OnScrollTo

A component that triggers an action when it's scrolled to.

Can be used to render a "Load more items on scroll down" component for "infinite scroll" lists.

Demo

• DOM
• React

Install

npm install on-scroll-to --save

If you're not using a bundler then use a standalone version from a CDN.

Use

The default export is the OnScrollTo class. It implements the core logic and can be used for building an OnScrollTo component for any UI framework. on-scroll-to/dom and on-scroll-to/react are both built upon it so this OnScrollTo utility class is a low-level core and is meant to be used by UI framework library authors and not by the end users — the end users should use high-level components like on-scroll-to/dom (for pure JS) and on-scroll-to/react (for React).

import OnScrollTo from 'on-scroll-to'
 
new OnScrollTo(
  getElement,
  onScrollTo,
  onStateChange,
  options
)

• getElement() function should return the DOM Element which will get the onScrollTo action triggered when it's scrolled to.
• onScrollTo() function is the action that will get triggered when the DOM Element is scrolled to.
• onStateChange(state) function gets called whenever OnScrollTo instance's state changes.
• options is an optional argument.

Available options:

• distance — Is a number in pixels and is screen height by default meaning that onScrollTo() function will get called as soon as the user scrolls down to the component's Y position minus screen height. Can be used to perform some action ahead of time before the user scrolls down to the bottom. For example, to load next list items before the user scrolls down to the end of the currently shown list items.

When OnScrollTo DOM Element is scrolled to the OnScrollTo component is "deactivated" and onScrollTo() function is called. The onScrollTo() function must return either true (or a Promise resolving to true) to re-enable the OnScrollTo component or false (or a Promise resolving to false) if the OnScrollTo component is no longer needed on the page in which case it disappears (returns nothing when rendered).

The onScrollTo() function could look like this:

let page = 0
let list = []
function onScrollTo() {
  return http.get('/items', { skip: page * 10, limit: 10 })
    .then(({ items, hasMore }) => {
      list = list.concat(items)
      page++
      // If there're more items to load
      // then re-enable the `OnScrollTo` component.
      // Otherwise, don't render the `OnScrollTo` DOM Element.
      return hasMore
    })
}

The OnScrollTo class instance provides methods:

• onMount() — Should be called when the OnScrollTo component is "mounted" (rendered) on a page.
• onUnmount() — Should be called when the OnScrollTo component is "unmounted" (removed) from the page.
• getState() — Returns OnScrollTo state.
• retry() — Can be used for manually re-enabling the OnScrollTo component if an error happened.

OnScrollTo state provides properties:

• hidden — Is set to true when the OnScrollTo component should no longer be rendered.
• loading — Is set to true when the OnScrollTo component is in "disabled" state (onScrollTo() returned a Promise which hasn't been resolved or rejected yet).
• error — Is present if onScrollTo() threw an error (or returned a Promise that rejected with an error).

DOM

This is an example of using on-scroll-to/dom component. It's the source code of the DOM demo.

import { OnScrollTo } from 'on-scroll-to/dom'
 
// Renders the "Loading more..." DOM Element.
function render(state) {
  // Create `element`.
  const element = document.createElement('div')
  element.classList.add('load-more')
  // Clear container element.
  const container = document.getElementById('load-more-items')
  while (container.firstChild) {
    container.removeChild(container.firstChild)
  }
  // If there was an error then show it.
  if (state.error) {
    element.classList.add('load-more--error')
    element.textContent = 'Error while loading more items'
  }
  // If there're no more items then
  // `element` is removed from `document`.
  else if (state.hidden) {
    return
  }
  // Create `element`.
  else {
    if (state.loading) {
      // May render a spinner animation.
      element.textContent = 'Loading more...'
    } else {
      element.textContent = 'Load more'
    }
  }
  // Insert `element` into `document`.
  container.appendChild(element)
  // `render()` function must return the DOM Element.
  return element
}
 
const onScrollToComponent = new OnScrollTo(
  onScrollTo,
  render,
  options
)
 
// Call `.mount()` for the initial render.
// All subsequent renders will be automatic.
onScrollToComponent.mount()
 
// For "Single Page Apps":
// router.onPageUnload(onScrollToComponent.onUnmount)

OnScrollTo class constructor receives arguments:

• onScrollTo() function is the action that will get triggered when the DOM Element is scrolled to.
• render(state) function renders the DOM Element for the OnScrollTo component.
• options is an optional argument. These are the options for the core OnScrollTo class constructor.

OnScrollTo instance provides methods:

• retry() — Can be used for manually re-enabling the OnScrollTo component if an error happened.

React

This is an example of using the React OnScrollTo component. It's the source code of the React demo.

import React from 'react'
import PropTypes from 'prop-types'
import OnScrollTo from 'on-scroll-to/react'
 
function Example({ onScrollTo }) {
  return (
    <OnScrollTo
      onScrollTo={onScrollTo}
      component={LoadMoreItemsOnScroll}
  )
}
 
Example.propTypes = {
  onScrollTo: PropTypes.func.isRequired
}
 
function LoadMoreItemsOnScroll({
  setDOMNode,
  loading,
  error,
  retry
}) {
  // May render a spinner animation.
  return (
    <div ref={setDOMNode} className="load-more">
      {error ? 'Error while loading more items' : (loading ? 'Loading more...' : 'Load more')}
    </div>
  )
}
 
LoadMoreItemsOnScroll.propTypes = {
  setDOMNode: PropTypes.func.isRequired,
  loading: PropTypes.bool,
  error: PropTypes.any,
  retry: PropTypes.func.isRequired
}

<OnScrollTo/> component receives properties:

• onScrollTo() — The function that gets called when the component is scrolled to.
• component — A React component for the OnScrollTo DOM Element.
• distance — (optional) Trigger distance.

component receives properties:

• setDOMNode() — Should be passed as ref on the root DOM Element.
• loading — (optional) Will be true if OnScrollTo component is in "disabled" state (onScrollTo() returned a Promise which hasn't been resolved or rejected yet).
• error — (optional) If onScrollTo() throws an error (or rejects with an error) then the error property will be passed.
• retry() — Can be used for manually re-enabling the OnScrollTo component if an error happened.

Debug

Set window.OnScrollToDebug to true to output debug messages to console.

CDN

One can use any npm CDN service, e.g. unpkg.com or jsdelivr.net

<!-- Core. -->
<script src="https://unpkg.com/on-scroll-to@1.x/bundle/on-scroll-to.js"></script>
<script>
  new OnScrollTo(...)
</script> 
 
<!-- DOM component. -->
<script src="https://unpkg.com/on-scroll-to@1.x/bundle/on-scroll-to-dom.js"></script>
<script>
  new OnScrollTo(...)
</script> 
 
<!-- React component. -->
<script src="https://unpkg.com/on-scroll-to@1.x/bundle/on-scroll-to-react.js"></script>
<script>
  <OnScrollTo .../>
</script> 

License

MIT