JavaScript slidedown without jQuery

Question

I wish to have a similar effect to jQuery slidedown but without using jQuery or any other libary. I know it\'s \"possible\" as anything in jQuery can be don

Answer 1

As an improvement to @Ruben Serrate solution which misses the use case for unknown height, I've created this using CSS3 and javascript (no jQuery):

/**
* getHeight - for elements with display:none
 */
getHeight = function(el) {
    var el_style      = window.getComputedStyle(el),
        el_display    = el_style.display,
        el_position   = el_style.position,
        el_visibility = el_style.visibility,
        el_max_height = el_style.maxHeight.replace('px', '').replace('%', ''),

        wanted_height = 0;


    // if its not hidden we just return normal height
    if(el_display !== 'none' && el_max_height !== '0') {
        return el.offsetHeight;
    }

    // the element is hidden so:
    // making the el block so we can meassure its height but still be hidden
    el.style.position   = 'absolute';
    el.style.visibility = 'hidden';
    el.style.display    = 'block';

    wanted_height     = el.offsetHeight;

    // reverting to the original values
    el.style.display    = el_display;
    el.style.position   = el_position;
    el.style.visibility = el_visibility;

    return wanted_height;
};


/**
* toggleSlide mimics the jQuery version of slideDown and slideUp
* all in one function comparing the max-heigth to 0
 */
toggleSlide = function(el) {
    var el_max_height = 0;

    if(el.getAttribute('data-max-height')) {
        // we've already used this before, so everything is setup
        if(el.style.maxHeight.replace('px', '').replace('%', '') === '0') {
            el.style.maxHeight = el.getAttribute('data-max-height');
        } else {
            el.style.maxHeight = '0';
        }
    } else {
        el_max_height                  = getHeight(el) + 'px';
        el.style['transition']         = 'max-height 0.5s ease-in-out';
        el.style.overflowY             = 'hidden';
        el.style.maxHeight             = '0';
        el.setAttribute('data-max-height', el_max_height);
        el.style.display               = 'block';

        // we use setTimeout to modify maxHeight later than display (to we have the transition effect)
        setTimeout(function() {
            el.style.maxHeight = el_max_height;
        }, 10);
    }
}

Here is the demo: http://jsfiddle.net/pgfk2mvo/

Please let me know if you can find any improvements to this as I always try to improve my code. Happy coding ! :D