Smooth scroll without the use of jQuery

Question

Native browser smooth scrolling in JavaScript is like this:

// scroll to specific values,
// same as window.scroll() method.
// for scrolling a particular distance, use window.scrollBy().
window.scroll({
  top: 2500, 
  left: 0, 
  behavior: 'smooth' 
});

// scroll certain amounts from current position 
window.scrollBy({ 
  top: 100, // negative value acceptable
  left: 0, 
  behavior: 'smooth' 
});

// scroll to a certain element
document.querySelector('.hello').scrollIntoView({ 
  behavior: 'smooth' 
});

Try this smooth scrolling demo, or an algorithm like:

1. Get the current top location using self.pageYOffset
2. Get the position of element till where you want to scroll to: element.offsetTop
3. Do a for loop to reach there, which will be quite fast or use a timer to do smooth scroll till that position using window.scrollTo

---

See also the other popular answer to this question.

---

Andrew Johnson's original code:

function currentYPosition() {
    // Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
    if (self.pageYOffset) return self.pageYOffset;
    // Internet Explorer 6 - standards mode
    if (document.documentElement && document.documentElement.scrollTop)
        return document.documentElement.scrollTop;
    // Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8
    if (document.body.scrollTop) return document.body.scrollTop;
    return 0;
}


function elmYPosition(eID) {
    var elm = document.getElementById(eID);
    var y = elm.offsetTop;
    var node = elm;
    while (node.offsetParent && node.offsetParent != document.body) {
        node = node.offsetParent;
        y += node.offsetTop;
    } return y;
}


function smoothScroll(eID) {
    var startY = currentYPosition();
    var stopY = elmYPosition(eID);
    var distance = stopY > startY ? stopY - startY : startY - stopY;
    if (distance < 100) {
        scrollTo(0, stopY); return;
    }
    var speed = Math.round(distance / 100);
    if (speed >= 20) speed = 20;
    var step = Math.round(distance / 25);
    var leapY = stopY > startY ? startY + step : startY - step;
    var timer = 0;
    if (stopY > startY) {
        for ( var i=startY; i<stopY; i+=step ) {
            setTimeout("window.scrollTo(0, "+leapY+")", timer * speed);
            leapY += step; if (leapY > stopY) leapY = stopY; timer++;
        } return;
    }
    for ( var i=startY; i>stopY; i-=step ) {
        setTimeout("window.scrollTo(0, "+leapY+")", timer * speed);
        leapY -= step; if (leapY < stopY) leapY = stopY; timer++;
    }
}

---

Related links:

• https://www.sitepoint.com/smooth-scrolling-vanilla-javascript/
• https://github.com/zengabor/zenscroll/blob/dist/zenscroll.js
• https://github.com/cferdinandi/smooth-scroll/blob/master/src/js/smooth-scroll.js
• https://github.com/alicelieutier/smoothScroll/blob/master/smoothscroll.js

Algorithm

Scrolling an element requires changing its scrollTop value over time. For a given point in time, calculate a new scrollTop value. To animate smoothly, interpolate using a smooth-step algorithm.

Calculate scrollTop as follows:

var point = smooth_step(start_time, end_time, now);
var scrollTop = Math.round(start_top + (distance * point));

Where:

• start_time is the time the animation started;
• end_time is when the animation will end (start_time + duration);
• start_top is the scrollTop value at the beginning; and
• distance is the difference between the desired end value and the start value (target - start_top).

A robust solution should detect when animating is interrupted, and more. Read my post about Smooth Scrolling without jQuery for details.

Demo

See the JSFiddle.

Implementation

The code:

/**
    Smoothly scroll element to the given target (element.scrollTop)
    for the given duration

    Returns a promise that's fulfilled when done, or rejected if
    interrupted
 */
var smooth_scroll_to = function(element, target, duration) {
    target = Math.round(target);
    duration = Math.round(duration);
    if (duration < 0) {
        return Promise.reject("bad duration");
    }
    if (duration === 0) {
        element.scrollTop = target;
        return Promise.resolve();
    }

    var start_time = Date.now();
    var end_time = start_time + duration;

    var start_top = element.scrollTop;
    var distance = target - start_top;

    // based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoothstep
    var smooth_step = function(start, end, point) {
        if(point <= start) { return 0; }
        if(point >= end) { return 1; }
        var x = (point - start) / (end - start); // interpolation
        return x*x*(3 - 2*x);
    }

    return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
        // This is to keep track of where the element's scrollTop is
        // supposed to be, based on what we're doing
        var previous_top = element.scrollTop;

        // This is like a think function from a game loop
        var scroll_frame = function() {
            if(element.scrollTop != previous_top) {
                reject("interrupted");
                return;
            }

            // set the scrollTop for this frame
            var now = Date.now();
            var point = smooth_step(start_time, end_time, now);
            var frameTop = Math.round(start_top + (distance * point));
            element.scrollTop = frameTop;

            // check if we're done!
            if(now >= end_time) {
                resolve();
                return;
            }

            // If we were supposed to scroll but didn't, then we
            // probably hit the limit, so consider it done; not
            // interrupted.
            if(element.scrollTop === previous_top
                && element.scrollTop !== frameTop) {
                resolve();
                return;
            }
            previous_top = element.scrollTop;

            // schedule next frame for execution
            setTimeout(scroll_frame, 0);
        }

        // boostrap the animation process
        setTimeout(scroll_frame, 0);
    });
}

I've made an example without jQuery here : http://codepen.io/sorinnn/pen/ovzdq

/**
    by Nemes Ioan Sorin - not an jQuery big fan 
    therefore this script is for those who love the old clean coding style  
    @id = the id of the element who need to bring  into view

