Animation.playState

This is an experimental technology
Because this technology's specification has not stabilized, check the compatibility table for usage in various browsers. Also note that the syntax and behavior of an experimental technology is subject to change in future versions of browsers as the specification changes.

The Animation.playState property of the Web Animations API returns and sets an enumerated value describing the playback state of an animation.

Note: This property is readonly for CSS Animations and Transitions.

Syntax

JavaScript
// getting playState
var currentPlayState = anAnimationPlayer.playState;

// setting playState
anAnimationPlayer.playState = 'paused';

Value

idle
The current time of the animation is unresolved and there are no pending tasks.
pending
The animation is waiting on some pending task to complete.
running
The animation is running.
paused
The animation was suspended and the Animation.currentTime property is not updating.
finished
The animation has reached one of its boundaries and the Animation.currentTime property is not updating.

Example

In the Growing/Shrinking Alice Game example, players can get an ending with Alice crying into a pool of tears. In the game, for performance reasons, the tears should only be animating when they're visible. So they must be paused as soon as they are animated like so:

JavaScript
// Setting up the tear animations

tears.forEach(function(el) {  
  el.animate(
    tearsFalling, 
    {
      delay: getRandomMsRange(-1000, 1000), // randomized for each tear
      duration: getRandomMsRange(2000, 6000), // randomized for each tear
      iterations: Infinity,
      easing: "cubic-bezier(0.6, 0.04, 0.98, 0.335)"
    });
  el.playState = 'paused';
});


// Play the tears falling when the ending needs to be shown. 

tears.forEach(function(el) { 
  el.playState = 'playing'; 
});


// Reset the crying tears animations and pause them.

tears.forEach(function(el) {  
  el.playState = "paused";
  el.currentTime = 0;
});

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
Web Animations
The definition of 'playState' in that specification.
Working Draft Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari (WebKit)
Basic support 39.0 [1] 48 (48) No support No support No support
Feature Android Android Webview Chrome for Android Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Mobile Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support No support 39.0 [1] 39.0 [1] 48.0 (48) No support No support No support

[1] Before Chrome 50, this attribute showed idle for an animation that had not yet started. Starting with Chrome 50, it shows paused.

See also

License

© 2016 Mozilla Contributors
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-us/docs/web/api/animation/playstate

Animation API Experimental Property Reference waapi Web Animations