How do you make an element "flash" in jQuery

I'm brand new to jQuery and have some experience using Prototype. In Prototype, there is a method to "flash" an element — ie. briefly highlight it in another color and have it fade back to normal so that the user's eye is drawn to it. Is there such a method in jQuery? I see fadeIn, fadeOut, and animate, but I don't see anything like "flash". Perhaps one of these three can be used with appropriate inputs?

My way is .fadein, .fadeout .fadein, .fadeout ......

$("#someElement").fadeOut(100).fadeIn(100).fadeOut(100).fadeIn(100);

function go1() { $("#demo1").fadeOut(100).fadeIn(100).fadeOut(100).fadeIn(100)}

function go2() { $('#demo2').delay(100).fadeOut().fadeIn('slow') }

#demo1,
#demo2 {
  text-align: center;
  font-family: Helvetica;
  background: IndianRed;
  height: 50px;
  line-height: 50px;
  width: 150px;
}

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<button onclick="go1()">Click Me</button>
<div id='demo1'>My Element</div>
<br>
<button onclick="go2()">Click Me</button> (from comment)
<div id='demo2'>My Element</div>

You can use the jQuery Color plugin.

For example, to draw attention to all the divs on your page, you could use the following code:

$("div").stop().css("background-color", "#FFFF9C")
    .animate({ backgroundColor: "#FFFFFF"}, 1500);

Edit - New and improved

The following uses the same technique as above, but it has the added benefits of:

• parameterized highlight color and duration
• retaining original background color, instead of assuming that it is white
• being an extension of jQuery, so you can use it on any object

Extend the jQuery Object:

var notLocked = true;
$.fn.animateHighlight = function(highlightColor, duration) {
    var highlightBg = highlightColor || "#FFFF9C";
    var animateMs = duration || 1500;
    var originalBg = this.css("backgroundColor");
    if (notLocked) {
        notLocked = false;
        this.stop().css("background-color", highlightBg)
            .animate({backgroundColor: originalBg}, animateMs);
        setTimeout( function() { notLocked = true; }, animateMs);
    }
};

Usage example:

$("div").animateHighlight("#dd0000", 1000);

You can use css3 animations to flash an element

.flash {
  -moz-animation: flash 1s ease-out;
  -moz-animation-iteration-count: 1;

  -webkit-animation: flash 1s ease-out;
  -webkit-animation-iteration-count: 1;

  -ms-animation: flash 1s ease-out;
  -ms-animation-iteration-count: 1;
}

@keyframes flash {
    0% { background-color: transparent; }
    50% { background-color: #fbf8b2; }
    100% { background-color: transparent; }
}

@-webkit-keyframes flash {
    0% { background-color: transparent; }
    50% { background-color: #fbf8b2; }
    100% { background-color: transparent; }
}

@-moz-keyframes flash {
    0% { background-color: transparent; }
    50% { background-color: #fbf8b2; }
    100% { background-color: transparent; }
}

@-ms-keyframes flash {
    0% { background-color: transparent; }
    50% { background-color: #fbf8b2; }
    100% { background-color: transparent; }
}

And you jQuery to add the class

jQuery(selector).addClass("flash");

After 5 years... (And no additional plugin needed)

This one "pulses" it to the color you want (e.g. white) by putting a div background color behind it, and then fading the object out and in again.

HTML object (e.g. button):

<div style="background: #fff;">
  <input type="submit" class="element" value="Whatever" />
</div>

jQuery (vanilla, no other plugins):

$('.element').fadeTo(100, 0.3, function() { $(this).fadeTo(500, 1.0); });

element - class name

first number in fadeTo() - milliseconds for the transition

second number in fadeTo() - opacity of the object after fade/unfade

You may check this out in the lower right corner of this webpage: https://single.majlovesreg.one/v1/

Edit (willsteel) no duplicated selector by using $(this) and tweaked values to acutally perform a flash (as the OP requested).

You could use the highlight effect in jQuery UI to achieve the same, I guess.