Question

I have a div that is getting updated by periodically_call_remote.

When this div is updated I want it to fade in. I know prototype will handle this but I am not sure how.

for example:

periodically_call_remote(:url => ‘update’, :frequency => ‘5’, :update => ‘ticker’)

When this content is updated I want it to fade in and fade out so the transitions looks smooth.

Answer 1

Use callbacks to call some javascript that will take care of the fade in and out.

periodically_call_remote(:url => 'update', :frequency => '5', 
                         :update => 'ticker', 
                         :before => "fadeOut();", :complete => "fadeIn();")

… or something similar

See the documentation :

CALLBACKS   =   Set.new([ :create, :uninitialized, :loading, :loaded, :interactive, :complete, :failure, :success ] + (100..599).to_a)
AJAX_OPTIONS    =   Set.new([ :before, :after, :condition, :url, :asynchronous, :method, :insertion, :position, :form, :with, :update, :script, :type ]).merge(CALLBACKS)

To do the fadeIn and out, prototype or jQuery will do the trick just fine.