The animation framework in Dojo is very flexible, but because of that flexibility, using it is not a trivial task for the common web programmer (to whom I will refer as the "end user"). The animation system works well for developers, but what if an end user of the framework wants to add a simple animated effect to an element on the page? What if he wants to make that animation toggle? Most javascript animation systems I've tried fail to properly handle things like reversing the motion of an element while it is still moving.

For example, the Dojo main page has a menu that slides into view. What happens when you double-click the arrow that initiates the animation? The menu jumps back and forth rapidly until the first animation ends. The bug lies in the usage of the animation framework, not in the framework itself. The framework is capable of producing the desired effect without bugs like this. However, end users who want to animate elements on their pages are not likely to properly handle situations like this.

To solve this problem, I propose a set of predefined functions that are easy and simple to use and handle things like toggling and browser quirks.