Chaining jQuery animations that affect different elements

Question

$(document).ready(function() {
    $("#div1").fadeIn("slow");
    $("#div2").delay(500).fadeIn("slow");
    $("#div3").delay(2000).fadeIn("slow");
    $("#div4").delay(8000).fadeIn("slow");
});

This is my current setup but I feel like this isn't the best way to write this. I can't find any examples on how you would write this better for timing. Any help? I'd appreciate it.

I should also add that the timing of each element isn't consistent.

Answer 1

fadeIn takes a callback as its second parameter. That callback is executed as soon as the animation is complete. If you want the elements to fade in sequentially, you could chain the callbacks:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $("#div1").fadeIn("slow", function(){
        $("#div2").fadeIn("slow", function(){
            $("#div3").fadeIn("slow", function(){
                $("#div4").fadeIn("slow");
            });
        });
    });
});

This could be re-written using an array of selectors and a single method, if you felt like it:

var chain = function(toAnimate, ix){
    if(toAnimate[ix]){
        $(toAnimate[ix]).fadeIn('slow', function(){ chain(toAnimate, ix + 1 )});
    }
};

$(document).ready(function(){
    chain(['#div1', '#div2', '#div3', '#div4'], 0);
});

See this last one in action at JSBin.