Element: scrollIntoView() method - Web APIs | MDN (original) (raw)

Baseline

Widely available

The Element interface's**scrollIntoView()** method scrolls the element's ancestor containers such that the element on which scrollIntoView() is called is visible to the user.

Syntax

scrollIntoView()
scrollIntoView(alignToTop)
scrollIntoView(scrollIntoViewOptions)

Parameters

alignToTop Optional

A boolean value:

If true, the top of the element will be aligned to the top of the visible area of the scrollable ancestor. Corresponds toscrollIntoViewOptions: {block: "start", inline: "nearest"}. This is the default value.
If false, the bottom of the element will be aligned to the bottom of the visible area of the scrollable ancestor. Corresponds toscrollIntoViewOptions: {block: "end", inline: "nearest"}.

scrollIntoViewOptions Optional Experimental

An Object with the following properties:

behavior Optional

Determines whether scrolling is instant or animates smoothly. This option is a string which must take one of the following values:

smooth: scrolling should animate smoothly
instant: scrolling should happen instantly in a single jump
auto: scroll behavior is determined by the computed value of scroll-behavior

block Optional

Defines the vertical alignment of the element within the scrollable ancestor container. This option is a string and accepts one of the following values:

start: Aligns the element's top edge with the top of the scrollable container, making the element appear at the start of the visible area vertically.
center: Aligns the element vertically at the center of the scrollable container, positioning it in the middle of the visible area.
end: Aligns the element's bottom edge with the bottom of the scrollable container, placing the element at the end of the visible area vertically.
nearest: Scrolls the element to the nearest edge in the vertical direction. If the element is closer to the top edge of the scrollable container, it will align to the top; if it's closer to the bottom edge, it will align to the bottom. This minimizes the scrolling distance.
Defaults to start.

inline Optional

Defines the horizontal alignment of the element within the scrollable ancestor container. This option is a string and accepts one of the following values:

start: Aligns the element's left edge with the left of the scrollable container, making the element appear at the start of the visible area horizontally.
center: Aligns the element horizontally at the center of the scrollable container, positioning it in the middle of the visible area.
end: Aligns the element's right edge with the right of the scrollable container, placing the element at the end of the visible area horizontally.
nearest: Scrolls the element to the nearest edge in the horizontal direction. If the element is closer to the left edge of the scrollable container, it will align to the left; if it's closer to the right edge, it will align to the right. This minimizes the scrolling distance.
Defaults to nearest.

Examples

Using scrollIntoView()

const element = document.getElementById("box");

element.scrollIntoView();
element.scrollIntoView(false);
element.scrollIntoView({ block: "end" });
element.scrollIntoView({ behavior: "smooth", block: "end", inline: "nearest" });

Controlling top/bottom alignment

By default, the element is aligned to the top (or bottom) edge of the scrollable ancestor. To define a custom spacing, use scroll-margin-top or scroll-margin-bottom. This is often useful when there's a fixed header on the page.

HTML

<body>
  <header class="navbar">Navbar</header>
  <main class="content">
    <button id="go-to-bottom">Go to bottom</button>
    <button id="go-to-top">Go to top</button>
  </main>
</body>

CSS

.navbar {
  height: 50px;
  position: sticky;
  top: 0;
  border-bottom: 1.5px solid black;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
}
.content {
  height: 2000px;
  position: relative;
}
#go-to-bottom {
  position: absolute;
  top: 10px;
  /* Without this, the button will be aligned to the top of the page
  instead of bottom of navbar when scrolled */
  scroll-margin-top: 60px;
}
#go-to-top {
  position: absolute;
  bottom: 10px;
  scroll-margin-bottom: 0;
}

JavaScript

const goToTop = document.getElementById("go-to-top");
const goToBottom = document.getElementById("go-to-bottom");
goToBottom.addEventListener("click", () => {
  goToTop.scrollIntoView({ behavior: "instant", block: "end" });
});
goToTop.addEventListener("click", () => {
  goToBottom.scrollIntoView({ behavior: "instant", block: "start" });
});

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSSOM View Module # dom-element-scrollintoview