Why does jQuery fadeOut not work inside this setInterval loop?
- by Clay McClure
I'm trying to load random items into a div every few seconds, with a nice fadeOut/fadeIn transition between each load. Here's the code:
<html>
  <body>
    <div id="item"></div>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
      // Load a random item
      var item = $('#item');
      function load_item() {
        item.fadeOut(5000, function() {
          item.load('http://dynamic.xkcd.com/comic/random/ #middleContent img', null, function() {
            item.fadeIn(5000);
          });
        });
      };
      // Load initial featured item
      load_item();
      // Schedule repeated loading
      setInterval(load_item, 15000);
    </script>
  </body>
</html>
This works fine the first time through, but on subsequent calls to load_item, the fadeOut() seems to stop working. It doesn't actually fade the #item div out, but jumps immediately into the callback function, ignoring the 5000 delay.
What am I doing wrong?