Prevent the page from scrolling to an element when it is focused
Written byPhuoc Nguyen
Category
Level 1 — Basic
Created
19 Oct, 2021
An element can be focused by either using the
`autofocus="true"`
attribute or calling the `element.focus()`
method. In both cases, the browser will automatically scroll the element into the viewport.
It is not a problem in most cases but I have seen a few scenarios where we would like to avoid the behaviour.For example, focusing on a text field inside a modal automatically might scroll the page to the top.
There are two solutions to prevent this behaviour.
#Use the preventScroll option
We can pass the
`preventScroll`
option to the `focus()`
method as following:element.focus({
preventScroll: true,
});
However, the option is not fully supported in all browsers. Check out the web-platform-tests and Can I use pages.
#Scroll to the previous point
This approach works in all browsers. We store the mouse location before calling the
`focus()`
method, and then scroll to that location later:const x = window.scrollX;
const y = window.scrollY;
elem.focus();
// Scroll to the previous location
window.scrollTo(x, y);
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Phước Nguyễn