CSS position element “fixed” inside scrolling cont

Question

i wonder if anyone has found a solution for this?

i am looking for a solution to attach an element to the top of a scrolling container

HTML:

<div class="container">
  <div class="header">title</div>
  <div class="element">......</div>
  ... (about 10-20 elements) ...
  <div class="element">......</div> 
</div>

all "elements" have position:relative,

the container has the following CSS:

.container {
  position:relative;
  width:200px;
  height:400px;
  overflow-y:scroll;
}

i want the header to stay on top of the container, independant of its scrolling position and the elements scrolling underneath.

the CSS so far:

.header {
  position:absolute; /* scrolling out of view :-( */
  z-index:2;
  background-color:#fff;
}
.element{
  position: relative;
}

all elements are block elements, and i can not move the header outside of the container. jquery is no option at this point.

Answer 1

The best answer you will ever find for such a solution is from this link How to fixed scroll div after certain height and stop after reach other div? I hope this saves someone some googling time

    var navWrap = $('#navWrap'),
        nav = $('nav'),
        startPosition = navWrap.offset().top,
        stopPosition = $('#stopHere').offset().top - nav.outerHeight();
    
    $(document).scroll(function () {
        //stick nav to top of page
        var y = $(this).scrollTop()
        
        if (y > startPosition) {
            nav.addClass('sticky');
            if (y > stopPosition) {
                nav.css('top', stopPosition - y);
            } else {
                nav.css('top', 0);
            }
        } else {
            nav.removeClass('sticky');
        } 
    });

body {
    height:1600px;
    margin:0;
}
#navWrap {
    height:70px
}
nav {
    height: 70px;
    background:gray;
}
.sticky {
    position: fixed;
    top:0;
}

h1 {
    margin: 0;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<p>Zombie ipsum reversus ab viral inferno, nam rick grimes malum cerebro. De carne lumbering animata corpora quaeritis. Summus brains sit morb​​,o vel maleficia? De apocalypsi gorger omero undead survivor dictum mauris. Hi mindless mortuis soulless creaturas, imo evil stalking monstra adventus resi dentevil vultus comedat cerebella viventium. Qui animated corpse, cricket bat max brucks terribilem incessu zomby. The voodoo sacerdos flesh eater, suscitat mortuos comedere carnem virus. Zonbi tattered for solum oculi eorum defunctis go lum cerebro. Nescio brains an Undead zombies. Sicut malus putrid voodoo horror. Nigh tofth eliv ingdead.</p>
<div id="navWrap">
    <nav>
         <h1>I stick to the top when you scroll down and unstick when you scroll up to my original position</h1>
    </nav>
</div>

