Parece que "$ smth no es una función" es un problema muy común con JavaScript, sin embargo, después de revisar varios hilos, todavía no puedo entender qué lo está causando en mi caso.

Tengo un objeto personalizado, definido como:

function Scorm_API_12() {
var Initialized = false;

function LMSInitialize(param) {
    errorCode = "0";
    if (param == "") {
        if (!Initialized) {
            Initialized = true;
            errorCode = "0";
            return "true";
        } else {
            errorCode = "101";
        }
    } else {
        errorCode = "201";
    }
    return "false";
}

// some more functions, omitted.
}

var API = new Scorm_API_12();

Entonces en un script diferente, estoy tratando de usar esta API de la siguiente manera:

var API = null;

function ScormProcessInitialize(){
    var result;

    API = getAPI();

    if (API == null){
        alert("ERROR - Could not establish a connection with the API.");
        return;
    }

    // and here the dreaded error pops up
    result = API.LMSInitialize("");

    // more code, omitted
    initialized = true;
}

El material getAPI () se ve así:

var findAPITries = 0;

function findAPI(win)
{
   // Check to see if the window (win) contains the API
   // if the window (win) does not contain the API and
   // the window (win) has a parent window and the parent window
   // is not the same as the window (win)
   while ( (win.API == null) &&
           (win.parent != null) &&
           (win.parent != win) )
   {
      // increment the number of findAPITries
      findAPITries++;

      // Note: 7 is an arbitrary number, but should be more than sufficient
      if (findAPITries > 7)
      {
         alert("Error finding API -- too deeply nested.");
         return null;
      }

      // set the variable that represents the window being
      // being searched to be the parent of the current window
      // then search for the API again
      win = win.parent;
   }
   return win.API;
}

function getAPI()
{
   // start by looking for the API in the current window
   var theAPI = findAPI(window);

   // if the API is null (could not be found in the current window)
   // and the current window has an opener window
   if ( (theAPI == null) &&
        (window.opener != null) &&
        (typeof(window.opener) != "undefined") )
   {
      // try to find the API in the current window�s opener
      theAPI = findAPI(window.opener);
   }
   // if the API has not been found
   if (theAPI == null)
   {
      // Alert the user that the API Adapter could not be found
      alert("Unable to find an API adapter");
   }
   return theAPI;
}

Ahora, la API esprobablement encontrado, porque no recibo el mensaje "No se puede encontrar ...", el código procede a intentar inicializarlo. Pero firebug me diceAPI.LMSInitialize is not a function, y si trato de depurarlo conalert(Object.getOwnPropertyNames(API));, me da una alerta en blanco.

¿Qué me estoy perdiendo