Basic jQuery animation: Elipsis (three dots sequentially appearing)

Question

What I need:

I need an animated elipisis (...), one dot appearing after the other. The animation needs to loop. I\'d like to achieve this via jQuery

Animation

Answer 1

If you just need the dots to appear one after another only once, try something very simple like the following:

<div id="message">Awaiting your selection</div>​

var dots = 0;

$(document).ready(function() {
    setInterval (type, 600);
});

function type() {
    if(dots < 3) {
        $('#message').append('.');
        dots++;
    }
}​

http://jsfiddle.net/fVACg/

If you want them to appear more than once (to be deleted and then re-printed), you can do something like the following:

<div>Awaiting your selection<span id="dots"></span></div>​

var dots = 0;

$(document).ready(function() {
    setInterval (type, 600);
});

function type() {
    if(dots < 3) {
        $('#dots').append('.');
        dots++;
    } else {
        $('#dots').html('');
        dots = 0;
    }
}​

http://jsfiddle.net/wdVh8/

Finally, checkout a tutorial I've written a few years ago. You might find it useful.

Answer 2

I've written a simple JQuery plugin for it: https://github.com/karbachinsky/jquery-DotAnimation

//<div class="element">Loading</div>

$(function () {
    // Animation will start at once
    var $el = $('.element');

    $el.dotAnimation({
        speed: 300,
        dotElement: '.',
        numDots: 3
    });
});

JSFiddle example: https://jsfiddle.net/bcz8v136/

Answer 3

Beside StathisG's answer using jquery you can also achieve it through CSS3 using animation iteration count and animation-delay

@-webkit-keyframes opacity {
    0% { opacity: 1; }
    100% { opacity: 0; }
}

@-moz-keyframes opacity {
    0% { opacity: 1; }
    100% { opacity: 0; }
}

#loading {
    text-align: center; 
    margin: 100px 0 0 0;
}

#loading span {
    -webkit-animation-name: opacity;
    -webkit-animation-duration: 1s;
    -webkit-animation-iteration-count: infinite;

    -moz-animation-name: opacity;
    -moz-animation-duration: 1s;
    -moz-animation-iteration-count: infinite;
}

#loading span:nth-child(1) {
    -webkit-animation-delay: 100ms;
    -moz-animation-delay: 100ms;
}

#loading span:nth-child(2) {
    -webkit-animation-delay: 300ms;
    -moz-animation-delay: 300ms;
}

#loading span:nth-child(3) {
    -webkit-animation-delay: 500ms;
    -moz-animation-delay: 500ms;
}​

DEMO: http://jsfiddle.net/VXdhG/1/

Answer 4

The following code is essentially what I ended up with.

JavaScript:

var animatedDot;
animatedDot = animatedDot || (function () {
    var dots = 0;
    var animatedDotInterval;
    var selectorAnimatedDot = ".animatedDot";

    return {
        start: function(interval) {
            if (!interval)
                interval = 400;

            animatedDotInterval = setInterval(this.nextFrame, interval);
        },
        stop: function() {
            if (animatedDotInterval)
                clearInterval(animatedDotInterval);
        },
        nextFrame: function() {
            if ($(selectorAnimatedDot).length) {
                if (dots < 3) {
                    $(selectorAnimatedDot).append('.');
                    dots++;
                } else {
                    $(selectorAnimatedDot).html('');
                    dots = 0;
                }
            } else {
                if (animatedDotInterval)
                    clearInterval(animatedDotInterval);
            }
        }
    };
})();

function animatedDotTimeout(timeout) {
    if (!timeout)
        timeout = 10000;

    animatedDot.start();

    setTimeout(animatedDot.stop, timeout);
}

Html:

Loading<span class="animatedDot"></span>

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function() {
        animatedDot.start();
    });
</script>