Mastering setInterval in JavaScript: How to Pause and Resume Animation with Clicks

Learn how to effectively use `setInterval` in JavaScript to create an image slider that pauses on thumbnail clicks and resumes after a short delay!
---

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: setInterval, click something then clearInterval, and then few seconds setInterval again

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
Mastering setInterval in JavaScript: How to Pause and Resume Animation with Clicks

Creating an image slider can enhance the interactivity of your website, but sometimes, you may want to give users control over the playback of those images. If you're working with JavaScript's setInterval to automatically change images, you might run into a common problem: how to pause the slideshow when a user clicks on a thumbnail image and then resumes it after a few seconds. In this post, we will walk through a solution to this problem step-by-step.

Understanding the Problem

You have an automatic image slider that changes images at set intervals. However, when a user clicks on a thumbnail image, you want the slider to stop showing images automatically. After a brief pause of a few seconds, it should then resume the automatic image rotation. This gives users control over what they see while keeping the functionality of automatically rotating images.

The Solution

To achieve this functionality, we'll take advantage of JavaScript's setInterval and setTimeout methods. Let's break it down into clear steps.

1. Initial Setup

First, we will set up our initial automatic image change function using setInterval. Here's an example of how it looks:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

In the code above:

counter keeps track of the current image index.

imageChange function updates the src of the bigImage based on the current counter index.

setInterval calls the imageChange function every 1000 milliseconds (or 1 second).

2. Adding Click Control

Next, we want to add the ability for users to pause the slideshow when they click on a thumbnail. Here’s how to implement that:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

3. Resuming the Slideshow

Now, let's add the logic to resume the image slideshow after a pause. We will use setTimeout for this purpose:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

In this code:

The clearTimeout(pause) ensures that if the user clicks multiple thumbnails, the timer resets, preventing premature restarts.

setTimeout is set for 3000 milliseconds, meaning the slider will restart after a 3-second pause.

4. Delegating Click Events (Optional)

For better performance, especially if there are many thumbnails, you can delegate the event listener to a parent container:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

This approach is cleaner and can help improve the performance of your slider.

Conclusion

With this setup, you can create an engaging image slider that allows users to pause and resume the slideshow at their leisure. By utilizing the setInterval and setTimeout functions effectively, you not only give control to your users but also maintain the functionality of automatic image rotation. Happy coding!