Blink Text with JavaScript

Question

My code blinks text for an interval of time then clears the text.

I plan to use this code in a quiz web app. When the user gets an answer right, "CORRECT!" will blink on the screen for 10 seconds. When the user gets an answer wrong, "INCORRECT!" will blink on the screen for 10 seconds.

I'm looking for feedback on how I could simplify and improve it?

JS Bin: http://jsbin.com/ojetow/1/edit

<div id="blinkText"></div>
<script>
// Takes text to blink and id of element to blink text in
function blinkText(text, id) {
 // Blink interval
 setInterval(blinker, 250);
 // Flag to see what state text is in (true or false)
 var flag = true;
 // Number of times to blink text
 var blinkNum = 10;
 var i = 1;
 var divID = document.getElementById(id);
 function blinker() {
 if (i < blinkNum) {
 if (flag) {
 divID.innerHTML = text;
 flag = false;
 } else {
 divID.innerHTML = "";
 flag = true;
 }
 i++;
 } else {
 // Delete if it's still showing
 divID.innerHTML = "";
 // Stop blinking
 clearInterval(blinker);
 }
 }
}
blinkText("Hello World", "blinkText");
</script>

• abuzittin gillifirca: I would suggest using a library, for example: docs.jquery.com/UI/Effects/Pulsate

Answer 1

It doesn't look very complex to me but the variable names could use some attention, as they're not very descriptive. I'd suggest:

• textHidden instead of flag
• timesBlinked instead of i
• targetElement instead of divID (it's not an id anymore, but the element referred to by the id)

I would also toggle the element visibility instead of removing and adding the text for several reasons, one of them being that removing text can also change the element's height and/or width, which can cause problems with the layout.

if( textHidden ) {
 targetElement.style.visibility = 'visible';
} else {
 targetElement.style.visibility = 'hidden';
}
textHidden = !textHidden; // flip the flag