Theming

Wrap Your Custom JavaScript in a Closure for Drupal 8, 9, 10, and 11

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Up-to-date with minor version
11.0.x

Maybe you've heard of anonymous closures but you're not quite sure how they apply in Drupal, or why using them is considered a best-practice. Anonymous closures allow you to avoid accidentally clashing with anything in the global scope, as well as to alias the jQuery object to the more commonly used $. This is necessary because Drupal runs jQuery in no-conflict mode. This tutorial will look at the syntax used for placing your custom JavaScript code inside an anonymous closure, and why it's a good idea to do so.

In this tutorial we'll:

  • Explain what a closure is (briefly), and what immediately invoked function expressions are
  • Show how typically Drupal JavaScript gets wrapped in a closure
  • Provide a copy/paste example you can use in your own code

By the end of this tutorial you should be able to explain what an anonymous closure is, and how to use one in your custom JavaScript for Drupal.