Align Div Container to the Bottom of a Display Flex

Question

I have to build a Modular Window for a chat! I allready got a Toolbar and an Flex conatiner which gets filled. Now i got the Problem, that i want to add an Div for a chat input field. I tried nearly everything to align this thing to the bottom but nothing works.

Here is how it should look like:

"Message input" has to be aligned to the bottom

This is my actual HTML-Code:

<div id="chat_dialog" class="modal" style="height: 600px; overflow-y: hidden">
  <div class="toolbar_standard">
    <div class="toolbar_standard_control_row">
      <img src="/static/images/ic_arrow_back_white.svg" class="toolbar-button" data-bind="click: closeChatDialog">
      <div style="font-size: 20px; color: white">Chat</div>
      <div style="font-size: 20px; color: white; padding-left: 40%" data-bind="html: chatPartnerName"></div>
      <div style="..."></div>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div style="display:flex; height: 100%;">
    <div data-bind="foreach: contacts" style="width: 300px; overflow-y: scroll;">
      <div class="overviewlist_row waves-effect" style="padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px" data-bind="click: $parent.onClick.bind($parent)">
        <div>
          <div>
            <p data-bind="html: name"></p>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div style="background-color: #e6e6e6; flex-grow: 1; overflow-y: scroll; padding-bottom: 10px">
      <div style="height: 80%; display: flex; flex-direction: column;">
        <div id="spinner" class="spinner">
          <div class="bounce1"></div>
          <div class="bounce2"></div>
          <div class="bounce3"></div>
        </div>
        <div data-bind="foreach: messages" style="padding-left: 15px; min-height: 306px">
          <p data-bind="html: message, css: messageClassName"></p>
        </div>
        <div style="height: auto">
          <div class="input-field col s6" style="background-color: white; height: auto;">
            <input id="message_to_send" type="text" class="validate" data-bind="value: message_to_send" style="width: 94%;">
            <a id="sendChat" class="clickable-icon" data-bind="click: sendMessage" style="padding-top: 0px"><img src="/static/images/ic_send_black.svg"></a>
            <label for="message_to_send">Nachricht</label>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

And this is how it looks like in the Browser:

Here you can see that is is floating under the Div of the "Messages" and that its dynamically moving whit the size of the "Messages" Div!

How and where do i have to set the the alignment to the bottom?

Answer 1

First point: Don't use inline CSS without any necessity.

You can bring your message to bottom by positioning. Try to change your code as below

Add position:relative to <div style="height: 80%; display: flex; flex-direction: column;"> and add position:absolute; bottom:0; to <div style="height: auto">.

Edit: If it doesn't bring your message to exact bottom, then you are suppose to work on the height of <div style="height: 80%; display: flex; flex-direction: column;"> on this part.