How to Animate Box-Shadow with jQuery: Plugin vs. CSS Animations?

Animating Box-Shadow with jQuery: The Right Approach

Introduction

jQuery, a popular JavaScript library, provides powerful tools for manipulating DOM elements. One such manipulation is animating the box-shadow property to create visual effects. However, the correct syntax for achieving this can be confusing.

jQuery Plugin for Shadow Animation

The most straightforward method for animating box-shadow with jQuery is to utilize Edwin Martin's jQuery plugin specifically designed for this task. By extending the .animate method, it simplifies the process:

<code class="javascript">$(element).animate({
    boxShadow: "0px 0px 5px 3px hsla(100, 70%, 60%, 0.8)"
});</code>

Using this plugin, every aspect of the box shadow (color, offsets, radii) is animated smoothly. It also supports the animation of multiple shadows.

CSS Animations as an Alternative

While jQuery's approach is effective, it can interfere with specificity and move style information outside of stylesheets. For situations where browser support is adequate, CSS animations provide a cleaner solution:

<code class="css">@keyframes shadowPulse {
    ...
}

.shadow-pulse {
    ...
}</code>

By applying an animation-based class with JavaScript and listening for the animationend event, you can synchronize the animation with additional actions:

Vanilla JS:

<code class="javascript">element.classList.add('shadow-pulse');
element.addEventListener('animationend', () => {
    // ...
});</code>

jQuery:

<code class="javascript">$(element).addClass('shadow-pulse');
$(element).on('animationend', function() {
    // ...
});</code>

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