jquery fadeIn acting funny?

Question

this is what I'm working on right now

http://www.dsi-usa.com/yazaki_port/hair-by-steph/

as you can see when you click the tabs the fade in and fade outs look extremely funny. I'm wondering if anyone can take a look at the code and tell me what I'm doing wrong. I'm extremely new to Jquery and Javascript (like yesterday new) so I apologize if the code is messy. I'm wondering if 1. there was an easier way to write this and 2. if there's a way to just have the sections fade into each other/any other cool ideas anyone has.

the html structure (pulled out all of the content for space purposes)

    <div id="main">
    <div id="display_canvas">
    </div>
    <div id="nav">
        <ul>
            <li><a class="btn" title="contact">CONTACT</a></li>
            <li><a class="btn" title="resume">RESUME</a></li>
            <li><a class="btn" title="portfolio">PORTFOLIO</a></li>
            <div class="clear"></div>
        </ul>
    <div class="clear"></div>
    </div>
        <div id="resume">
        //contents here
    </div>
    <div id="contact">
        //contents here
    </div>
</div>

the css

*
{ 
    margin:0;   
    padding:0;
    font-family:verdana, helvetica, sans-serif;
}

#main
{
    width:1200px;
    margin:0 auto;
}

#display_canvas
{ 
    height:700px;
    background-color:#fefea8;
    box-shadow:5px 5px 5px #888888;
    -moz-box-shadow:5px 5px 5px #888888;
    -webkit-box-shadow:5px 5px 5px #888888;
    display:none;
}

.clear
{  
    clear:both;
}

#resume
{   
    clear:both;
    float:right;
    width:100%;
    background-color:#000000;
    background-image:url("../imgs/resume_back.png");
    background-position:300px 0px;
    background-repeat:no-repeat;
    height:200px;
    text-align:left;
    display:none;
}

#contact
{ 
    clear:both;
    float:right;
    width:100%;
    background-color:#000000;
    background-image:url("../imgs/contact_back.png");
    background-position:left;
    background-repeat:no-repeat;
    height:200px;
    text-align:left;
    display:none;
}

#nav
{     
    margin:1em 0 0 0;
    text-align:right;   
}

#nav ul
{
    list-style-type:none;
}

#nav li
{
    display:inline;
}

.btn
{    
    margin-right:20px;
    display:block;
    text-align:center;
    float:right;
    color:#000000;
    font-size:15px;
    font-weight:bold;
    line-height:30px;
    text-decoration:none;
    cursor:pointer;
    width:150px;
    height:30px;
}

.over
{
    background-color:#888888;
    color:#ffffff;
}

.active_contact
{
    background-color:#000000;
    color:#00a8ff;
}

.active_resume
{
    background-color:#000000;
    color:#9848c2;
}

.active_portfolio
{
    background-color:#000000;
    color:#ffffff;
}

and finally a whole mess of javascript

$(document).ready(function(){
//handles general navigation
$(".btn").hover(
    function(){
        $(this).addClass("over");
    },
    function(){
        $(this).removeClass("over");
    }
)

$(".btn").click(function(){
    var btn = $(this);
    var newClass = "active_" + btn.attr("title"); //set the new class
    var section = $("#" + btn.attr("title"));

    if ($("#curSection").length)
    {
        alert('there is a section');
        var curClass = "active_" + $("#curSection").attr("title"); //get the current class active_section name
        var curSection = "active"
        $("#curSection").removeClass(curClass).removeAttr("id"); //remove the current class and current section attributes

        btn.addClass(newClass).attr("id", "curSection"); //designate new selection

        $(".currentSection").fadeOut("slow", function(){ //fade out old section
            $(".currentSection").removeClass("currentSection");
            section.fadeIn("slow", function(){ //fade in new section
                alert('faded in');
                section.addClass("currentSection"); //designate new section
            });
        });

