jQuery scrollTop() doesn't seem to work in Safari or Chrome (Windows)

Question

I've got a simple setup to allow a "help"-style window to be loaded and scrolled to a particular point on the page. More or less the code looks like this:

var target = /* code */; target.offsetParent().scrollTop(target.offset().top - fudgeValue); 

The target of the scroll and the fudge value are determined by a couple of hints dropped on the page, and I'm having no problems with that part of this mechanism anywhere. In Firefox and IE8, the above code works exactly like I want: the scrolled box (in this case, the page body) correctly scrolls the contained stuff to the right point in the window when it's told to do so.

In Chrome and Safari, however, the call to scrollTop() apparently does nothing at all. All the numbers are OK, and the target refers to the right thing (and the offsetParent() is indeed the body element), but nothing at all happens. As far as I can tell from googling around, this is supposed to work. Is there something funny about the renderer under Safari and Chrome?

This is jQuery 1.3.2 if that matters.

Test page: http://gutfullofbeer.net/scrolltop.html

Answer 1

I was having this problem in Safari and Chrome (Mac) and discovered that .scrollTop would work on $("body") but not $("html, body"), FF and IE however works the other way round. A simple browser detect fixes the issue:

if($.browser.safari)     bodyelem = $("body") else     bodyelem = $("html,body")  bodyelem.scrollTop(100) 

The jQuery browser value for Chrome is Safari, so you only need to do a detect on that.

Hope this helps someone.

Answer 2

Yeah, there appears to be a bug in Chrome when it comes to modifying the body, trying to make it into an offsetParent. As a work-around, I suggest you simply add another div to wrap the #content div, and make that scroll:

html, body { height: 100%; padding: 0; }  html { width: 100%; background-color: #222; overflow: hidden; margin: 0; }  body  {     width: 40em; margin: 0px auto; /* narrow center column layout */    background-color: white;     position: relative; /* allow positioning children relative to this element */ }  #scrollContainer /* wraps #content, scrolls */ {    overflow: auto; /* scroll! */   position:absolute; /* make offsetParent */   top: 0; height: 100%; width: 100%; /* fill parent */ }  #header  {    position: absolute;    top: 0px; height: 50px; width: 38.5em;    background-color: white;    z-index: 1; /* sit above #content in final layout */ }  #content { padding: 5px 14px 50px 5px;  }  

Tested in FF 3.5.5, Chrome 3.0.195.33, IE8

Live demonstration:

$(function() {          $('#header').find('button').click(function(ev) {            var button = $(this), target = $('div.' + button.attr('class'));            var scroll = target.offsetParent().scrollTop();             target.offsetParent().scrollTop(target.offset().top + scroll - 50);          });        });

html, body { height: 100%; padding: 0; }        html { width: 100%; background-color: #222; overflow: hidden; margin: 0; }        body { width: 40em; margin: 0px auto; background-color: white; position: relative; }        #scrollContainer { overflow: auto; position:absolute; top: 0; height: 100%; width: 100%; }        #header { position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 50px; width: 38.5em; background-color: white; z-index: 1; }        #content { padding: 5px 14px 50px 5px;  }

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script>      <div id='header'>         Header Box        <button class='A'>A</button>         <button class='B'>B</button>         <button class='C'>C</button>       </div>       <div id='scrollContainer'>      <div id='content'>         <div style='height: 50px'> </div>         <div class='A'>           <h1>A</h1>           <p>My name is Boffer Bings. I was born of honest parents in one of the humbler walks of life, my father being a manufacturer of dog-oil and my mother having a small studio in the shadow of the village church, where she disposed of unwelcome babes. In my boyhood I was trained to habits of industry; I not only assisted my father in procuring dogs for his vats, but was frequently employed by my mother to carry away the debris of her work in the studio. In performance of this duty I sometimes had need of all my natural intelligence for all the law officers of the vicinity were opposed to my mother's business. They were not elected on an opposition ticket, and the matter had never been made a political issue; it just happened so. My father's business of making dog-oil was, naturally, less unpopular, though the owners of missing dogs sometimes regarded him with suspicion, which was reflected, to some extent, upon me. My father had, as silent partners, all the physicians of the town, who seldom wrote a prescription which did not contain what they were pleased to designate as _Ol. can._ It is really the most valuable medicine ever discovered. But most persons are unwilling to make personal sacrifices for the afflicted, and it was evident that many of the fattest dogs in town had been forbidden to play with me--a fact which pained my young sensibilities, and at one time came near driving me to become a pirate.        </div>         <div class='B'>           <h1>B</h1>           <p>           Looking back upon those days, I cannot but regret, at times, that by indirectly bringing my beloved parents to their death I was the author of misfortunes profoundly affecting my future.          <p>           One evening while passing my father's oil factory with the body of a foundling from my mother's studio I saw a constable who seemed to be closely watching my movements. Young as I was, I had learned that a constable's acts, of whatever apparent character, are prompted by the most reprehensible motives, and I avoided him by dodging into the oilery by a side door which happened to stand ajar. I locked it at once and was alone with my dead. My father had retired for the night. The only light in the place came from the furnace, which glowed a deep, rich crimson under one of the vats, casting ruddy reflections on the walls. Within the cauldron the oil still rolled in indolent ebullition, occasionally pushing to the surface a piece of dog. Seating myself to wait for the constable to go away, I held the naked body of the foundling in my lap and tenderly stroked its short, silken hair. Ah, how beautiful it was! Even at that early age I was passionately fond of children, and as I looked upon this cherub I could almost find it in my heart to wish that the small, red wound upon its breast--the work of my dear mother--had not been mortal.        </div>         <div class='C'>           <h1>C</h1>           <p>It had been my custom to throw the babes into the river which nature had thoughtfully provided for the purpose, but that night I did not dare to leave the oilery for fear of the constable. "After all," I said to myself, "it cannot greatly matter if I put it into this cauldron. My father will never know the bones from those of a puppy, and the few deaths which may result from administering another kind of oil for the incomparable _ol. can._ are not important in a population which increases so rapidly." In short, I took the first step in crime and brought myself untold sorrow by casting the babe into the cauldron.        </div>         <div style='height: 75em;'> </div>       </div>       </div>