unitynews = Class.create();
unitynews.prototype = {
	initialize: function(){
		this.interval = 4000;
		this.container = $("newsitems");
		this.messages  = $A(this.container.getElementsByTagName("li"));
		this.number_of_messages = this.messages.length;
		if (this.number_of_messages >= 3){
			this.number_of_messages = 3;
		}
		if (this.number_of_messages == 0) return false;
		this.current_message = 0;
		this.previous_message = null;
		this.hideNews();
		this.showNews();
		this.timer = setInterval(this.showNews.bind(this), this.interval);
  	},
	showNews: function(){
		Effect.Appear(this.messages[this.current_message]);
		setTimeout(this.fadeNews.bind(this), this.interval-1500);
		if (this.current_message < this.number_of_messages-1){
			this.previous_message = this.current_message;
			this.current_message = this.current_message + 1;
		} else {
			this.current_message = 0;
			this.previous_message = this.number_of_messages - 1;
		}
	},
	fadeNews: function(){
		Effect.Fade(this.messages[this.previous_message]);
	},
	hideNews: function(){
		Element.setStyle($("newsitems"), {display: "block"});
		this.messages.each(function(message){
			Element.hide(message);
		});
	}
}
Event.observe(window, "load", function(){new unitynews()}, false);