Animate an element's width from 0 to 100%, with it and it's wrapper being only as wide as they need to be, without a pre-set width, in CSS3 or jQuery

Question

http://jsfiddle.net/nicktheandroid/tVHYg/

When hovering .wrapper, it\'s child element .contents should animate from 0px to it\

Answer 1

I haven't been able to get it to work without specifying a width but the following css worked

.wrapper {
    background: #DDD;
    padding: 10px;
    display: inline-block;
    height: 20px;
    width: auto;
}

.contents {
    background: #c3c;
    overflow: hidden;
    white-space: nowrap;
    display: inline-block;
    visibility: hidden;
    width: 1px;
    -webkit-transition: width 1s ease-in-out, visibility 1s linear;
    -moz-transition: width 1s ease-in-out, visibility 1s linear;
    -o-transition: width 1s ease-in-out, visibility 1s linear;
    transition: width 1s ease-in-out, visibility 1s linear;
}

.wrapper:hover .contents {
    width: 200px;
    visibility: visible;
}

I'm not sure you will be able to get it working without setting a width on it.

Answer 2

http://jsfiddle.net/tVHYg/5/

.wrapper {
    background:#DDD;
    padding:1%;
    display:inline;
    height:20px;
}


span {
    width: 1%;
}

.contents {
    background:#c3c;
    overflow:hidden;
    white-space:nowrap;
    display:inline-block;
    width:0%;
}



.wrapper:hover .contents {
    -webkit-transition: width 1s ease-in-out;
    -moz-transition: width 1s ease-in-out;
    -o-transition: width 1s ease-in-out;
    transition: width 1s ease-in-out;

    width:90%;
}

Answer 3

a late answer, but I think this one works as required in the question :)

this one uses z-index and position absolute, and avoid the issue that the container element width doesn't grow in transition.

You can tweak the text's margin and padding to suit your needs, and "+" can be changed to font awesome icons if needed.

body {
  font-size: 16px;
}

.container {
  height: 2.5rem;
  position: relative;
  width: auto;
  display: inline-flex;
  align-items: center;
}

.add {
  font-size: 1.5rem;
  color: #fff;
  cursor: pointer;
  font-size: 1.5rem;
  background: #2794A5;
  border-radius: 20px;
  height: 100%;
  width: 2.5rem;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  position: absolute;
  z-index: 2;
}

.text {
  white-space: nowrap;
  position: relative;
  z-index: 1;
  height: 100%;
  width: 0;
  color: #fff;
  overflow: hidden;
  transition: 0.3s all ease;
  background: #2794A5;
  height: 100%;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  border-top-right-radius: 20px;
  border-bottom-right-radius: 20px;
  margin-left: 20px;
  padding-left: 20px;
  cursor: pointer;
}

.container:hover .text {
  width: 100%;
  padding-right: 20px;
}

<div class="container">
  <span class="add">+</span>
  <span class="text">Add new client</span>
</div>

Answer 4

Got it to work by transitioning the padding as well as the width.

JSFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/tuybk748/1/

<div class='label gray'>+
</div><!-- must be connected to prevent gap --><div class='contents-wrapper'>
    <div class="gray contents">These are the contents of this div</div>
</div>

.gray {
    background: #ffffd;
}
.contents-wrapper, .label, .contents {
    display: inline-block;
}
.label, .contents {
    overflow: hidden; /* must be on both divs to prevent dropdown behavior */
    height: 20px;
}
.label {
    padding: 10px 10px 15px;
}
.contents {
    padding: 10px 0px 15px; /* no left-right padding at beginning */
    white-space: nowrap; /* keeps text all on same line */
    width: 0%;
    -webkit-transition: width 1s ease-in-out, padding-left 1s ease-in-out, 
        padding-right 1s ease-in-out;
    -moz-transition: width 1s ease-in-out, padding-left 1s ease-in-out, 
        padding-right 1s ease-in-out;
    -o-transition: width 1s ease-in-out, padding-left 1s ease-in-out, 
        padding-right 1s ease-in-out;
    transition: width 1s ease-in-out, padding-left 1s ease-in-out, 
        padding-right 1s ease-in-out;
}
.label:hover + .contents-wrapper .contents {
    width: 100%;
    padding-left: 10px;
    padding-right: 10px;
}

Answer 5

Please check following snippet

 /* DEBUG */
.lwb-col {
    transition: box-shadow 0.5s ease;
}
.lwb-col:hover{
    box-shadow: 0 15px 30px -4px rgba(136, 155, 166, 0.4);
 
}


.lwb-col--link {
    font-weight: 500;
  position: relative;
  display: inline-block;
}
.lwb-col--link::after{
    border-bottom: 2px solid;
    bottom: -3px;
    content: "";
    display: block;
    left: 0;
    position: absolute;
    width: 100%;
    color: #E5E9EC;

}
.lwb-col--link::before{
    border-bottom: 2px solid;
    bottom: -3px;
    content: "";
    display: block;
    left: 0;
    position: absolute;
    width: 100%;
    color: #57B0FB;
    transform: scaleX(0);
    

}
.lwb-col:hover .lwb-col--link::before {
    border-color: #57B0FB;
    display: block;
    z-index: 2;
    transition: transform 0.3s;
    transform: scaleX(1);
    transform-origin: left center;
}

<div class="lwb-col">
  <h2>Webdesign</h2>
  <p>Steigern Sie Ihre Bekanntheit im Web mit individuellem &amp; professionellem Webdesign. Organisierte Codestruktur, sowie perfekte SEO Optimierung und jahrelange Erfahrung sprechen für uns.</p>
<span class="lwb-col--link">Mehr erfahren</span>
</div>

Answer 6

I think I've got it.

.wrapper {
    background:#DDD;
    display:inline-block;
    padding: 10px;
    height: 20px;
    width:auto;
}

.label {
    display: inline-block;
    width: 1em;
}

.contents, .contents .inner {
    display:inline-block;
}

.contents {
    white-space:nowrap;
    margin-left: -1em;
    padding-left: 1em;
}

.contents .inner {
    background:#c3c;
    width:0%;
    overflow:hidden;
    -webkit-transition: width 1s ease-in-out;
    -moz-transition: width 1s ease-in-out;
    -o-transition: width 1s ease-in-out;
    transition: width 1s ease-in-out;
}



.wrapper:hover .contents .inner {
   
    width:100%;
}

<div class="wrapper">
    <span class="label">+</span><div class="contents">
        <div class="inner">
            These are the contents of this div
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

Animating to 100% causes it to wrap because the box is bigger than the available width (100% minus the + and the whitespace following it).

Instead, you can animate an inner element, whose 100% is the total width of .contents.