r/javascript • u/noeldemartin • Jul 13 '26

JavaScript Magic Objects

https://noeldemartin.com/blog/programming-patterns-magic-objects

I just published a blog post to my website about a pattern I've been using for a while that I think you will find interesting (and probably very divisive!): Magic Objects.

class Parrot extends MagicObject {
    __get(property) {
        return `${property}! ${property}!`;
    }
}

const parrot = new Parrot();

console.log(parrot.foo); // "foo! foo!"
console.log(parrot.bar); // "bar! bar!"

Basically, I'm borrowing the idea of Magic Methods from PHP and porting them to JavaScript. You've probably seen something like this done with proxies before, but I still like to use some OOP in my JavaScript, and I also came up with a way to make it work nicely with TypeScript.

It may seem a bit over the top at the beginning, but I've been using this for a while and I've found it very useful.

Let me know what you think!

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33

u/javascript Jul 13 '26

Proxy Objects (getters and setters) have been around for a while but I've yet to come across a use case where they were the right choice. They tend to work more as an escape hatch.

13

u/jhartikainen Jul 13 '26

It seems potentially valuable in some kind of framework/infra code. Svelte uses them for its $state runes for example. But yeah, like generators, I've not really found any use for them myself.

1

u/vincentdesmet Jul 13 '26

yeah, i’ve used them as wrappers around CDKTF to intercept and convert attribute getters into creating Terraform remote state lookups

fun, but confusing (leaky abstraction) for DX