Question

How can I make the carousel center the item I’ve clicked to the middle? I’ve looked everywhere for an answer but they’re not straight answers… Can someone help me in this, please?

This is what I’ve done so far: http://jsfiddle.net/sp9Jv/

HTML:

<div id="wrapper">
    <div id="carousel">
        <a href="#" class="prev">prev</a>
        <a href="#" class="next">next</a>

        <div class="viewport">
            <ul>
                <li><a href="#">Un</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Deux</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Trois</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Quatre</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Cinq</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Six</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Sept</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Huit</a></li>
            </ul>
        </div>
        <!-- viewport -->

    </div>
    <!-- carousel -->
</div>
<!-- wrapper -->

JavaScript:

var carousel = $('#carousel'),
    prev = carousel.find('.prev'),
    next = carousel.find('.next'),
    viewport = carousel.find('.viewport'),
    item = viewport.find('li'),
    itemWidth = item.outerWidth(true),
    itemNum = item.length,
    itemList = viewport.find('ul');

itemList.width(itemWidth * itemNum);

var moveCarousel = function(dir) {
    itemList.animate({ left: '-=' + (itemWidth  * dir) + 'px' }, 400);  
};

//prev
prev.on('click', function(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    moveCarousel(-1);
});

//next
next.on('click', function(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    moveCarousel(1);
});

//carousel item
item.on('click', 'a', function(e) {
    var self = $(this),
        selfIndex = self.index(),
        distance = itemList.width() / 2,
        selfPos = self.position(),
        selfPosLeft = selfPos.left,
        viewportPosLeft = viewport.position().left;

    e.preventDefault();

    //move item to middle, but it doesn't work... 
    if (selfPosLeft > Math.floor(viewport.width())/3) {
        itemList.animate({ left: '-' + Math.floor(viewport.width())/3 + 'px' }, 400);
    }

    if (selfPosLeft < Math.floor(viewport.width())/3) {
        itemList.animate({ left: Math.floor(viewport.width())/3 + 'px' }, 400);
    }
});

CSS:

#wrapper {
    width: 500px;
    margin: 20px auto;
}
#carousel {
    position: relative;
}
.viewport {
    width: 260px;
    border: 1px solid #6e6e6e;
    height: 80px;
    overflow: hidden;
    position: relative;
    margin-left: 100px;
}
.prev, .next {
    position: absolute;
}
.prev {
    top: 20px;
    left: 0;
}
.next {
    top: 20px;
    right: 0;
}

.viewport ul {
    position: absolute;
}
.viewport li {
    float: left;
    margin-right: 10px;
}
.viewport li a {
    display: block;
    width: 80px;
    height: 80px;
    background: #ddd;
}

Answer 1

While you have prepared all the information needed about all items, you can calculate the value of the left based on the clicked item.

Here is my modification:

and I’ve bound the click action of carousel items with this function and passed the clicked item using the self keyword.

var itemClicked=function(item){
    var itemIndex=$(item).index(),
        newLeft=(itemIndex*itemWidth*-1)+Math.floor(($(viewport).width()/itemWidth)/2)*itemWidth;
    $(itemList).animate({left:newLeft+"px"},400);
};

You can check it working on this url: http://jsfiddle.net/rUZHg/3/

I assume that this should work despite of the number of viewed elements while it calculates the padding between the left 0 and the left of the center element.