[jquery] CSS rotation cross browser with jquery.animate()

I'm working on creating a cross-browser compatible rotation (ie9+) and I have the following code in a jsfiddle

$(document).ready(function () { 
    DoRotate(30);
    AnimateRotate(30);
});

function DoRotate(d) {

    $("#MyDiv1").css({
          '-moz-transform':'rotate('+d+'deg)',
          '-webkit-transform':'rotate('+d+'deg)',
          '-o-transform':'rotate('+d+'deg)',
          '-ms-transform':'rotate('+d+'deg)',
          'transform': 'rotate('+d+'deg)'
     });  
}

function AnimateRotate(d) {

        $("#MyDiv2").animate({
          '-moz-transform':'rotate('+d+'deg)',
          '-webkit-transform':'rotate('+d+'deg)',
          '-o-transform':'rotate('+d+'deg)',
          '-ms-transform':'rotate('+d+'deg)',
          'transform':'rotate('+d+'deg)'
     }, 1000); 
}

The CSS and HTML are really simple and just for demo:

.SomeDiv{
    width:50px;
    height:50px;       
    margin:50px 50px;
    background-color: red;}

<div id="MyDiv1" class="SomeDiv">test</div>
<div id="MyDiv2" class="SomeDiv">test</div>

The rotation works when using .css() but not when using .animate(); why is that and is there a way to fix it?

Thanks.

Without plugin cross browser with setInterval:

                        function rotatePic() {
                            jQuery({deg: 0}).animate(
                               {deg: 360},  
                               {duration: 3000, easing : 'linear', 
                                 step: function(now, fx){
                                   jQuery("#id").css({
                                      '-moz-transform':'rotate('+now+'deg)',
                                      '-webkit-transform':'rotate('+now+'deg)',
                                      '-o-transform':'rotate('+now+'deg)',
                                      '-ms-transform':'rotate('+now+'deg)',
                                      'transform':'rotate('+now+'deg)'
                                  });
                              }
                            });
                        }

                        var sec = 3;
                        rotatePic();
                        var timerInterval = setInterval(function() {
                            rotatePic();
                            sec+=3;
                            if (sec > 30) {
                                clearInterval(timerInterval);
                            }
                        }, 3000);

jQuery transit will probably make your life easier if you are dealing with CSS3 animations through jQuery.

EDIT March 2014 (because my advice has constantly been up and down voted since I posted it)

Let me explain why I was initially hinting towards the plugin above:

Updating the DOM on each step (i.e. $.animate ) is not ideal in terms of performance. It works, but will most probably be slower than pure CSS3 transitions or CSS3 animations.

This is mainly because the browser gets a chance to think ahead if you indicate what the transition is going to look like from start to end.

To do so, you can for example create a CSS class for each state of the transition and only use jQuery to toggle the animation state.

This is generally quite neat as you can tweak you animations alongside the rest of your CSS instead of mixing it up with your business logic:

// initial state
.eye {
   -webkit-transform: rotate(45deg);
   -moz-transform: rotate(45deg);
   transform: rotate(45deg);
   // etc.

   // transition settings
   -webkit-transition: -webkit-transform 1s linear 0.2s;
   -moz-transition: -moz-transform 1s linear 0.2s;
   transition: transform 1s linear 0.2s;
   // etc.
}

// open state    
.eye.open {

   transform: rotate(90deg);
}

// Javascript
$('.eye').on('click', function () { $(this).addClass('open'); });

If any of the transform parameters is dynamic you can of course use the style attribute instead:

$('.eye').on('click', function () { 
    $(this).css({ 
        -webkit-transition: '-webkit-transform 1s ease-in',
        -moz-transition: '-moz-transform 1s ease-in',
        // ...

        // note that jQuery will vendor prefix the transform property automatically
        transform: 'rotate(' + (Math.random()*45+45).toFixed(3) + 'deg)'
    }); 
});

A lot more detailed information on CSS3 transitions on MDN.

HOWEVER There are a few other things to keep in mind and all this can get a bit tricky if you have complex animations, chaining etc. and jQuery Transit just does all the tricky bits under the hood:

$('.eye').transit({ rotate: '90deg'}); // easy huh ?

To do this cross browser including IE7+, you will need to expand the plugin with a transformation matrix. Since vendor prefix is done in jQuery from jquery-1.8+ I will leave that out for the transform property.

