Use jQuery's end() in my plugins

Question

How can I copy the stack of a jQuery object to another jQuery object, so I can use end in my plugins even when returning totally unrelated objects? Example:

$(myselector)
    .next()             // Destructive operation
        .doSomething()
    .end()              // Goes back to "myselector"
    .doSomethingElse(); // Works fine!

$.fn.myPlugin = function() {
    return $(unrelated); // No stack, can't call "end" on it
};

$(myselector)
    .myPlugin()         // Destructive operation
        .doSomething()
    .end()              // Goes back to nowhere, since the stack is empty
    .doSomethingElse(); // Doesn't work

I'd like to modify the $(unrelated) object to include this's stack, so the second example would work. Here's a complete example in jsFiddle.

Answer 1

$.fn.myPlugin = function(related) {
    if ( related == "getRelated" )
        return this.pushStack($(this.data("related")).get()); // Want to preserve stack
    return this.data("related",related);
};

You need to push the element to the stack so that end() gets back to it.

Answer 2

To me it looks like the way you are writing the plugin disturbs the logic of jQuery since you are returning something that jQuery might not expect. That is just a guess though, since I do not know jQuery well at all.

Maybe you can do what you want in .doSomething() instead?

Answer 3

If you look at the data on $( '#a' ) it's just a string saying '#c' not an actual jQuery Object. I updated the code for you http://jsfiddle.net/89gkD/3/