Uncaught TypeError: undefined is not a function in RefluxJS

Question

Following the tutorials from this site: http://blog.krawaller.se/posts/the-reflux-data-flow-model/

I'm looking at replacing var chatRef to a dummy data instead of using new Firebase(...) as shown in the author example. Baffled how exactly this line read?

chatRef.on("value",this.updateChat.bind(this));

What is "value" and how bind work?

Tried to use var chatRef = {0: "Hello", 1: "Hello"} produce Uncaught TypeError: undefined is not a function

Answer 1

chatRef appears to be an event emitter with at least one custom function (push).

You could mock it like this:

// you'll need to include an event emitter library
var chatRef = new EventEmitter(); 
chatRef.push = function(data, cb){
  // if push emits a value event?  not sure if it does
  this.emit('value', {val: function(){ return data });
  cb(null);
}

// emit a fake message every second
setInterval(function(){
  chatRef.push({text: "hey", from: "me", to: "them"}, function(){})
}, 1000);

If you don't get it, you should read up on event emitters.

For the .bind call google Function.prototoype.bind. In this case the bind just ensures that when the callback is called, it has the correct this value.