Rotate Document Title using JavaScript

Question

I'm looking to rotate a web page document title using JS. So for example:

Change to Domain.com to New Messgae - Domain.com and then back to Domain.com and so on, very similar to how Facebook does it with the new messages when using chat.

I have looked into using SetInterval but it only excepts one expression? Is it possible to change this or is using SetInterval the wrong function to use?

        $(document).ready(function() {

            setInterval(function()
            {
                  $(document).attr('title', 'New Message — Domain.com');
            },
            2000);

        });

Answer 1

Right now, you keep setting the same new title every 2 seconds, i.e. you won't see a change after the first change. You need to store the old title and alternate between two states, displaying the old and new titles:

var oldTitle, timerId;

function flashTitle(newTitle) {
  var state = false;
  oldTitle = document.title;  // save old title
  timerId = setInterval(flash, 2000);

  function flash() {
    // switch between old and new titles
    document.title = state ? oldTitle : newTitle;
    state = !state;
  }
}

function clearFlash() {
  clearInterval(timerId);
  document.title = oldTitle; // restore old title
}

Answer 2

$(document).ready(function() {
        var titles=['title1','title2','title3'];

        setInterval(function()
        {     
              $(document).attr('title', titles[0]);
              titles.push(titles.shift());
        },
        2000);

    });

Answer 3

Well you can do it without using JavaScript Libraries like so...

var title = document.getElementsByTagName('title');
var msg1 = "Domain.com";
var msg2 = "New Message - Domain.com"
var current;
var titleChange;

function changeTitle(){
  if(current == msg1){
   title = msg2;
   current = msg2;
  }else{ //If the current title isn't equal to the value of msg1
   title = msg1;
   current = msg1;
  }
 titleChange = setTimeout("changeTitle()", 1000);
}

function stopChangingTitle(){
 clearTimeout(titleChange);
 title = msg1;
}

I can't guarantee that the above code will work, but it should work!

Answer 4

This is what I came up with using Dr.Molle's solution.

function changeTitle (mytitle,count) {
    console.log(title_change);
    console.log(count);
    if (count >= 1) {
        var titles = [$('title').attr('data-title'),mytitle];
        title_change = setInterval(function(){     
             $(document).attr('title', titles[0]);
            titles.push(titles.shift());
        },
        1000);


    } else {
        clearInterval(title_change);
        //clearTimeout(title_change);
        title_change = false;
    }

        return false;

}

I did find however when I declared title_change outside the function that I couldn't seem to get the setInterval to stop cycling around. When count comes though >= 1 the process is started but when it comes back as 0 the clearInterval and clearTimeout didn't stop the change_loop.