How to Scroll to the Bottom of a Chat Widget in React?

How to Scroll to an Element in React

In this article, we'll address a common issue where a chat widget's scrollbar remains fixed at the top when new messages load. Our goal is to focus the scrollbar on the last message element from the previous array.

Solution

To solve this issue, we need to:

1. Create dynamic refs by passing an index to the component rendering the message elements.
2. Utilize an appropriate scroll function that scrolls to the desired element.

React 16.8 , Functional Component:

const ScrollDemo = () => {
  const myRef = useRef(null);

  const executeScroll = () => myRef.current.scrollIntoView(); // Scroll to the element

  return (
    <>
      <div ref={myRef}>Element to scroll to</div>
      <button onClick={executeScroll}>Click to scroll </button>
    </>
  );
};

React 16.3 , Class Component:

class ReadyToScroll extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.myRef = React.createRef();
  }

  render() {
    return <div ref={this.myRef}>Element to scroll to</div>;
  }

  executeScroll = () => this.myRef.current.scrollIntoView(); // Scroll to the element
}

Class Component - Ref Callback:

class ReadyToScroll extends Component {
  render() {
    return <div ref={(ref) => (this.myRef = ref)}>Element to scroll to</div>;
  }

  executeScroll = () => this.myRef.scrollIntoView(); // Scroll to the element
}

Important Notes:

• Avoid using string refs as they degrade performance and composability.
• For a smoother scroll animation, add the following CSS:

html {
  scroll-behavior: smooth;
}

• When passing a ref to a child component, name the prop differently to avoid conflict with the native "ref" prop.

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