getParent method?

[swampthang 112 Likes (Specialist)]

I know there's a getChildren() method for TimelineMax but I have a situation where I need to check to see if a child timeline has been added to a parent timeline. Would be great if I could do something like getParent() and then check against what I know to be the master timeline - as opposed to getting the children of a master timeline and having to look through it to see if the child is there.

 

I know that every timeline created is added to a global timeline until it gets added to a specific parent timeline so the .timeline property is never empty. 

 

Would like to do something like:

var tw,
    tl = new TimelineMax(),
    masterTL = new TimelineMax();

function doTween() {
  resetTween(tw); // reset tween function
  tw = TweenMax.to(element, 1, {x: 0, y:0});
  tl.add(tw);
  var master = tl.getParent(); // THIS IS WHAT I'D LOVE TO SEE!
  if(!master == masterTL) {
    masterTL.add(tl);
  }
}

Is there a cleaner, better way to accomplish this?

 

 

[swampthang 112 Likes (Specialist)]

btw, this is how I'm handling it in my app for now and it seems to work fine but not sure how reliable this is.

var kids = masterTL.getChildren(false); // just get top-level timelines that are in the masterTL


if(kids.length == 0) {
  masterTL.add(tl);
} else {
  var isThere = false;
  for ( kid in kids ) {
    if(kid == tl) {
      isThere = true;
    }
  }
  if(!isThere) {
    masterTL.add(tl);
  }
}

[Rodrigo 2,662 Likes (Superhero)]

Hi,

 

Since getChildren() returns an array you can do a simple indexOf() in order to check if the instance is in the parent timeline already:

var master = new TimelineMax({paused:true}),
    child1 = new TimelineMax({paused:true}),
    child2 = new TimelineMax({paused:true}),
    child3 = new TimelineMax({paused:true}),
    children;

master
  .add(child1, 1)
  .add(child2, 2);

// get childs
children = master.getChildren();

console.log( children.indexOf(child1) );// return 0
console.log( children.indexOf(child2) );// return 1
console.log( children.indexOf(child3) );// return -1 doesn't exists in the array

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/indexOf

[GreenSock 8,117 Likes (Superhero)]

I might be missing something, but wouldn't it be as easy as tl.timeline? Remember, every animation has a parent "timeline" (well, except the root timelines) and you can access that via the "timeline" property (that's read-only). 

 

So in your pseudo code, it would look like: 

//OLD:
var master = tl.getParent(); //BAD
if (!master == masterTL) {
    masterTL.add(tl);
}

//NEW:
var master = tl.timeline; //GOOD
if (!master == masterTL) {
    masterTL.add(tl);
}

[swampthang 112 Likes (Specialist)]

ahhh, of course! Both solutions would work. Thanks. I was looking for something short and sweet.