🌀 @epic-web/restore-scroll

Restore scroll position of elements on page navigation

The <body> isn't the only thing that scrolls. When the user scrolls a list, then navigates back and forth, you may want to keep their scroll position where it was when they left. This library makes that easy.

npm install @epic-web/restore-scroll

The Problem

When a user navigates to a new page, the browser will scroll the page to the position it was at when the user left the page. This is a great feature, but it's not perfect. The browser only scrolls the <body> element. If the user scrolls a list, then navigates back and forth, the browser will scroll the page to the top, but the list will still be scrolled to the position it was at when the user left the page.

The Solution

This library provides a way to restore the scroll position of any element on the page you choose. It does this by storing the scroll position of the element in session storage and then restoring it when the user navigates back to the page (very similar to how Remix handles scroll restoration for the <body>).

This depends on React Router's useNavigation and useLocation hooks. It could probably be generalized to work with other routers. PRs welcome.

Demo

Note: this demo is based on Remix, but will work with React Router as well.

Usage

import { ElementScrollRestoration } from '@epic-web/restore-scroll'

return (
    <div>
        <ul id="christmas-gifts">
            <li>🎁</li>
            <li>🎂</li>
            <li>🎉</li>
            {/* ... */}
        </ul>
        <ElementScrollRestoration elementQuery="#christmas-gifts" />
    </div>
)

And that's it! Now when the user navigates away from the page and then back to it, the list will be scrolled to the position it was at when the user left the page.

You can also specify horizontal scroll for elements like carousels:

<ElementScrollRestoration elementQuery="#christmas-gifts" direction="horizontal" />

Tips:

This requires an inline script, so you'll need to pass a nonce if you're using a Content Security Policy that requires this.
Make certain to place the ElementScrollRestoration component after the element you want to restore the scroll position of. This is because the component will render a <script> tag immediately after the element, and that script will run immediately, so the element needs to be in the DOM before the script runs.
If you're computing the id and that value can change between navigations, you may need to specify a key on ElementScrollRestoration to trigger the inline script to be evaluated again and set the scroll position correctly.
You'll want one of these components for each scrollable element you want to restore the scroll position for.

License

MIT

epicweb-dev / restore-scroll