jQuery Forum

I have the following object:

1. var wDefaults = {
2.     "skin":1,
3.     "pagewidth":"960px",
4.     "c1col":[
5.         {"wid":"w001","pcol":0,"wpos":0,"wclosed":"false","wcollapsed":"true"}
6.     ],
7.     "c3col":[
8.         {"wid":"w002","pcol":0,"wpos":0,"wclosed":"false","wcollapsed":"false"},
9.         {"wid":"w003","pcol":0,"wpos":1,"wclosed":"false","wcollapsed":"false"},
10.         {"wid":"w004","pcol":0,"wpos":2,"wclosed":"false","wcollapsed":"false"},
11.         {"wid":"w005","pcol":1,"wpos":0,"wclosed":"false","wcollapsed":"false"},
12.         {"wid":"w006","pcol":1,"wpos":1,"wclosed":"false","wcollapsed":"false"},
13.         {"wid":"w007","pcol":1,"wpos":2,"wclosed":"false","wcollapsed":"false"},
14.         {"wid":"w008","pcol":1,"wpos":3,"wclosed":"false","wcollapsed":"false"},
15.         {"wid":"w009","pcol":2,"wpos":0,"wclosed":"false","wcollapsed":"false"},
16.         {"wid":"w010","pcol":2,"wpos":1,"wclosed":"false","wcollapsed":"false"},
17.         {"wid":"w011","pcol":2,"wpos":2,"wclosed":"false","wcollapsed":"false"}
18.     ]
19. }

First, how do I access a single value? I've tried some of the examples I saw on the forum, but nothing happened. The alert did not fire:

1. alert(wDefaults.c3col[0].wid);  //first try
   
2. alert(wDefaults.c3col.0.wid);  //second try
   
3. var obj = wDefaults.c3col[0];  //third try
   
4. alert(obj.wid);

The nested objects are the properties for widgets within a portal. After the user moves around the widgets, I need to update the object, putting the widgets in a different order within c3col and updating the values saved in pcol, wpos, wclosed, & wcollapsed. I also may need to add or delete an object, for example, delete wid=w003 and add a new one called w012.

My logic would be:

1. for each widget on the page
   
2.   found = false 
   
3.   find the object in c3col where wid == x and update its other values. set found = true
   
4.   if found == false then add a new object to c3col with x & its properties
5. end for
6. for each object in c3col
7.   if that wid isn't found in the list of widgets on the page, delete it from c3col
8. end for
   
9. sort the objects under c3col by pcol and then wpos

The red parts are the ones I'm unclear about how to do it. My basic questions are:

(1)  How do you access a single nested object? (an object within c3col, find and change its values)
(2)  How do you add a new nested object to an existing object? (add a new object to c3col)
(3)  How do you delete an nested object? (remove an object from c3col)
(4)  How do you sort nested objects? (sort the objects in c3col by pcol and wpos)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.