Add autoplay function to simple jQuery slider

My current slider functions perfect, and also has a working pagination (paginated dots, active state, and control) but I just want to add ONE new feature without breaking anything:

The ability for my slider to autoplay on page load.

Any suggestions, greatly appreciated.

HTML / Markup:

<div class="allslideshow">
    <div class="slideshow-wrapper">
        <div class="slide" id="s1"></div>
        <div class="slide" id="s2"></div>
        <div class="slide" id="s3"></div>
    </div>
    <div class="slideshow-nav"> <a href="#s1">•</a>
 <a href="#s2">•</a>
 <a href="#s3">•</a>
    </div>
</div>

jQuery

jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
var Slideshow = {
    paginate: function () {
        var slides = $('div.slide', '.allslideshow'),
            total = slides.length;
        $('.slideshow-nav-total').text(total);
        slides.each(function (i) {
            $(this).data('index', i + 1);
        });
    },
    navigate: function () {
        $('a', '.slideshow-nav').click(function (e) {
            e.preventDefault();
            var $a = $(this);
            var slide = $($a.attr('href'));
            var wrapper = $('.slideshow-wrapper');
            wrapper.animate({
                left: -slide.position().left
            }, 500, 'linear', function () {
                $('.slideshow-nav-current').text(slide.data('index'));
                $a.addClass('active').siblings('a').removeClass('active');
            });

        });
    },
    init: function () {
        this.paginate();
        this.navigate();
    }
};
$(function () {
    Slideshow.init();
    });
});

Attempt:

// autoplay: function () {
//      .ready(function) { 
//         e.preventDefault();
//         var $a = $(this);
//         var slide = $($a.attr('href'));
//         var wrapper = $('.slideshow-wrapper');
//         wrapper.animate({
//             left: -slide.position().left
//         }, 300, 'linear', function () {
//             $('.slideshow-nav-current').text(slide.data('index'));
//             $a.addClass('active').siblings('a').removeClass('active');
//          });

//     });
// },

Solution

The way to move forward is to abstract away the animation function from the "click" event handler on your links. That way you can call the animation function from both a click and a timer event. The tricky thing about this is that you have to capture the this context in order to use it inside a closure. Here's what I mean:

//...
moveTo: function($a) {
  var slide = $($a.attr('href'));
  var wrapper = $('.slideshow-wrapper');
  wrapper.animate({
    left: -slide.position().left
  }, 500, 'linear', function () {
    $('.slideshow-nav-current').text(slide.data('index'));
    $a.addClass('active').siblings('a').removeClass('active');
  });
},
navigate: function () {
    var self = this;
    $('a', '.slideshow-nav').click(function (e) {
        e.preventDefault();
        if (self.interval) {
          clearInterval(self.interval);
          self.interval = false;
        }
        var $a = $(this);
        self.moveTo($a);
    });
},
autoPlay: function() {
  var $alist = $('a', '.slideshow-nav');
  var i = 0;
  var self = this;
  this.interval = setInterval(function() {
    var $a = $alist.eq(i++);
    i %= $alist.length;
    self.moveTo($a);
  }, 1000);
},
init: function () {
    this.paginate();
    this.navigate();
    this.autoPlay();
}
//...

Try it in a plunker.