I was using the polyfill until it become too much of a headache. It works nicely when it does, but there are corner cases, like CORS problems, and it slows page loads by doing XHR requests for all your CSS links and reparsing them for the "position: sticky" declaration that the browser ignored.
Now I'm using ScrollToFixed, which I like better than StickyJS because it doesn't mess up my layout with a wrapper.
I know it has been some time since the question was asked, but I found a good solution to this. The plugin stickybits uses position: sticky where supported, and applies a class to the element when it is 'stuck'. I've used it recently with good results, and, at time of writing, it is active development (which is a plus for me) :)
I came up with this solution that works like a charm and is pretty small. :)
No extra elements needed.
It does run on the window scroll event though which is a small downside.
apply_stickies()
window.addEventListener('scroll', function() {
apply_stickies()
})
function apply_stickies() {
var _$stickies = [].slice.call(document.querySelectorAll('.sticky'))
_$stickies.forEach(function(_$sticky) {
if (CSS.supports && CSS.supports('position', 'sticky')) {
apply_sticky_class(_$sticky)
}
})
}
function apply_sticky_class(_$sticky) {
var currentOffset = _$sticky.getBoundingClientRect().top
var stickyOffset = parseInt(getComputedStyle(_$sticky).top.replace('px', ''))
var isStuck = currentOffset <= stickyOffset
_$sticky.classList.toggle('js-is-sticky', isStuck)
}
Note: This solution doesn't take elements that have bottom stickiness into account. This only works for things like a sticky header. It can probably be adapted to take bottom stickiness into account though.
The top value needs to be -1px or the element will never intersect with the top of the browser window (thus never triggering the intersection observer).
To counter this 1px of hidden content, an additional 1px of space should be added to either the border or the padding of the sticky element.
💡 Alternatively, if you wish to keep the CSS as is (top:0), then you can apply the "correction" at the intersection observer-level by adding the setting rootMargin: '-1px 0px 0px 0px' (as @mattrick showed in his answer)
Event callback caching: scrollCallback (to be able to unbind if needed)
// get the sticky element
const stickyElm = document.querySelector('header');
// get the first parent element which is scrollable
const stickyElmScrollableParent = getScrollParent(stickyElm);
// save the original offsetTop. when this changes, it means stickiness has begun.
stickyElm._originalOffsetTop = stickyElm.offsetTop;
// compare previous scrollTop to current one
const detectStickiness = (elm, cb) => () => cb & cb(elm.offsetTop != elm._originalOffsetTop)
// Act if sticky or not
const onSticky = isSticky => {
console.clear()
console.log(isSticky)
stickyElm.classList.toggle('isSticky', isSticky)
}
// bind a scroll event listener on the scrollable parent (whatever it is)
// in this exmaple I am throttling the "scroll" event for performance reasons.
// I also use functional composition to diffrentiate between the detection function and
// the function which acts uppon the detected information (stickiness)
const scrollCallback = throttle(detectStickiness(stickyElm, onSticky), 100)
stickyElmScrollableParent.addEventListener('scroll', scrollCallback)
// OPTIONAL CODE BELOW ///////////////////
// find-first-scrollable-parent
// Credit: https://stackoverflow.com/a/42543908/104380
function getScrollParent(element, includeHidden) {
var style = getComputedStyle(element),
excludeStaticParent = style.position === "absolute",
overflowRegex = includeHidden ? /(auto|scroll|hidden)/ : /(auto|scroll)/;
if (style.position !== "fixed")
for (var parent = element; (parent = parent.parentElement); ){
style = getComputedStyle(parent);
if (excludeStaticParent && style.position === "static")
continue;
if (overflowRegex.test(style.overflow + style.overflowY + style.overflowX))
return parent;
}
return window
}
// Throttle
// Credit: https://jsfiddle.net/jonathansampson/m7G64
function throttle (callback, limit) {
var wait = false; // Initially, we're not waiting
return function () { // We return a throttled function
if (!wait) { // If we're not waiting
callback.call(); // Execute users function
wait = true; // Prevent future invocations
setTimeout(function () { // After a period of time
wait = false; // And allow future invocations
}, limit);
}
}
}
header{
position: sticky;
top: 0;
/* not important styles */
background: salmon;
padding: 1em;
transition: .1s;
}
header.isSticky{
/* styles for when the header is in sticky mode */
font-size: .8em;
opacity: .5;
}
/* not important styles*/
body{ height: 200vh; font:20px Arial; }
section{
background: lightblue;
padding: 2em 1em;
}
I found a solution somewhat similar to @vsync's answer, but it doesn't require the "hack" that you need to add to your stylesheets. You can simply change the boundaries of the IntersectionObserver to avoid needing to move the element itself outside of the viewport:
@vsync 's excellent answer was almost what I needed, except I "uglify" my code via Grunt, and Grunt requires some older JavaScript code styles. Here is the adjusted script I used instead:
var stickyElm = document.getElementById('header');
var observer = new IntersectionObserver(function (_ref) {
var e = _ref[0];
return e.target.classList.toggle('isSticky', e.intersectionRatio < 1);
}, {
threshold: [1]
});
observer.observe( stickyElm );
Something like this also works for a fixed scroll height:
// select the header
const header = document.querySelector('header');
// add an event listener for scrolling
window.addEventListener('scroll', () => {
// add the 'stuck' class
if (window.scrollY >= 80) navbar.classList.add('stuck');
// remove the 'stuck' class
else navbar.classList.remove('stuck');
});