    Note : this demo scrolls about 12.700 pixels from Link1 to Link3
*/
(function()
{
      window.setTimeout = window.setTimeout; //
})();

      var smoothScr = {
      iterr : 30, // set timeout miliseconds ..decreased with 1ms for each iteration
        tm : null, //timeout local variable
      stopShow: function()
      {
        clearTimeout(this.tm); // stopp the timeout
        this.iterr = 30; // reset milisec iterator to original value
      },
      getRealTop : function (el) // helper function instead of jQuery
      {
        var elm = el; 
        var realTop = 0;
        do
        {
          realTop += elm.offsetTop;
          elm = elm.offsetParent;
        }
        while(elm);
        return realTop;
      },
      getPageScroll : function()  // helper function instead of jQuery
      {
        var pgYoff = window.pageYOffset || document.body.scrollTop || document.documentElement.scrollTop;
        return pgYoff;
      },
      anim : function (id) // the main func
      {
        this.stopShow(); // for click on another button or link
        var eOff, pOff, tOff, scrVal, pos, dir, step;

        eOff = document.getElementById(id).offsetTop; // element offsetTop

        tOff =  this.getRealTop(document.getElementById(id).parentNode); // terminus point 

        pOff = this.getPageScroll(); // page offsetTop

        if (pOff === null || isNaN(pOff) || pOff === 'undefined') pOff = 0;

        scrVal = eOff - pOff; // actual scroll value;

        if (scrVal > tOff) 
        {
          pos = (eOff - tOff - pOff); 
          dir = 1;
        }
        if (scrVal < tOff)
        {
          pos = (pOff + tOff) - eOff;
          dir = -1; 
        }
        if(scrVal !== tOff) 
        {
          step = ~~((pos / 4) +1) * dir;

          if(this.iterr > 1) this.iterr -= 1; 
          else this.itter = 0; // decrease the timeout timer value but not below 0
          window.scrollBy(0, step);
          this.tm = window.setTimeout(function()
          {
             smoothScr.anim(id);  
          }, this.iterr); 
        }  
        if(scrVal === tOff) 
        { 
          this.stopShow(); // reset function values
          return;
        }
    }
 }

Modern browsers has support for CSS "scroll-behavior: smooth" property. So, we even don't need any Javascript at all for this. Just add this to the body element, and use usual anchors and links. scroll-behavior MDN docs

I recently set out to solve this problem in a situation where jQuery wasn't an option, so I'm logging my solution here just for posterity.

var scroll = (function() {

    var elementPosition = function(a) {
        return function() {
            return a.getBoundingClientRect().top;
        };
    };

    var scrolling = function( elementID ) {

        var el = document.getElementById( elementID ),
            elPos = elementPosition( el ),
            duration = 400,
            increment = Math.round( Math.abs( elPos() )/40 ),
            time = Math.round( duration/increment ),
            prev = 0,
            E;

        function scroller() {
            E = elPos();

            if (E === prev) {
                return;
            } else {
                prev = E;
            }

            increment = (E > -20 && E < 20) ? ((E > - 5 && E < 5) ? 1 : 5) : increment;

            if (E > 1 || E < -1) {

                if (E < 0) {
                    window.scrollBy( 0,-increment );
                } else {
                    window.scrollBy( 0,increment );
                }

                setTimeout(scroller, time);

            } else {

                el.scrollTo( 0,0 );

            }
        }

        scroller();
    };

    return {
        To: scrolling
    }

})();

/* usage */
scroll.To('elementID');

The scroll() function uses the Revealing Module Pattern to pass the target element's id to its scrolling() function, via scroll.To('id'), which sets the values used by the scroller() function.

Breakdown

In scrolling():

• el : the target DOM object
• elPos : returns a function via elememtPosition() which gives the position of the target element relative to the top of the page each time it's called.
• duration : transition time in milliseconds.
• increment : divides the starting position of the target element into 40 steps.
• time : sets the timing of each step.
• prev : the target element's previous position in scroller().
• E : holds the target element's position in scroller().

The actual work is done by the scroller() function which continues to call itself (via setTimeout()) until the target element is at the top of the page or the page can scroll no more.

Each time scroller() is called it checks the current position of the target element (held in variable E) and if that is > 1 OR < -1 and if the page is still scrollable shifts the window by increment pixels - up or down depending if E is a positive or negative value. When E is neither > 1 OR < -1, or E === prev the function stops. I added the DOMElement.scrollTo() method on completion just to make sure the target element was bang on the top of the window (not that you'd notice it being out by a fraction of a pixel!).

The if statement on line 2 of scroller() checks to see if the page is scrolling (in cases where the target might be towards the bottom of the page and the page can scroll no further) by checking E against its previous position (prev).

The ternary condition below it reduce the increment value as E approaches zero. This stops the page overshooting one way and then bouncing back to overshoot the other, and then bouncing back to overshoot the other again, ping-pong style, to infinity and beyond.

If your page is more that c.4000px high you might want to increase the values in the ternary expression's first condition (here at +/-20) and/or the divisor which sets the increment value (here at 40).

Playing about with duration, the divisor which sets increment, and the values in the ternary condition of scroller() should allow you to tailor the function to suit your page.

• JSFiddle

• N.B.Tested in up-to-date versions of Firefox and Chrome on Lubuntu, and Firefox, Chrome and IE on Windows8.

You can use the new Scroll Behaviour CSS Property.

for example, add the below line to your CSS.

html{
    scroll-behavior:smooth;
}

and this will result in a native smooth scrolling feature.

see demo here

All modern browsers support the scroll-behavior property.

Read More about Scroll behavior