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Moving box from right to left in jQuey

Hi. I'm experimenting with jQuery.

I'm trying to move a 80px x 80px green box from right to left across a webpage using the setInterval method.

Here is the HTML:

<%@ Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeFile="Default.aspx.vb" Inherits="_Default" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
    <link href="StyleSheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.6.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="JScript.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div class="box">
    
        Go!</div>
    </form>
    
</body>
</html>

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Here's the CSS:

.box
{
    
    width: 80px;
    height: 80px;
    background-color: green;
    margin-left: 861px;
}

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And here's the jQuery:

$(function () {
    var greenLeft = $('.box').offset().left;
    setInterval(function () {
        $('.box').css('left', --greenLeft);
    }, 200);
});

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When I run the webpage, nothing happens. Would it be easier to use the 'animate' method?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Albert Van Halen

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Gurvinder Pal Singh

why not use animate function of jquery
http://api.jquery.com/animate/

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
	<style>
		.box
		{
			width:80px;
			height:80px;
			position:absolute;
			left:1000px;
			border:1px solid #ccc;
			background-color:pink;
		}
	</style>
	<script src="jquery-1.4.2.min.js"></script>
	<script>
		$(document).ready(function(){
			
			$(".box").animate({"left":"0px"}, "slow");

		});
	</script>
</HEAD>

<BODY>
	<div class="box">Box</div>
</BODY>
</HTML>

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WhyDidntItWork

ASKER

Thanks Albert.

It worked like you said it would.

What is the importance of having the box absolute positioned? I'll have to do some digging into that.

WhyDidntItWork

ASKER

Thanks for trying Gurvinder. I tried your code and variations of it but I couldn't get it to work. All things said, I would prefer the animate method.

Gurvinder Pal Singh

did you change the jquery script url? Since i tried this on IE8, and Chrome6 and it worked

WhyDidntItWork

ASKER

Gurvinder, I take it back. It did work but it didn't give the granular control that I was looking for. Thanks for the suggestion.

Albert Van Halen

You can use the animate method though.
The thing is, you can't really control the speed in some cases.

Animate has the duration property which you can set at "fast", "slow" or a number (which is the duration; the higher the number the longer it takes).
Suppose you want to move an element from left to right of the screen. (what a scenario heh)
It just depends on how wide your screen is how fast the element will move.

Another tip : you might want to stop the 'animation' when the element is at the other side of your screen.
Use clearInterval for that.

$(function () {
    var greenLeft = $('.box').offset().left;
    slide = setInterval(function () {
        if(greenLeft == 0)
            clearInterval(slide);

        $('.box').css('margin-left', --greenLeft);
    }, 200);
});

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