Friends[index] ... \$\endgroup\$
    – Bellash
    Commented Apr 29, 2013 at 11:23

1 Answer 1

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From a once over:

  • drop functions, it is too long and it's obvious that alert in ChatProvider.utils.alert() is a function. Furthermore, specifically for alert, that should be under UI in my mind
  • Your functions are all over the place, I would think that adding a friend would be ChatProvider.friends.add() but you put it in ChatProvider.Utils.functions.addFriend()
  • You treat your object as 1 singleton, what if you need more than 1 instance ?
  • Maybe you are from a Java background, but namespacing the way you approach it should be avoided
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