$.fn.animateRotate = function(endAngle, options, startAngle)
{
    return this.each(function()
    {
        var elem = $(this), rad, costheta, sintheta, matrixValues, noTransform = !('transform' in this.style || 'webkitTransform' in this.style || 'msTransform' in this.style || 'mozTransform' in this.style || 'oTransform' in this.style),
            anims = {}, animsEnd = {};
        if(typeof options !== 'object')
        {
            options = {};
        }
        else if(typeof options.extra === 'object')
        {
            anims = options.extra;
            animsEnd = options.extra;
        }
        anims.deg = startAngle;
        animsEnd.deg = endAngle;
        options.step = function(now, fx)
        {
            if(fx.prop === 'deg')
            {
                if(noTransform)
                {
                    rad = now * (Math.PI * 2 / 360);
                    costheta = Math.cos(rad);
                    sintheta = Math.sin(rad);
                    matrixValues = 'M11=' + costheta + ', M12=-'+ sintheta +', M21='+ sintheta +', M22='+ costheta;
                    $('body').append('Test ' + matrixValues + '<br />');
                    elem.css({
                        'filter': 'progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Matrix(sizingMethod=\'auto expand\','+matrixValues+')',
                        '-ms-filter': 'progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Matrix(sizingMethod=\'auto expand\','+matrixValues+')'
                    });
                }
                else
                {
                    elem.css({
                        //webkitTransform: 'rotate('+now+'deg)',
                        //mozTransform: 'rotate('+now+'deg)',
                        //msTransform: 'rotate('+now+'deg)',
                        //oTransform: 'rotate('+now+'deg)',
                        transform: 'rotate('+now+'deg)'
                    });
                }
            }
        };
        if(startAngle)
        {
            $(anims).animate(animsEnd, options);
        }
        else
        {
            elem.animate(animsEnd, options);
        }
    });
};

Note: The parameters options and startAngle are optional, if you only need to set startAngle use {} or null for options.

Example usage:

var obj = $(document.createElement('div'));
obj.on("click", function(){
    obj.stop().animateRotate(180, {
        duration: 250,
        complete: function()
        {
            obj.animateRotate(0, {
                duration: 250
            });
        }
    });
});
obj.text('Click me!');
obj.css({cursor: 'pointer', position: 'absolute'});
$('body').append(obj);

See also this jsfiddle for a demo.

Update: You can now also pass extra: {} in the options. This will make you able to execute other animations simultaneously. For example:

obj.animateRotate(90, {extra: {marginLeft: '100px', opacity: 0.5}});

This will rotate the element 90 degrees, and move it to the right with 100px and make it semi-transparent all at the same time during the animation.

this is my solution:

var matrixRegex = /(?:matrix\(|\s*,\s*)([-+]?[0-9]*\.?[0-9]+(?:[e][-+]?[0-9]+)?)/gi;

var getMatches = function(string, regex) {
    regex || (regex = matrixRegex);
    var matches = [];
    var match;
    while (match = regex.exec(string)) {
        matches.push(match[1]);
    }
    return matches;
};

$.cssHooks['rotation'] = {
    get: function(elem) {
        var $elem = $(elem);
        var matrix = getMatches($elem.css('transform'));
        if (matrix.length != 6) {
            return 0;
        }
        return Math.atan2(parseFloat(matrix[1]), parseFloat(matrix[0])) * (180/Math.PI);
    }, 
    set: function(elem, val){
        var $elem = $(elem);
        var deg = parseFloat(val);
        if (!isNaN(deg)) {
            $elem.css({ transform: 'rotate(' + deg + 'deg)' });
        }
    }
};
$.cssNumber.rotation = true;
$.fx.step.rotation = function(fx) {
    $.cssHooks.rotation.set(fx.elem, fx.now + fx.unit);
};

then you can use it in the default animate fkt:

//rotate to 90 deg cw
$('selector').animate({ rotation: 90 });

//rotate to -90 deg ccw
$('selector').animate({ rotation: -90 });

//rotate 90 deg cw from current rotation
$('selector').animate({ rotation: '+=90' });

//rotate 90 deg ccw from current rotation
$('selector').animate({ rotation: '-=90' });

Another answer, because jQuery.transit is not compatible with jQuery.easing. This solution comes as an jQuery extension. Is more generic, rotation is a specific case:

$.fn.extend({
    animateStep: function(options) {
        return this.each(function() {
            var elementOptions = $.extend({}, options, {step: options.step.bind($(this))});
            $({x: options.from}).animate({x: options.to}, elementOptions);
        });
    },
    rotate: function(value) {
        return this.css("transform", "rotate(" + value + "deg)");
    }
});

The usage is as simple as:

$(element).animateStep({from: 0, to: 90, step: $.fn.rotate});

Thanks yckart! Great contribution. I fleshed out your plugin a bit more. Added startAngle for full control and cross-browser css.

$.fn.animateRotate = function(startAngle, endAngle, duration, easing, complete){
    return this.each(function(){
        var elem = $(this);

        $({deg: startAngle}).animate({deg: endAngle}, {
            duration: duration,
            easing: easing,
            step: function(now){
                elem.css({
                  '-moz-transform':'rotate('+now+'deg)',
                  '-webkit-transform':'rotate('+now+'deg)',
                  '-o-transform':'rotate('+now+'deg)',
                  '-ms-transform':'rotate('+now+'deg)',
                  'transform':'rotate('+now+'deg)'
                });
            },
            complete: complete || $.noop
        });
    });
};