inside my react app, users are able to enter data that is saved on the server. The data is saved immediatly, users don't have to press any "save" button. I want to display a short animation (similar to https://codepen.io/Sixclones/pen/VBdeXL) whenever I'm sending data to the server. After doing some research, I figured out that I should use react-transition-group (http://reactcommunity.org/react-transition-group/css-transition).
I made a component savingIcon:
const SavingIcon: React.SFC<SavingIconProps> = ({
className,
saving,
}) => {
return (
<div className={ classNames(className, "saving-icon") }>
<CSSTransition
timeout={ 200 }
classNames="saving"
in={ saving }
>
<div className="saving-balls">
<div className="saving-balls__item" />
<div className="saving-balls__item" />
<div className="saving-balls__item" />
</div>
</CSSTransition>
</div>
);
}
Whenever something is being saved, saving is set to true and I'd like to display the animation.
Inside saving-icon.scss I put the following CSS (I tried out several approaches, therefore there might be some unnecessary css):
@keyframes bouncing {
0% {
transform: translate3d(0, 10px, 0) scale(1.2, 0.85);
}
100% {
transform: translate3d(0, -20px, 0) scale(0.9, 1.1);
}
}
div.saving-icon {
position: sticky;
top: 15vh;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
justify-content: end;
height: 84vh;
$anim-drt: 0.4s;
$anim-ease: cubic-bezier(.6, .05, .15, .95);
.saving-enter {
div.saving-balls{
&__item {
background-color: $success-color;
transition: background-color 20ms;
}
}
}
.saving-enter-active {
div.saving-balls{
&__item {
background-color: $active-color;
transition: background-color 20ms;
}
&:nth-child(1) {
animation: bouncing $anim-drt alternate infinite $anim-ease;
transition: animation 1000ms;
}
&:nth-child(2) {
animation: bouncing $anim-drt $anim-drt/4 alternate infinite
$anim-ease backwards;
transition: animation 1000ms;
}
&:nth-child(3) {
animation: bouncing $anim-drt $anim-drt/2 alternate infinite
$anim-ease backwards;
transition: animation 1000ms;
}
}
}
.saving-exit {
div.saving-balls{
&__item {
background-color: $active-color;
transition: background-color 20ms;
}
&:nth-child(1) {
animation: bouncing $anim-drt alternate infinite $anim-ease;
transition: animation 1000ms;
}
&:nth-child(2) {
animation: bouncing $anim-drt $anim-drt/4 alternate infinite
$anim-ease backwards;
transition: animation 1000ms;
}
&:nth-child(3) {
animation: bouncing $anim-drt $anim-drt/2 alternate infinite
$anim-ease backwards;
transition: animation 1000ms;
}
}
}
.saving-exit-active {
div.saving-balls{
&__item {
background-color: $success-color;
transition: background-color 20ms;
transition: animation 1000ms;
}
}
}
div.saving-balls {
width: 3em;
height: 10vh;
z-index: 5;
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
align-items: center;
&__item {
width: 0.7em;
height: 0.7em;
border-radius: 50%;
background: $success-color;
}
}
}
My issue is the following: Usually saving something only takes very short time; not enough time to actually run the animation once. My balls just become red for a split second and return being green (active and success color are some type or red and green). I would like to have the animation running a longer period of time, something around 2 seconds. I tried some hacks using effects, states and timeouts, but they didn't work well and I'd rather use a correct solution instead of some dirty hack.
I'm not very familiar with css transitions and animations, neither with react-transition-group. I hope for some existing easy way to play an animation for a certain minimum amount of time (if the connection is weak, the animation should show until the data is saved).
As an alternative, I accept different suggestions on how to tell the user that his input has been saved instead of an animation at the corner of the page. Currently, everything the user enters is saved, but he might not notice that this happened and search for a "save" button.
