If your code is static, this is simple, you could just do this:
$("#someElement").animate({
"top": "200px",
"left": "0px"
}, 2000, function () {
$("#someElement2").animate({
"z-index": "-1",
"top": "100px",
"left": "0px",
"width": "220px"
}, 2000);
});
You are just invoking a function and on complete you are invoking the next function. JQuery has made this very simple for us. Thank you JQuery.
But what if your elements are not static? What if you are adding elements at runtime to HTML and you need to chain these different elements together? How do you achieve same thing in a dynamic way?
Wouldn't it be great if you could do something like this:
CompletionChain().Add(function (completed) {
$("#someElement").animate({
"top": "200px",
"left": "0px"
}, 2000, completed);
})
.Add(function (completed) {
$("#someElement2").animate({
"z-index": "-1",
"top": "100px",
"left": "0px",
"width": "220px"
}, 2000, completed);
})
.Add(function (completed) {
$("#someElement3").fadeOut(2000).fadeIn(2000, completed);
})
.Run(function () {
//doSomething
})
This approach allows you to add animations to a queue at runtime and running the entire chain by calling Run(). Unfortunately this is not part of the JQuery API, however I have written a class to do just that:
function CompletionChain() {
this.chainIndex = 0;
this.chainList = [];
this.onComplete = function () { };
this.Add = function (funcToComplete) {
var myself = this;
this.chainList.push(function () {
funcToComplete(function () {
myself.chainIndex++;
myself.execNextFuncInTheChain(myself.chainIndex);
});
});
return myself;
}
this.Run = function (onComplete) {
if (onComplete != null)
this.onComplete = onComplete;
this.execNextFuncInTheChain(0);
}
this.execNextFuncInTheChain = function (index) {
if (this.chainList[index] != null) {
this.chainList[index]();
} else {
this.onComplete();
}
}
return this;
}
The idea is, don't execute the animation straight away, store it in a list. When you are ready invoke Run(), CompletionChain will invoke the first function in the chain and after it completes the first function it will invoke the next function in the chain. It will keep going until it reaches the end and then it will call onComplete. Idea was partially taken from the Linked list algorithm and Command design pattern.
Here it is in action:
*Note: Code in this article is not production ready and is used for prototyping purposes only. If you have suggestions or feedback please do comment.
