JavaScript Magic Objects

[u/noeldemartin]

https://noeldemartin.com/blog/programming-patterns-magic-objects

I just published a blog post to my website about a pattern I've been using for a while that I think you will find interesting (and probably very divisive!): Magic Objects.

class Parrot extends MagicObject {
    __get(property) {
        return `${property}! ${property}!`;
    }
}

const parrot = new Parrot();

console.log(parrot.foo); // "foo! foo!"
console.log(parrot.bar); // "bar! bar!"

Basically, I'm borrowing the idea of Magic Methods from PHP and porting them to JavaScript. You've probably seen something like this done with proxies before, but I still like to use some OOP in my JavaScript, and I also came up with a way to make it work nicely with TypeScript.

It may seem a bit over the top at the beginning, but I've been using this for a while and I've found it very useful.

Let me know what you think!

[u/javascript]

Proxy Objects (getters and setters) have been around for a while but I've yet to come across a use case where they were the right choice. They tend to work more as an escape hatch.

[u/lookarious → u/javascript]

Libraries like MobX uses proxies, its useful, but they are not good as in other languages, for example there is no way to use custom setter for whole class because JS is dynamically typed.