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Update jQuery UI Widget Options

By David Walsh on November 21, 2016

We're all used to passing options when instantiating an object, whether it be JavaScript or any other language. Whether or not you can update those options later is usually up to the framework, and somehow many wont let you update them once they've been passed in. Depending on how the initialization of the object is done, sometimes that makes sense, but in most cases you should be able to update an option at any given time.

I recently needed to update a jQuery UI widget option and here's how you update any given option:

this.$editor.inlineEditor('option', 'forceOpen', true);

jQuery UI is mostly a legacy technology these days so I'm mostly passing this tip on for those having to maintain old code. This does teach a good lesson: always provide a method for modifying initial options, even if you don't foresee a reason to do so!

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Update jQuery UI Widget Options

Recent Features

I’m an Impostor

Detect DOM Node Insertions with JavaScript and CSS Animations

Incredible Demos

Adding Events to Adding Events in jQuery

Create a Simple Slideshow Using MooTools

Discussion