Paperboy

A lightweight event emitter and mixin with advanced features that don't get in the way.

Basic Usage

var myObject = {'foo':'bar'};

var trigger = paperboy.mixin( myObject );

myObject.on('myevent', function( howMany ) {
	console.log( howMany ); // 5
	console.log( this ); // myObject
});

trigger('myevent', 5);

Methods

• var trigger = paperboy.mixin( target ) - Adds on, off, one, is, and not to target. Returns the trigger function.
• paperboy.emitter() - Returns a new object with on, off, one, is, not, and trigger functions.

NOTE: paperboy.mixin returns the trigger function. It does not add it to the target.

Emitter Details

Emitters trigger event listeners. The mixin function turns any object into an emitter.

Attaching Listeners

• emitter.on( eventName, callback ) - adds a listener to the eventName event. eventName must be a string.
• emitter.one( eventName, callback ) - adds a listener that will remove itself after being triggered once.
• emitter.is( stateName, callback ) - adds a state listener that will be called when the emitter is in stateName.
• emitter.is.one( stateName, callback ) - adds a state listener that will remove itself after being triggered once.
• emitter.not( stateName, callback ) - adds a state listener that will be called when the emitter is not in stateName.
• emitter.not.one( stateName, callback ) - adds a state listener that will remove itself after being triggered once.

Removing Listeners

• emitter.off( eventName, callback ) - removes a listener from an event.
• emitter.is.remove( eventName, callback ) - removes a listener from a stateful event.
• emitter.not.remove( eventName, callback ) - removes a listener from a stateful event.

Triggering Events

• emitter.trigger( eventName /*, add'l, args */ ) - triggers all event handlers for eventName.
• emitter.trigger.is( stateName /*, add'l, args */ ) - puts the emitter in the stateName state and triggers stateful listeners.
• emitter.trigger.not( stateName /*, add'l, args */ ) - takes the emitter out of stateName state and triggers stateful listeners.

NOTE: trigger is not added by the mixin function. If you want trigger to be public you must attach it to the target yourself.

Repeating Events

• emitter.trigger.repeat( otherEmitter /*, [eventNames], [stateNames] */ ) - Causes this emitter to repeat events triggered on another emitter.

Stateful Events: is and not

Stateful event listeners operate like $(document).ready() and deferreds; when a listener is added to a stateful event it is triggered immediately if your emitter is in that state.

Listeners added with emitter.in apply when the emitter is in a state, listeners on emitter.not apply when the emitter is not in a state. States are set with trigger.is and trigger.not. Listeners added to emitter.not will fire immediately if no states have been declared.

emitter.is('live', callback1); // does not fire immediately.
emitter.trigger.is('live'); // puts the emitter in 'live' state and fires the listener above.
emitter.is('live', callback2); // fires immedately

emitter.trigger.not('live'); // takes the emitter out of the live state.
emitter.trigger.is('live'); // fires both listeners

Stateful listeners are removed with the is.remove and not.remove functions.

emitter.is.remove('live', callback1); // removes callback1

Run-once functionality, like emitter.one is provided with is.one and not.one

emitter.is.one('live', callback3); // callback3 will be called exactly once.

Until an emitter is put in a state with trigger.is, listeners applied to not will be exectued immediately.

Whitelisting Events

To catch errors early, before they hit production, you can whitelist event names. If anyone tries to add to or trigger events that are not white listed an error will be thrown.

// with a mixin
var target = {};
var trigger = paperboy.mixin( target, ['eventOne', 'eventTwo']);

// with an emitter
var emitter = paperboy.emitter(['eventOne', 'eventTwo']);

emitter.on('eventOne', function(){}); // works
emitter.on('eventOen', function(){}); // throws an error

Chaining Emitters

You can have a paperboy emitter repeat the events triggered by other emitters. This is done with the repeat property of the trigger function.

// This will cause `emitter` to echo every event that `otherPaperboyEmitter` triggers.
emitter.trigger.repeat( otherPaperboyEmitter );

// This will cause `emitter` to echo specific events that `otherEmitter` throws.
// You can even repeat events from jQuery objects or anything else with an `on` function.
emitter.trigger.repeat( otherEmitter, ['pickup', 'putdown'] );
emitter.trigger.repeat( $('.button'), ['click'] );
emitter.trigger.repeat( backboneModel, ['update'] );

If you want to repeat stateful events send in a third argument.

emitter.trigger.repeat( otherPaperboyEmitter, [eventNames], [stateNames]);

The Magic * Event

Listeners applied to the * event will be triggered for each event. The first argument will be the event name.

Why Paperboy?

Simplicity

• on/off/one/trigger. Just like jQuery and Backbone.
• Learn the advanced features as you need them, they're never in the way.
• Helpful error messages tell you which events are whitelisted or which callback caused an error.

Safety

• Event listeners are always kept private.
• Passing in a whitelist of event names will prevent typos.
• The trigger function is private by default. If you want it to be public simply add it to the target.
• All callback errors are caught and logged. No subscriber can take down your event.
• Listener arrays are copied before being iterated over; removing a listener in a callback will not cause a bug. This is overlooked in many pubsubs.

Features

• Chain several emitters together in one module to easily unify a whole package.
• Use the * event and a map of events->objects to make your code clear and concise.
• Stateful events keep track of the state of your app.

Compatibility

• Verified to work in IE6, Chrome 4, Firefox 3, and Safari 5.0.5 and above.
• Works with or without RequireJS, Node, or other module systems.

Also it's small. Just 1k minified and gzipped.

Inspired by LucidJS