CSS transition shorthand with multiple properties?

Question

I can't seem to find the correct syntax for the CSS transition shorthand with multiple properties. This doesn't do anything:

.element {
  -webkit-transition: height .5s, opacity .5s .5s;
     -moz-transition: height .5s, opacity .5s .5s;
      -ms-transition: height .5s, opacity .5s .5s;
          transition: height .5s, opacity .5s .5s;
  height: 0;
  opacity: 0;
  overflow: 0;
}
.element.show {
  height: 200px;
  opacity: 1;
}

I add the show class with javascript. The element becomes higher and visible, it just doesn't transition. Testing in latest Chrome, FF and Safari.

What am I doing wrong?

EDIT: Just to be clear, I'm looking for the shorthand version to scale my CSS down. It's bloated enough with all the vendor prefixes. Also expanded the example code.

Answer 1

Syntax:

transition: <property> || <duration> || <timing-function> || <delay> [, ...];

Note that the duration must come before the delay, if the latter is specified.

Individual transitions combined in shorthand declarations:

-webkit-transition: height 0.3s ease-out, opacity 0.3s ease 0.5s;
-moz-transition: height 0.3s ease-out, opacity 0.3s ease 0.5s;
-o-transition: height 0.3s ease-out, opacity 0.3s ease 0.5s;
transition: height 0.3s ease-out, opacity 0.3s ease 0.5s;

Or just transition them all:

-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease-out;
-moz-transition: all 0.3s ease-out;
-o-transition: all 0.3s ease-out;
transition: all 0.3s ease-out;

Here is a straightforward example. Here is another one with the delay property.

---

Edit: previously listed here were the compatibilities and known issues regarding transition. Removed for readability.

Bottom-line: just use it. The nature of this property is non-breaking for all applications and compatibility is now well above 94% globally.

If you still want to be sure, refer to http://caniuse.com/css-transitions

Answer 2

If you have several specific properties that you want to transition in the same way (because you also have some properties you specifically don't want to transition, say opacity), another option is to do something like this (prefixes omitted for brevity):

.myclass {
    transition: all 200ms ease;
    transition-property: box-shadow, height, width, background, font-size;
}

The second declaration overrides the all in the shorthand declaration above it and makes for (occasionally) more concise code.

/* prefixes omitted for brevity */
.box {
    height: 100px;
    width: 100px;
    background: red;
    box-shadow: red 0 0 5px 1px;
    transition: all 500ms ease;
    /*note: not transitioning width */
    transition-property: height, background, box-shadow;
}

.box:hover {
  height: 50px;
  width: 50px;
  box-shadow: blue 0 0 10px 3px;
  background: blue;
}

<p>Hover box for demo</p>
<div class="box"></div>

Demo

Answer 3

I made it work with this:

.element {
   transition: height 3s ease-out, width 5s ease-in;
}

Answer 4

One important thing to note is that the CSS transition property itself is a shorthand - as mentioned in the MDN Web Docs :

The transition CSS property is a shorthand property for transition-property, transition-duration, transition-timing-function, and transition-delay.

The ideal use of this shorthand is to combine the various Constituent properties of a single transition. If this is used to combine multiple transitions, it will start to get clunky.

So when you have more than 2 transitions on the same element which different constituent properties, it becomes easier to write them individually instead of using the transition shorthand. For example:

This is the shorthand version(Option 1) of multiple transitions on one element:

transition: transform 0.5s ease-in-out, box-shadow 0.2s ease-out, filter 0.1s ease-out, color 0.25s ease-in 0.2s;

As you can see, this gets clunky and a little bit harder to visualize.
The same CSS can be applied like this(Option 2):

transition-property: transform, box-shadow, filter, color;
transition-duration: 0.5s, 0.2s, 0.2s, 0.25s;
transition-timing-function: ease-in-out, ease-out, ease-out, ease-in;
transition-delay: 0s, 0s, 0s, 0.2s

Of course, ultimately it all just comes down to your preference of typing and maintaining your source code. But I personally prefer the 2nd option.

---

TIP:

Additional benefit of using this is, if one of the Constituent properties is same for all transitions, you don't need to mention it multiple times. For example, in the above example, if the transition-duration was the same(0.5s) for all, you write it like this:

transition-property: transform, box-shadow, filter, color;
transition-duration: 0.5s;
transition-timing-function: ease-in-out, ease-out, ease-out, ease-in;
transition-delay: 0s, 0s, 0s, 0.2s

Answer 5

By having the .5s delay on transitioning the opacity property, the element will be completely transparent (and thus invisible) the whole time its height is transitioning. So the only thing you will actually see is the opacity changing. So you will get the same effect as leaving the height property out of the transition :

"transition: opacity .5s .5s;"

Is that what you're wanting? If not, and you're wanting to see the height transition, you can't have an opacity of zero during the whole time that it's transitioning.

Answer 6

This helped me understand / streamline, only what I needed to animate:

// SCSS - Multiple Animation: Properties | durations | etc.
// on hover, animate div (width/opacity) - from: {0px, 0} to: {100vw, 1}

.base {
  max-width: 0vw;
  opacity: 0;

  transition-property: max-width, opacity; // relative order
  transition-duration: 2s, 4s; // effects relatively ordered animation properties
  transition-delay: 6s; // effects delay of all animation properties
  animation-timing-function: ease;

  &:hover {
    max-width: 100vw;
    opacity: 1;

    transition-duration: 5s; // effects duration of all aniomation properties
    transition-delay: 2s, 7s; // effects relatively ordered animation properties
  }
}

~ This applies for all transition properties (duration, transition-timing-function, etc.) within the '.base' class

Answer 7

I think that this should work:

.element {
   -webkit-transition: all .3s;
   -moz-transition: all .3s;
   -o-transition: all .3s;
   transition: all .3s;
}