How do I call a nested function in a parent document from an iframe

Question

In parent:

function outer(){
    function inner(){
        alert("hello");
    }
}

in iframe

parent.outer.inner();

does not work.

Edit: So they are private. No problem. The reason for doing this is to try and hide these functions from global scope as much as possible. I thought putting them behind a single function name with a pretty unique name would be the best way to do this.

Essentially do I need to

parent:

function outer(action){

    if(action == "inner")
       inner()

    function inner(){
        alert("hello");
    }
}

iframe: parent.outer("inner");

Is there a more elegant way of doing this?

Answer 1

Nested functions are private and you can at best only specify arguments for inner functions outside the outer function.

Explanation can be found here https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/Functions_and_function_scope under "Nested functions and closures"

Answer 2

By using closure :

   function outer(){
        function inner(){
        alert("I am Inner");
        }
        return inner ;
   }
   var x = outer();
   x();

If you want to use variable of inner function than we can do in this way :

  function outer(){
        function inner(){
         var y=10;  return y;    
       }
       return inner ;
 }
 var x = outer();
 x();

Answer 3

This seems to answer my edit fairly well How to turn a String into a javascript function call?

Answer 4

One approach is using an object

function Outer(){
    this.inner = function(){
        alert("hello");
    }
}

var o = new Outer()
o.inner();