Question

All,

Am using jquery to animate a sliding effect on the li elements. While I have managed to create the sliding effect, it is not being animated correctly.

Issue:
I think the issue is to with the jquery animation timing, which conflicts with the rest of the code immediately below the jquery animate call.

Code:
Here is the relevant code for review (jsfiddle link underneath):

    function activateRightTab()
{
    var eTabIndDiv = document.getElementById ("feature_tabs_indicators").children[0];
    var iIndsCount = eTabIndDiv.childNodes[1].children.length;
    var direction = "right";
    if (iActiveNo < iTabsCount - 1 && iActiveNo >= 0)
    {
        iActiveNo = iActiveNo + 1;
        var eCurrentTab = eTabsDiv.children[iActiveNo];
        var ePreviousTab = eTabsDiv.children[iActiveNo - 1];
        if (iActiveNo > 0)
        {
            ePreviousTab.style.position = "relative";
            $(ePreviousTab).animate({"right" : "210px"}, 250);
            $(eTabIndDiv.children[iActiveNo - 1]).animate({"width" : "12px"}, 250).animate({"width" : "18px"}, 125);

            // ****** the following three lines conflict with the above jquery line ******  

            self.setTimeout(ePreviousTab.style.width = "0", 250);
            ePreviousTab.style.color = "transparent";
            ePreviousTab.style.position = "static";
        }
        eCurrentTab.style.position = "relative";
        eCurrentTab.style.right = "-210px";
        eCurrentTab.style.width = "210px";
        eCurrentTab.style.backgroundColor = "rgb(165,145,176)";
        eCurrentTab.style.color = "black";
        $(eCurrentTab).animate({"right" : "10px"}, 250).animate({"right" : "0"}, 125);
        $(eTabIndDiv.children[iActiveNo]).animate({"width" : "127px"}, 250).animate({"width" : "121px"},125);
    }
    if (iActiveNo === iTabsCount - 1 && eRightScrollButton.style.opacity === "0.5")         //springy effect when no other right tab
    {
        $(eTabsDiv.children[iActiveNo]).animate({"right" : "10px"}, 100).animate({"right" : "-5px"}, 45).animate({"right" : "0"}, 10);          
    }
    (iActiveNo === iTabsCount - 1) ? eRightScrollButton.style.opacity = "0.5" : false;
    activateFeaturesContainer(direction);
    return iActiveNo;
}

Here is the working prototype on jsfiddle (press the light green button ‘rght’ button on the right)

Answer 1

Don’t use timeouts to dictate when to set the css.

The .animate() function comes with a complete callback that will run when the animation is completed.

$(eTabIndDiv.children[iActiveNo - 1])
                .animate({width: "12px"}, 250)
                .animate({width: "18px"},
                         {complete: function(){
                             ePreviousTab.css('width', '0');
                          }, 
                          duration: 125});

http://jsfiddle.net/RtaK7/4/