Feature request: cloning widgets

[d.wachss]

Per this thread ​http://groups.google.com/group/jquery-ui/browse_thread/thread/a1cbbd784aa0dae2, clone() does not clone the widgets associated with an element. One way to do this is with a custom event:

$.fn.cloneTheWidgets = function (){
  return this.clone() // don't clone events
    .each(function(){
      var handlers = $.data(this,'events')[ 'cloneTheWidgets'];
      if (handlers) for (var handler in handlers)
        // manually trigger the clone event handlers
        handlers[handler].apply(this);
    });
};

and in the widget init function:

init: function(){
  var self = this;
  self.element.bind('cloneTheWidgets', function() {
    $(this)[self.widgetName](self.options);
  });
  ...the rest of your init
} 

or override the native clone() to do this with some appropriate argument.

[nxtwrld]

i would suggest this behavior for 'clone':

clone(true) - automatically reinitialize the widget in the cloned DOM clone() - cleanup the widget in the cloned DOM

[Jörn Zaefferer]

Do we actually want to support cloning widgets? Still seems like a rather niche usecase.

[nxtwrld]

Now it seems pretty inconsistent, as clone will result in cloning all the helper elements created by the widget, so you end up with a code, where widget does not work, but you can not reinitialize it again, as the original DOM has been cloned already in modified state.

[Scott González]

Replying to joern.zaefferer:

Do we actually want to support cloning widgets? Still seems like a rather niche usecase.

We haven't made a decision, and likely won't make a decision for a while. Until we do, we're leaving the ticket open. If anyone has ideas for how to make this actually work, we'd be interested in hearing them. Unfortunately this is probably way too widget-specific to be generalized.

[Scott González]

If anyone has an idea for how to accomplish this, please discuss it with the team. But for now it seems like there would need to be too much widget-specific code to handle a uncommon case.

[Scott González]

Milestone TBD deleted