The new Uize.global static method, implemented in the Uize base module, lets you get a reference to the global object.

SYNTAX

globalOBJ = Uize.global ();

The Uize.global method should be used in situations where you need to access or assign properties on the global object, or to call methods on the global object, and where you need that code to be able to run inside a browser as well as other environments like WSH (Windows Script Host) or NodeJS.

In cases where you need to work with properties of the global object inside a browser, you would typically just reference the window object. However, in non-browser environments where you might run your JavaScript code, the window object is not applicable and usually not defined. To be entirely safe, use the Uize.global method - it will return the window object when you're running the code in a browser, and in other environments it will return their equivalent of the global object.

EXAMPLES

// assign a value to a global property
Uize.global ().myGlobalProperty = 'foo';

// access a global property
alert (Uize.global ().myGlobalProperty);

// delete a global property
delete Uize.global ().myGlobalProperty;

If you are going to be calling the Uize.global method multiple times inside some code to access or assign values to global properties, you can create a local variable that is a reference to the global object. So, the above example could be re-written as...

var _global = Uize.global ();

// assign a value to a global property
_global.myGlobalProperty = 'foo';

// access a global property
alert (_global.myGlobalProperty);

// delete a global property
delete _global.myGlobalProperty;

1. Defeating Scope Chain Overrides

var foo = 'global scope';

function MyObject () {
  var foo = 'local scope';

  this.alertLocalScopeFoo = function () {
    alert (foo);
  };

  this.alertGlobalScopeFoo = function () {
    alert (Uize.global ().foo);
  };
}

var myObjectInstance = new MyObject ();

myObjectInstance.alertLocalScopeFoo ();   // alerts "local scope"
myObjectInstance.alertGlobalScopeFoo ();  // alerts "global scope"