Custom events in jQuery?

Question

I'm looking for some input on how to implement custom eventhandling in jquery the best way. I know how to hook up events from the dom elements like 'click' etc, but I'm building a tiny javascript library/plugin to handle some preview functionality.

I've got a script running to update some text in a dom element from a set of rules and data/user input I got, but now I need that same text shown in other elements that this script can't possibly know of. What I need is a good pattern to somehow observe this script producing the needed text.

So how do I do this? Did I overlook some builtin functionality in jquery to raise/handle user events or do I need some jquery plugin to do it? What do you think is the best way/plugin to handle this?

Answer 1

The link provided in the accepted answer shows a nice way to implement the pub/sub system using jQuery, but I found the code somewhat difficult to read, so here is my simplified version of the code:

http://jsfiddle.net/tFw89/5/

$(document).on('testEvent', function(e, eventInfo) { 
  subscribers = $('.subscribers-testEvent');
  subscribers.trigger('testEventHandler', [eventInfo]);
});

$('#myButton').on('click', function() {
  $(document).trigger('testEvent', [1011]);
});

$('#notifier1').on('testEventHandler', function(e, eventInfo) { 
  alert('(notifier1)The value of eventInfo is: ' + eventInfo);
});

$('#notifier2').on('testEventHandler', function(e, eventInfo) { 
  alert('(notifier2)The value of eventInfo is: ' + eventInfo);
});