    }
    else
    {
        alert('first time');
        btn.addClass(newClass).attr("id", "curSection"); //designate new selection
        section.fadeIn("slow", function(){
            alert('faded in');
            section.addClass("currentSection");
        });
    }       
});

//handles resume navigation
$(".res-btn").hover(
    function(){
        $(this).addClass("res-over")
    },
    function(){
        $(this).removeClass("res-over")
    }
)

$(".res-btn[title=experience]").click(function(){
    $("#scroller").stop().animate({top: "0px"}, 1000);
}); 

$(".res-btn[title=expertise]").click(function(){
    $("#scroller").stop().animate({top: "-180px"}, 1000);
}); 

$(".res-btn[title=affiliates]").click(function(){
    $("#scroller").stop().animate({top: "-360px"}, 1000);
}); 
});

if anyone has any ideas as to why this doesn't work let me know. I thought maybe it was having problems loading the content, but the content should be loaded already as they are on the screen already, just no display. I'm stumped, I saw a few posts similar to mine, so I followed some of their thinking. When I set the fadeIn() to like 5000 instead of "slow" The first 60% or so of the fadeIn is skipped and the section appears at say 60% opacity and then fades in the rest of the way. Not sure what I'm doing so thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Off the top of my head, I think the problem might be that you are initiating an alert dialogue box rather than a jquery Fancybox / Thickbox type of overlay lightbox which accommodates the speed at which the it animates to open or close. And in any case, I am unable to replicate the issue you are facing despite going directly to your link.

So rather than to try and resolve that chunk of codes you have picked out from different sources and since the content that you wish to display is an inline one, you might as well consider using Thickbox or Fancybox instead.

Alternatively, you could also kinda script your own lightbox without using the alert dialogue boxes if you like. It could look something like this:

HTML:

<!--wrapper-->
<div id="wrapper">

    <a href="#" class="toggle-1">Box 1</a></li>

    <a href="#" class="toggle-1">Box 2</a></li>

    <!--hidden-content-->
    <div class="box-1">

        This is box 1. <a href="#" class="close-1">close</a>

    </div>

    <div class="box-2">

        This is box 2. <a href="#" class="close-2">close</a>

    </div>

</div>
<!--wrapper-->

CSS:

#wrapper{
    background:#ffffff;
    width:100%;
    height:100%;
    padding:0;
}

.box-1, .box-2{
    display:none;
    width:300px;
    height:300px;
    position:fixed;
    z-index:3000;
    top:30%;
    left:30%;
    background:#aaaaaa;  
    color:#ffffff;
    opacity:0;
}

JQUERY:

$(document).ready(function(){    
    $(".toggle-1").click(function(){
        $(".box-1").show(900);
        $(".box-1").fadeTo(900,1);
    });

         $(".close-1").click(function(){
             $(".box-1").hide(900);
             $(".box-1").fadeTo(900,0);
         });

    $(".toggle-2").click(function(){
        $(".box-2").show(900);
        $(".box-2").fadeTo(900,1);
    });

         $(".close-2").click(function(){
             $(".box-2").hide(900);
             $(".box-2").fadeTo(900,0);
         });

});

Well, of course there's still quite a bit of styling to be done in order for the content to appear nicely in the center of the screen, but I'm gonna be leaving that out as this is more of a question of how to control the speed of which the overlay appears.

In any case, if you wanna change the speed of which it appears or close, simply alter the "900" value to something else - a lower number means a faster animation speed and vice versa. If you have noticed, I'm applying the .hide() and .fadeTo() functions together. This is partly because I will try and enforce for the shown divs to be hidden after the Close button is clicked. This will prevent it from stacking on top of other content and thereby disabling any buttons, links or functions. You can try to play around with their "900" values as well. For e.g. when you press the close button, you can actually make .hide() execute slower in relation to the fadeTo() simply by assigning maybe 3000 to the former and 700 to the latter. This will give the illusion that it is fading only rather than fading and swinging, the latter of which is prominent when you utilize the .hide() or .show() function.

Hope this helps some how. =)