check if jQuery UI tabs have been initialized (without checking for class)

Question

Using jQuery UI tabs - and I've written a plugin that integrates with ui tabs. I've got the plugin setup to initiate jQuery UI tabs if it .tabs() hasn't been called, but this just does a simple class check:

 if(!$globalTabs.hasClass("ui-tabs")){
    $globalTabs.tabs();
 }

But this is problematic, because often to avoid FOUC, developers add in the UI classes to the the tabs to get a better initial render before document.ready.

I could check for a different class, such as `ui-widget1, but wondering if there's another/better way?

Answer 1

You can query the attached widget with data():

if (!$globalTabs.data("tabs")) {
    $globalTabs.tabs();
}

This behavior is documented in the Widget factory page of jQuery UI's Development & Planning Wiki:

• Plugin instance accessible via $( "#something" ).data( "pluginname" )

  • A reference to a jQuery object containing the DOM element is available as a property of the instance as this.element, so it is easy to go back and forth between the object and the element.

Update: From jQuery UI 1.9 onwards, the widget key becomes the widget's fully qualified name, with dots replaced with dashes, as in:

if (!$globalTabs.data("ui-tabs")) {
    $globalTabs.tabs();
}

Using unqualified names is still supported in 1.9 but is deprecated, and support will be dropped in 1.10.