Restarting CSS3 Animations

Reviving CSS3 animations upon user interaction is a common task. While removing and reinserting the animated element may seem effective, it introduces unnecessary complexity. A more refined solution emerges by leveraging the power of reflow to seamlessly reset the animation.

Reflow, a process of reformatting and repainting the document structure, provides a convenient mechanism for altering styles without disrupting the animation timeline. By briefly setting the animation property to 'none' and then triggering a reflow, the browser gets a signal to ignore any in-progress animations. This allows subsequent style changes to take effect immediately, effectively restarting the animation.

To illustrate, consider the following JavaScript snippet:

function reset_animation() {
  var el = document.getElementById('animated');
  el.style.animation = 'none';
  el.offsetHeight; /* trigger reflow */
  el.style.animation = null; 
}

When triggered, this function pauses the animation on the 'animated' element, forces a browser repaint, and then restores the animation property to its original state. By avoiding delays or chaining of animation assignments, this approach simplifies the animation reset process, ensuring a smooth visual experience.