How to make a dojo dijit tab blink or flash when an event occurs and it is not the active tab?

Question

I have a dojo dijit tab container and I want the tabs to flash a few times when an event occurs and it is not the selected tab. For example, when I receive a chat message I want the "Chat tab" to flash a few times as a visual notification that a chat has been received. I'm having a hard time finding the right control (the tab) to modify. Here is the code:

The HTML:

<div data-dojo-type="dijit.layout.TabContainer" data-dojo-props="region:'center',splitter: true">
<div id="tabChat" title="Chat" data-dojo-type="dijit.layout.BorderContainer" data-dojo-props="iconClass:'i-chat', design: 'sidebar'">
    <div id="pnlChatLog" style="background-color:#FFF; padding:0px;" data-dojo-type="dijit.layout.ContentPane" data-dojo-props="region:'center', splitter:true">
        <div id="divChatLog" style="width:100%; height:100%; overflow-y:scroll; overflow-x:hidden;">
        </div>
    </div>
    <div id="pnlChatMessage" style="background-color:#FFF; padding:0px; overflow:hidden;" data-dojo-type="dijit.layout.ContentPane" data-dojo-props="region:'bottom', splitter:false">
        <input id="txtChatMessage" style="width:100%; margin:0px; border:0px;" data-dojo-type="dijit.form.ValidationTextBox" data-dojo-props="intermediateChanges:false,placeholder:'Enter Message'" />
    </div>
</div>
<div id="tabQuestions" title="Questions" data-dojo-type="dijit.layout.BorderContainer" data-dojo-props="iconClass:'i-help', design: 'sidebar'">
    <div data-dojo-type="dijit.layout.BorderContainer" data-dojo-props="region:'center', splitter:false, gutters:false">
        <div style="background-color:#FFF; padding:0px; border-top:0px;" data-dojo-type="dijit.layout.ContentPane" data-dojo-props="region:'center', splitter:true">
            <div id="gridQuestions"></div>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

The javaScript:

//Chat message Event
chat.on("message", function(e) {
    //Message code is here...

    //TODO: Make the tab flash if it is not the current tab
});

Note: The messaging code (not shown here) works. I just need to know what javaScript will replace the TODO section so the tab blinks/flashes for a few seconds at this point.

Answer 1

To get to the tab button you have to use the tab element's "controlButton" then modify the domNode. Here is an example:

//A method for the blinking using setInterval. The top line shows
//how to  get the actual tab that you want to modify. Then add and remove the
//Hover classes for a nice flashing/blinking effect.
function blinkTab(tabId, count, interval) {

    var tabbutton = dijit.byId(tabId).controlButton.domNode;

    var interval = setInterval(function(){            
        if(count % 2 == 0) {
            tabbutton .className += " dijitTabHover";
            tabbutton .className += " dijitHover";
        }
        else {
            //Not sure this is the best way to remove a class but I couldn't find
            //a "clean" way to do it with dojo.
            tabbutton .className = tabbutton .className.replace( /(?:^|\s)dijitTabHover(?!\S)/ , '');
            tabbutton .className = tabbutton .className.replace( /(?:^|\s)dijitHover(?!\S)/ , '');
        }

        if(count == 0) {
            tabbutton .className = tabbutton .className.replace( /(?:^|\s)dijitTabHover(?!\S)/ , '');
            tabbutton .className = tabbutton .className.replace( /(?:^|\s)dijitHover(?!\S)/ , '');
            clearInterval(interval);
        }
        count--;
    }, interval);
}

//Now make the calls where desired

//Chat message Event
chat.on("message", function(e) {
    //Message code is here...

    blinkTab("tabChat", 10, 500);
});

//Question Event
questions.on("message", function(e) {
    //Question code is here...

    blinkTab("tabQuestions", 10, 500);
});

Answer 2

You might just want to change the "class" of the tab title span (or is it a div? don't remember). The easy way is to use firebug, check the element used for the tab title, identify it in the node hierarchy, then put an id on your tab like tabMsg or something, then you justy ned to dijit.byId to get the right tab, and then go to the title node and addClass/removeClass every seconds or 0.5s to make it "blink".

You might want to add a "blinking" property to your tab, so that while this is true you switch classes, and when you click on the tab you set it to false and disable the blinking.