Working With JavaScript Object Defaults

The issue is a simple, yet annoying one. You want to access the property of an object, and work with that property value — perhaps calling a method on it, or accessing another property. The issue is that when an object property is undefined, errors happen. For example, if you're expecting a string or an array as a property value, the code would work fine if the property were initialized to an empty string, or an empty array respectively. The trick is, providing sane defaults on objects so that the clients using them don't blow up.