Passing private variable in JavaScript nested class?

Question

I am thinking about passing a private variable of one class into another class, for some belonging case like 'company --> department --> employee'. As an employee can tell some information of his company, there's some private variables I'd like to pass.

I think this relationship is not as same as common class and supClass. As an employee is not a type of department and a department is not a type of company (if I am wrong, please tell me more).

So in a case like this, is it a good idea to use nested constructor functions?

For example: http://jsfiddle.net/JsJJ9/

function TeamClass(name){

    var pass = "privateVariable"
    var slot = 1;
    this.members = []; // I have a list of members
    this.name = name;

    this.add = function(){ //add member into this team
        var m = new MemberClass(slot++);
        this.members.push(m)
    }

    function MemberClass(id){ //here comes the Nested class 

        var id = id;
        this.report = function(){
            alert('#'+id+' : Hello, i got some '+pass+'! ')
            //So, this member can tell some private data of his team.
        }

    }

}

class01 = new TeamClass('Team A');
class01.add();
class01.add();

class01.members[0].report();
class01.members[1].report();

Also, I have tried to let the nested class can call the upper level's public variable. I have a function like this:

//at upper level class
    m.setBelonging(this) 

and

//at belonging class
    var team = ''
    this.setBelonging = function(theOdj){
        team = theOdj;
    }

(or see it at http://jsfiddle.net/JsJJ9/1/)

Any comment about this approach?

---

Added at 2014-01-11 :

Actually, I am trying to ask how can I pass some variable that can't change outside the class (which in my understand, a private variable) to another class. And i found out may be i can do this by nested class. But I don't know is there any defects or there's some better approach.

Answer 1

Teams have members, so it almost seems natural to put the Member class into the Team class. But projects also have members. How are you going to implement that? You can't nest Member in both classes. Another problem with nested classes is that you have to traverse through Company -> Department -> Team -> Employee hierarchy just to get everyone's name or email.

Answering your question, how can you pass some variable that can't change outside of the class. Create a getter method:

function Team() {
    var teamId = 4; // not changeable from outside
    this.getId = function() {
        return teamId;
    }
}

Now you can access teamId from outside of the class, but can't change it.

Or instead of creating truly private properties and functions, you can simply prefix them with an underscore to denote they are private and should never be accessed from outside. While nothing really stops you from accessing them, nothing also stops you from redefining the Team class and accessing anything you want.

Answer 2

Ideally, how you choose to represent the members inside TeamClass shouldn't matter to the outside world. Your solution is fine, but I think I'd get tired of accessing the members like this:

class01.members[0].report();

It's a bit cumbersome. Plus, why should I care that the members are in some array held by TeamClass? In fact, do I need to care about MemberClass at all? Why not further abstract it:

function TeamClass(name) {
    var pass = "privateVariable"
    var slot = 1;
    var members = [];
    this.name = name;

    this.add = function() {
        var m = new MemberClass(slot++);
        members.push(m)
    }

    this.memberReport = function(i) {
        if (i >= members.length) {
            throw "Invalid member index";
        }
        members[i].report();
    }

    function MemberClass(id) { 
        var id = id;
        this.report = function() {
            console.log('#' + id + ' : Hello, i got some ' + pass + '! ')
        }
    }
}

class01 = new TeamClass('Team A');
class01.add();
class01.add();
class01.memberReport(0);
class01.memberReport(1);

Of course, it's hard to tell out of context if this is really the best solution to your problem, but it's something to consider.