Question

I’m trying to use CSS Transitions with a :before selector and currently the only browser that supports this is Firefox. I can create a jQuery fallback with no problem, but I’m not sure how to do feature detection with a pseudo-element like that.

Here’s a JSBin which shows the HTML and CSS that I’m working with.

(… and here’s a similar SO question, but about using regular elements.)

Update: wow, even the platform preview of IE10 has support for this, what’s up with that webkit?!

(Edit: solutions moved to answer below)

Answer 1

Thanks to @Asad for digging up some handy code, I was able to come up with a nice solution here’s the jQuery version:

$(function() {
  var isTransitionSupported = (function (pseudo, transProp, transPropStart, transPropEnd) {
    var id = pseudo + transProp + '-' + (new Date()).valueOf(),
        prefixes = ['o', 'ms', 'moz', 'webkit'],
        prop = "transition: " + transProp + " 99s linear;",
        allprops = (function () {
          var props = "";
          for (var l = prefixes.length; l--;) {
            props += "-" + prefixes[l] + "-" + prop;
          }
          return props + prop;
        }()),
        $css = $("<style>" +
                 "#" + id + "{position:absolute;left:-999em;}" + 
                 "#" + id + ":" + pseudo + "{display:block;content:'M';" + transProp + ":" + transPropStart + ";}" + 
                 "#" + id + ".t:" + pseudo + "{" + allprops + transProp + ":" + transPropEnd + ";}" + 
                 "</style>"),
        $bct = $('<div id="' + id + '" />');

      $css.appendTo("head");
      $bct.appendTo("body");

      try {
        // get style value before any changes
        window.getComputedStyle($bct[0], ':' + pseudo).getPropertyValue(transProp);

        $bct.addClass("t");

        // test style after changes
        return (window.getComputedStyle($bct[0], ':' + pseudo).getPropertyValue(transProp) !== transPropEnd);
      } catch (e) {}
      return false;
    }("before", "width", "0px", "1000px"));
});

Here’s a version that doesn’t use jQuery:

var isTransitionSupported = (function (pseudo, transProp, transPropStart, transPropEnd) {
    var ticks = (new Date()).valueOf(),
        id = pseudo + transProp + '-' + ticks,
        prefixes = ['o', 'ms', 'moz', 'webkit'],
        prop = "transition: " + transProp + " 99s linear;",
        allprops = (function () {
            var props = "";
            for (var l = prefixes.length; l--;) {
                props += "-" + prefixes[l] + "-" + prop;
            }
            return props + prop;
        }()),
        body = document.body || document.createElement('body'),
        node = document.createElement('div'),
        css = "<style>" +
                    "#" + id + "{position:absolute;left:-999em;}" + 
                    "#" + id + ":" + pseudo + "{display:block;content:'M';" + transProp + ":" + transPropStart + ";}" + 
                    "#" + id + ".t" + ticks + ":" + pseudo + "{" + allprops + transProp + ":" + transPropEnd + ";}" + 
                    "</style>",
        bct = document.createElement('div'),
        isSupported = false;

    bct.id = id;
    node.innerHTML += css;
    node.appendChild(bct);
    body.appendChild(node);

    try {
        // get style value before any changes
        window.getComputedStyle(bct, ':' + pseudo).getPropertyValue(transProp);

        bct.className += "t" + ticks;

        // test style after changes
        isSupported = (window.getComputedStyle(bct, ':' + pseudo).getPropertyValue(transProp) !== transPropEnd);
    } catch (e) {}

    node.parentNode.removeChild(node);

    return isSupported;
}("before", "width", "0px", "1000px"));

document.documentElement.className += ' ' + (isTransitionSupported ? '' : 'no-') + "pseudo-trans";

Here’s all that code in a gist on github, if anyone wants to fork and improve it.