How to make "jQuery UI tab" blink/ flash - jquery-ui

Question

I want to make "jQuery UI TAB" blink (like notification).
I have diffrent tabs (Inbox | Sent | Important). My timer function checks if there is a new message in inbox, if so, I want the Inbox tab to start blinking/ flashing unless its clicked open.
Have tried diffrent options like .effect(..), .tabs(fx: {..}) but nothing seems to work :(
Any idea if its possible or not?

Answer 1

Yes it's definitely possible.
To give me some practice, I've written a jQuery blinker plugin for you:
jQuery:
(function($){
// **********************************
// ***** Start: Private Members *****
var pluginName = 'blinker';
var blinkMain = function(data){
var that = this;
this.css(data.settings.css_1);
clearTimeout(data.timeout);
data.timeout = setTimeout(function(){
that.css(data.settings.css_0);
}, data.settings.cycle * data.settings.ratio);
};
// ***** Fin: Private Members *****
// ********************************
// *********************************
// ***** Start: Public Methods *****
var methods = {
init : function(options) {
//"this" is a jquery object on which this plugin has been invoked.
return this.each(function(index){
var $this = $(this);
var data = $this.data(pluginName);
// If the plugin hasn't been initialized yet
if (!data){
var settings = {
css_0: {
color: $this.css('color'),
backgroundColor: $this.css('backgroundColor')
},
css_1: {
color: '#000',
backgroundColor: '#F90'
},
cycle: 2000,
ratio: 0.5
};
if(options) { $.extend(true, settings, options); }
$this.data(pluginName, {
target : $this,
settings: settings,
interval: null,
timeout: null,
blinking: false
});
}
});
},
start: function(){
return this.each(function(index){
var $this = $(this);
var data = $this.data(pluginName);
if(!data.blinking){
blinkMain.call($this, data);
data.interval = setInterval(function(){
blinkMain.call($this, data);
}, data.settings.cycle);
data.blinking = true;
}
});
},
stop: function(){
return this.each(function(index){
var $this = $(this);
var data = $this.data(pluginName);
clearInterval(data.interval);
clearTimeout(data.timeout);
data.blinking = false;
this.style = '';
});
}
};
// ***** Fin: Public Methods *****
// *******************************
// *****************************
// ***** Start: Supervisor *****
$.fn[pluginName] = function( method ) {
if ( methods[method] ) {
return methods[method].apply( this, Array.prototype.slice.call( arguments, 1 ));
} else if ( typeof method === 'object' || !method ) {
return methods.init.apply( this, arguments );
} else {
$.error( 'Method ' + method + ' does not exist in jQuery.' + pluginName );
}
};
// ***** Fin: Supervisor *****
// ***************************
})( jQuery );
See it in action here
The plugin and the fiddle are pretty raw in that I haven't tried to integrate with jQuery-ui-tabs. This may be easy or hard, I don't know, but providing each tab is addressable by class or id then it shouldn't be too difficult.
Something you may need to consider is stopping a blinking tab when it is clicked. For this you may wish to call the .blinker('stop') method directly (with a .on('click') handler) or from an appropriate jQuery-ui-tabs callback.
API
The plugin is properly written in jQuery's preferred pattern. It puts just one member in the jQuery.fn namespace and .blinker(...) will chain like standard jQuery methods.
Methods :
.blinker('init' [,options]) : Initialises selected element(s) with blinker behaviour. Called automatically with .blinker(options), or just .blinker() in its simplest form.
.blinker('start') : causes selected element(s) to start blinking between two styles as determined by plugin defaults and/or options.
.blinker('stop') : causes selected element(s) to stop blinking and return to their natural CSS style(s).
Options : a map of properties, which determine blinker styles and timing:
css_0 : (optional) a map of css properties representing the blink OFF-state.
css_1 : a map of CSS properties representing the blink ON-state.
cycle : the blink cycle time in milliseconds (default 2000).
ratio : ON time as a proportion of cycle time (default 0.5).
By omitting css_0 from the options map, the OFF state is determined by the element(s)' natural CSS styling defined elsewhere (typically in a stylesheet).
Default values are hard-coded for css_1.color, css_1.backgroundColor, cycle time and ratio. Changing the default settings programmatically is not handled, so for different default styling the plugin will need to be edited.

Answer 2

jQuery comes by default with a slew of effects to pick from. You can easily use them wherever you see the need for them and they can be applied like so:
$('#newmsg').effect("pulsate", {}, 1000);
Demo

Answer 3

yes... this is what you need...!!!
this is javascript
if(newmessage==true){
$('#chat-86de45de47-tab').effect("pulsate", {}, 1000);
}
i think it's