/*
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! :-)

AMENDED BY DARREN 19-06-08 SO THE LI DO NOT HAVE TO CONTAIN A

FURTHER AMENDED BY MARTIN 27/6/2008 TO OPEN LINKS IN NEW WINDOW

*/
(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) {
			if(settings.newsLinks[currentItem] == "none") {
				$(settings.newsList).empty().append('<li></li>');
			} else {
				$(settings.newsList).empty().append('<li><a href="'+ settings.newsLinks[currentItem] +'" style="text-decoration:none; color:white;"></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);

			setText(settings.newsList,tickerText + placeHolder,settings.newsLinks[currentItem]);
			currentLength ++;
			setTimeout(function(){runTicker(settings); settings = null;},settings.tickerRate);
		}
		else {

			setText(settings.newsList,settings.newsItems[currentItem],settings.newsLinks[currentItem]);
			currentLength = 0;
			currentItem ++;
			setTimeout(function(){runTicker(settings); settings = null;},settings.loopDelay);
		}
	}

	function setText(i,t,l) {
		if(l == "none") {
			$(i +' li').text(t);
		} else {
			$(i +' li a').text(t);
		}
	}

	$.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').each(function(){
				newsItems[newsItemCounter] = $(this).text();
				l = $(this).children("a").attr('href')
				newsLinks[newsItemCounter] = (typeof $(this).children("a").attr('href') != 'undefined' ) ? l : "none";
				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);