Replace images with time intervals using jquery

Last updated on January 25th, 2023 at 11:20 am

In this tutorial we are going to see how to replace images with new ones in specific time intervals.
For example: replacing image1.jpg with image2.jpg every 5 seconds.

Using setInterval() we are triggering a call to swapImages() function every 5000 milliseconds.

So, before proceeding, we need to define where our images are coming from. Images URLs can be stored in javascript array or we could choose more elegant way and simply read them from HTML document.

This is the HTML code which holds the images inside a div with id “myGallery“

<div id="myGallery">
    <img src="image1.jpg" class="active" />
    <img src="image2.jpg" />
    <img src="image3.jpg" />
  </div>

Next step is to hide all images and overlay all of them on one another using CSS

#myGallery{
      position:relative;
      width:400px; /* Set your image width */
      height:300px; /* Set your image height */
    }
    #myGallery img{
      display:none;
      position:absolute;
      top:0;
      left:0;
    }
    #myGallery img.active{
      display:block;
    }

Finally, let us write a function swapImages() that will fade out currently active image and fade in the next image. Here is jQuery code:

function swapImages(){
      var $active = $('#myGallery .active');
      var $next = ($('#myGallery .active').next().length > 0) ? $('#myGallery .active').next() : $('#myGallery img:first');
      $active.fadeOut(function(){
      $active.removeClass('active');
      $next.fadeIn().addClass('active');
      });
    }

What is pending now is to add setInterval() with our function and the time interval we want our image to fade out and fade in.

// Run our swapImages() function every 5secs
setInterval('swapImages()', 5000);

Now we have gallery/slideshow with images changing every 5 seconds. You can easily customize this jQuery script to create your own slideshow.

Here is how your final code should look like: Update jquery.js with the local jquery file or the link you use or take it from code.jquery.com

<html>
<head>
  <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.6.0.js" integrity="sha256-H+K7U5CnXl1h5ywQfKtSj8PCmoN9aaq30gDh27Xc0jk=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script>
    function swapImages(){
      var $active = $('#myGallery .active');
      var $next = ($('#myGallery .active').next().length > 0) ? $('#myGallery .active').next() : $('#myGallery img:first');
      $active.fadeOut(function(){
      $active.removeClass('active');
      $next.fadeIn().addClass('active');
      });
    }

    $(document).ready(function(){
      // Run our swapImages() function every 5secs
      setInterval('swapImages()', 5000);
    })
  </script>
  <style>
    #myGallery{
      position:relative;
      width:400px; /* Set your image width */
      height:300px; /* Set your image height */
    }
    #myGallery img{
      display:none;
      position:absolute;
      top:0;
      left:0;
    }
    #myGallery img.active{
      display:block;
    }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <div id="myGallery">
<img height=450px src="image1.jpg" alt="" class="active" />
    <img height=450px src="image2.jpg" alt="" />
    <img height=450px src="image3.jpg" alt="" />
  </div>
</body>
</html>

In the HTML code above I have given height=450px to make sure that all the images are shown with similar size.

Demo