<p>Zombie ipsum reversus ab viral inferno, nam rick grimes malum cerebro. De carne lumbering animata corpora quaeritis. Summus brains sit​​, morbo vel maleficia? De apocalypsi gorger omero undead survivor dictum mauris. Hi mindless mortuis soulless creaturas, imo evil stalking monstra adventus resi dentevil vultus comedat cerebella viventium. Qui animated corpse, cricket bat max brucks terribilem incessu zomby. The voodoo sacerdos flesh eater, suscitat mortuos comedere carnem virus. Zonbi tattered for solum oculi eorum defunctis go lum cerebro. Nescio brains an Undead zombies. Sicut malus putrid voodoo horror. Nigh tofth eliv ingdead.</p>
<p>Zombie ipsum reversus ab viral inferno, nam rick grimes malum cerebro. De carne lumbering animata corpora quaeritis. Summus brains sit morb​​,o vel maleficia? De apocalypsi gorger omero undead survivor dictum mauris. Hi mindless mortuis soulless creaturas, imo evil stalking monstra adventus resi dentevil vultus comedat cerebella viventium. Qui animated corpse, cricket bat max brucks terribilem incessu zomby. The voodoo sacerdos flesh eater, suscitat mortuos comedere carnem virus. Zonbi tattered for solum oculi eorum defunctis go lum cerebro. Nescio brains an Undead zombies. Sicut malus putrid voodoo horror. Nigh tofth eliv ingdead.</p>
<br>
<div id="stopHere">
<h3 style="color:red">I want it stop fixed scrolling here. If I'm back to scrolling up, It will follow also to original position.</h3>
</div>
<br>
<p>Zombie ipsum reversus ab viral inferno, nam rick grimes malum cerebro. De carne lumbering animata corpora quaeritis. Summus brains sit morb​​,o vel maleficia? De apocalypsi gorger omero undead survivor dictum mauris. Hi mindless mortuis soulless creaturas, imo evil stalking monstra adventus resi dentevil vultus comedat cerebella viventium. Qui animated corpse, cricket bat max brucks terribilem incessu zomby. The voodoo sacerdos flesh eater, suscitat mortuos comedere carnem virus. Zonbi tattered for solum oculi eorum defunctis go lum cerebro. Nescio brains an Undead zombies. Sicut malus putrid voodoo horror. Nigh tofth eliv ingdead.</p>
<p>Zombie ipsum reversus ab viral inferno, nam rick grimes malum cerebro. De carne lumbering animata corpora quaeritis. Summus brains sit​​, morbo vel maleficia? De apocalypsi gorger omero undead survivor dictum mauris. Hi mindless mortuis soulless creaturas, imo evil stalking monstra adventus resi dentevil vultus comedat cerebella viventium. Qui animated corpse, cricket bat max brucks terribilem incessu zomby. The voodoo sacerdos flesh eater, suscitat mortuos comedere carnem virus. Zonbi tattered for solum oculi eorum defunctis go lum cerebro. Nescio brains an Undead zombies. Sicut malus putrid voodoo horror. Nigh tofth eliv ingdead.</p>
<p>Zombie ipsum reversus ab viral inferno, nam rick grimes malum cerebro. De carne lumbering animata corpora quaeritis. Summus brains sit morb​​,o vel maleficia? De apocalypsi gorger omero undead survivor dictum mauris. Hi mindless mortuis soulless creaturas, imo evil stalking monstra adventus resi dentevil vultus comedat cerebella viventium. Qui animated corpse, cricket bat max brucks terribilem incessu zomby. The voodoo sacerdos flesh eater, suscitat mortuos comedere carnem virus. Zonbi tattered for solum oculi eorum defunctis go lum cerebro. Nescio brains an Undead zombies. Sicut malus putrid voodoo horror. Nigh tofth eliv ingdead.</p>
<p>Zombie ipsum reversus ab viral inferno, nam rick grimes malum cerebro. De carne lumbering animata corpora quaeritis. Summus brains sit​​, morbo vel maleficia? De apocalypsi gorger omero undead survivor dictum mauris. Hi mindless mortuis soulless creaturas, imo evil stalking monstra adventus resi dentevil vultus comedat cerebella viventium. Qui animated corpse, cricket bat max brucks terribilem incessu zomby. The voodoo sacerdos flesh eater, suscitat mortuos comedere carnem virus. Zonbi tattered for solum oculi eorum defunctis go lum cerebro. Nescio brains an Undead zombies. Sicut malus putrid voodoo horror. Nigh tofth eliv ingdead.</p>
<p>Zombie ipsum reversus ab viral inferno, nam rick grimes malum cerebro. De carne lumbering animata corpora quaeritis. Summus brains sit morb​​,o vel maleficia? De apocalypsi gorger omero undead survivor dictum mauris. Hi mindless mortuis soulless creaturas, imo evil stalking monstra adventus resi dentevil vultus comedat cerebella viventium. Qui animated corpse, cricket bat max brucks terribilem incessu zomby. The voodoo sacerdos flesh eater, suscitat mortuos comedere carnem virus. Zonbi tattered for solum oculi eorum defunctis go lum cerebro. Nescio brains an Undead zombies. Sicut malus putrid voodoo horror. Nigh tofth eliv ingdead.</p>

Answer 2

jQuery UI added a position() utility method just for this purpose that would make your life easier.

$( "#someElement" ).position({
    of:  //Element to position against,
    my:  //which position on the element being positioned,
    at:  //which position on the target element eg: horizontal/vertical,
    offset:  // left-top values to the calculated position, eg. "50 50"
});

Definitely helped me.

Answer 3

I think your solution pass with position:sticky. Seems it's like position:fixed but respects the relative position to his parent.

Unfortunately this is an experimental feature, and is only supported in Chromium. You can see more details in this test page.

The pure css solution that comes into my mind is with a little change of the markup. You can set a container only for the "elements" as this:

<div class="cont_elements">
      <div class="element">......</div>
      .....
</div>

And give the overflow to this inner container. Now, your header sticks at top.

Here's a working demo.

Answer 4

The solution in this case would be to pop the title outside of the scrolling element:

<div class="header">title</div>
<div class="container">
    <div class="element">......</div>
    <div class="element">......</div>
</div>

Although you should probably have better semantic elements if possible (just guessing here):

<h3>title</h3>
<ul>
    <li>......</li>
    <li>......</li>
</ul>