flexbox won't overflow with justify-content: flex-end

Question

I'm creating a chat with css flexbox, and as I want my messages to be diplay bottom of a container, I used justify-content: flex-end but when I have to many messages the div isn't scrollable with overflow: auto

I've read about a solution which is to reverse my .messages div and my .write-zone div and to replace flex-direction: column-reverse but this isn't a good solution for me because the content of my .messages div is dynamic, messages will be added and the scroll level won't follow, and I'd like to avoid controlling the scroll in javascript.

Does someone know any solution or trick to do this ?

Here's a fiddle showing skeleton of my code :

.container {
  width: 60%;
  height: 300px;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  justify-content: flex-end;
}

.messages {
  height: 100%;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  justify-content: flex-end;
  overflow-y: auto;
}

.message {
  margin: 5px;
  height: 80px;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: row;
}

.message.user {
  justify-content: flex-end;
  background-color: #2bf;
}

.message.other {
  justify-content: flex-start;
  background-color: #bbb;
}

.write-zone {
  width: 100%;
  height: 7%;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: row;
  justify-content: space-around;
}

input {
  width: 80%;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="messages">
    <div class="message user">
      Toto
    </div>
    <div class="message other">
      Titi
    </div><div class="message user">
      Toto
    </div>
    <div class="message other">
      Titi
    </div>
    <div class="message user">
      Toto
    </div>
    <div class="message other">
      Titi
    </div>
    <div class="message user">
      Toto
    </div>
    <div class="message other">
      Titi
    </div>
    <div class="message user">
      Toto
    </div>
    <div class="message other">
      Titi
    </div>
    <div class="message user">
      Toto
    </div>
    <div class="message other">
      Titi
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="write-zone">
    <input type="text" />
    <button>
    send
    </button>
  </div>
</div>

Answer 1

It sounds like your trying to make the chatbox scrollable when there are a lot of messages.

I found that by removing the justify-content flex-end from the .messages I'm able to scroll through the messages.

Hope this helps.

.container {
  width: 60%;
  height: 300px;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  justify-content: flex-end;
}

.messages-container {
  height: 100%;
  max-height: 300px;
  overflow: auto;
}

.messages{
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  /*   justify-content: flex-end; */
  overflow: auto;
}

.message {
  margin: 5px;
  height: 80px;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: row;
}

.message.user {
  justify-content: flex-end;
  background-color: #2bf;
}

.message.other {
  justify-content: flex-start;
  background-color: #bbb;
}

.write-zone {
  width: 100%;
  height: 7%;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: row;
  justify-content: space-around;
}

input {
  width: 80%;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="messages">
  <div class="messages-container">
    <div class="message user">
      Toto
    </div>
    <div class="message other">
      Titi
    </div><div class="message user">
      Toto
    </div>
    <div class="message other">
      Titi
    </div>
    <div class="message user">
      Toto
    </div>
    <div class="message other">
      Titi
    </div>
    <div class="message user">
      Toto
    </div>
    <div class="message other">
      Titi
    </div>
    <div class="message user">
      Toto
    </div>
    <div class="message other">
      Titi
    </div>
    <div class="message user">
      Toto
    </div>
    <div class="message other">
      Titi
    </div>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="write-zone">
    <input type="text" />
    <button>
    send
    </button>
  </div>
</div>