/*
News ticker plugin (BBC news style)
Bryan Gullan,2007
version 1.1.1
http://www.makemineatriple.com/jquery
Use and distrubute freely with this header

Options (defaults shown):
newsList: "#news" 	// assumes unordered list; specify the ul holding the news items
tickerRate: 80 		// time gap between display of each letter (ms)
startDelay: 100 	// delay before first run of the ticker (ms)
loopDelay: 3000 	// time for which full text of each item is shown at end of print-out (ms)
placeHolder1: " |"	// character placeholder shown on even loops
placeHolder2: "_"	// character placeholder shown on odd loops

Sample usage:
$(document).ready(function() {
	var options = {
  		newsList: "#news",
 		startDelay: 10,
 		placeHolder1: " []"
	}
	$().newsTicker(options);
});

for markup as follows:

<ul id="news">
<li><a href="http://www.makemineatriple.com">MakeMineATriple.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.jquery.com">jQuery</a></li>
</ul>

Underline text decoration on the link is not recommended! :-)

*/

(function($) {
	
	function runTicker(settings) {
		if(settings.firstRun == 1){
			currentLength = settings.currentLength;
			currentItem = settings.currentItem;
			settings.firstRun = 0;
		}
		if(currentItem == settings.newsItemCounter + 1){
			currentItem = 0;
		}
		
		if(currentLength == 0) {
			$(settings.newsList).empty().append('<li><a href="'+ settings.newsLinks[currentItem] +'"></a></li>');
		}
		
		if( currentLength % 2 == 0) {
				placeHolder = settings.placeHolder1;
		}
		else {
			placeHolder = settings.placeHolder2;
		}
		
		if( currentLength <= settings.newsItems[currentItem].length + 1) {
			var tickerText = settings.newsItems[currentItem].substring(0,currentLength);
			$(settings.newsList + ' li a').text(tickerText + placeHolder);
			currentLength ++;
			setTimeout(function(){runTicker(settings); settings = null;},settings.tickerRate);
		}
		else {
			$(settings.newsList + ' li a').text(settings.newsItems[currentItem]);
			currentLength = 0;
			currentItem ++;
			setTimeout(function(){runTicker(settings); settings = null;},settings.loopDelay);	
		}	
	}
	
	$.fn.extend({
		newsTicker: function(settings) {
			settings = jQuery.extend({
		 	  	newsList: "#news",
		   		tickerRate: 80,
		    	startDelay: 100,
		    	loopDelay: 3000,
		    	placeHolder1: " |",
		    	placeHolder2: "_"
			}, settings);
			
			var newsItems = new Array();
			var newsLinks = new Array();
			var newsItemCounter = 0;
			
			$(settings.newsList + ' li a').each(function(){
				newsItems[newsItemCounter] = $(this).text();
				newsLinks[newsItemCounter] = $(this).attr('href');
				newsItemCounter ++;
			});
			
			settings = jQuery.extend(settings,{
				newsItems: newsItems,
				newsLinks: newsLinks,
				newsItemCounter: newsItemCounter - 1,
				currentItem: 0,
				currentLength: 0,
				firstRun:1
			});
			
			setTimeout(function(){runTicker(settings); settings = null;},settings.startDelay);
		}
	
	});
	

})(jQuery);