Div height percentage based but still scrolling

Question

First off, similar but never answered questions:

vertically-scrolling-percentage-based-heights-vertical-margins-codepen-exampl

scroll-bar-on-div-with-overflowauto-and-percentage-height

I have an issue with scrolling a center part of the web page while its height needs to be auto.

Here is a fiddle

The header needs to be on top at all times, meaning I don't want the body to become larger than 100%.

However the div #messages can become larger, and that div needs to scroll on its own.

The #messages has a margin-bottom to leave room for the fixed bottom div.

I tried making the div #messages with box-sizing: border-box; and making it height:100% and padding to keep it in place but this was a really nasty looking solution and the scroll bar was the full page height instead of only the inner part.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You want something like This

Or maybe - his big brother..

Pure CSS solution, without fixing any height.

HTML:

<div class="Container">
    <div class="First">
    </div>
    <div class="Second">
        <div class="Content">
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

CSS:

*
{
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}

html, body, .Container
{
    height: 100%;
}

    .Container:before
    {
        content: '';
        height: 100%;
        float: left;
    }

.First
{
    /*for demonstration only*/
    background-color: #bf5b5b;
}

.Second
{
    position: relative;
    z-index: 1;
    /*for demonstration only*/
    background-color: #6ea364;
}

    .Second:after
    {
        content: '';
        clear: both;
        display: block;
    }

.Content
{
    position: absolute;
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
    overflow: auto;
}