How to use eval on jquery plugin variable? - dry

Question

I'm using pnotify, the JQuery plugin.
I want to shorten this code:
$.pnotify.defaults.styling = "jqueryui";
$.pnotify.defaults.delay = 1500;
$.pnotify.defaults.title = 'Error'
$.pnotify.defaults.mouse_reset = false;
$.pnotify.defaults.history = false;
Into something like this:
var darray = { 'styling':'\'jqueryui\'', 'delay':'1500', 'title':'\'Error\'', 'mouse_reset':'false', 'history':'false' };
$.each(darray, function(option,choice){
eval("var $.pnotify.defaults." + option + "=" + choice + ";");
});
However, despite trying all sorts of things, I have failed. Here's some of the things I've tried:
var darray = { 'styling':'\'jqueryui\'', 'delay':'1500', 'title':'\'Error\'', 'mouse_reset':'false', 'history':'false' };
$.each(darray, function(option,choice){
eval("var $.pnotify.defaults." + option + "=" + choice + ";");
});
JSONstring='var $.pnotify.defaults.' + option + "=" + choice + ";";
$.parseJSON(JSONstring);
string99 = 'var $\.pnotify\.defaults\.' + option
$.parseJSON('{string99=choice}');
option='var $.pnotify.defaults.'+option;
var JSONObject= {'option':choice};
$.parseJSON(JSONObject);
Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/morossive/kayKn/

Answer 1

You could try this (untested, but you get the idea):
var darray = {
styling: 'jqueryui',
delay: 1500,
title: 'Error',
mouse_reset: false,
history: false
};
for (var mbr in darray) {
$.pnotify.defaults[mbr] = darray[mbr];
}
Because JavaScript treats objects like hashtables, we can iterate over their "keys" (for (var mbr in darray)) and assign new values to new keys in objects. For example:
var obj = {...};
// The following are equivalent:
obj.x = 5;
obj['x'] = 5;
However, I think there may be an even more elegant solution to your problem (don't use this if you are worried about overwriting preexisting values in $.pnotify.defaults, however):
$.pnotify.defaults = {
styling: 'jqueryui',
delay: 1500,
title: 'Error',
mouse_reset: false,
history: false
};
I know you asked how to use eval to solve this, but I think in general any alternative to using eval is probably better.