How Can jQuery and CSS Transitions Smoothly Animate DOM Element Color Changes?

jQuery Animated CSS Class Transitions for Smooth DOM Element Color Changes

Introduction
In this article, we address the challenge of animating CSS attribute changes on various objects using jQuery while maintaining control over stylesheet definitions.

Example 1: Animate with Dedicated CSS Properties
Using animate(), we can directly manipulate CSS properties within the animation code:

$('#someDiv').mouseover(function() {
  $(this).stop().animate({ backgroundColor: 'blue' }, { duration: 500 });
}).mouseout(function() {
  $(this).stop().animate({ backgroundColor: 'red' }, { duration: 500 });
});

However, this approach separates style definitions from the stylesheet, which is less desirable.

Example 2: AddClass/RemoveClass Alternative
To leverage stylesheet classes, we can use addClass() and removeClass(), as demonstrated below:

$('#someDiv').addClass('blue').mouseover(function() {
  $(this).stop(true, false).removeAttr('style').addClass('red', { duration: 500 });
}).mouseout(function() {
  $(this).stop(true, false).removeAttr('style').removeClass('red', { duration: 500 });
});

While some animations work as expected, others are disrupted due to the temporary style applied during animation.

Ideal Solution
We aspire to maintain CSS class definitions in one place (the stylesheet) while utilizing jQuery for animated class transitions.

Proposed Solution
To achieve this, we recommend leveraging CSS transitions in combination with jQuery's class manipulation capabilities. Check out this live example for a demonstration:

<div>
<pre class="brush:php;toolbar:false">#someDiv {
  -webkit-transition: all 0.5s ease;
  -moz-transition: all 0.5s ease;
  -o-transition: all 0.5s ease;
  transition: all 0.5s ease;
}

$('#someDiv').mouseover(function() {
  $(this).addClass('blue');
}).mouseout(function() {
  $(this).removeClass('blue');
});