Automatically scrolling a div to the bottom in a React component

I am currently working on developing a chat application for my school project, and I would like to implement the feature that automatically scrolls to the bottom of the chat window. Despite trying various solutions and encountering React errors, I have not been able to achieve the desired functionality. Since I am new to React, there may be some mistakes in my code that I am unaware of. Below is a snippet of what I have implemented so far:

class Messages extends React.Component {
    updateScroll() {
    let element = document.querySelector(".messages");
    element.scrollTop = element.scrollHeight;
}
render() {
    const messages = store.getState().messages.map((msg) => {
      this.updateScroll();
      return (
        <Message
          name={msg.displayName}
          message={msg.text}
          time={msg.timestamp}
          pic={msg.pic}
          key={msg.timestamp}
          clas={msg.who}
        />
      );
    });
    return (
      <div className="messages">
        <div className="chat">
        </div>
        <div className="sendMessage">
          <input
            type="text"
            placeholder="Message epic channel"
            className="pendingMessage"
            onKeyPress={this.handleKeyDown}
          />
          <button onClick={this.handleMessageSend}>Send</button>
        </div>
      </div>
    );
  }
}
export default Messages;

If you would like to access the full code, you can visit my GitHub repository at the following link: https://github.com/dougalcaleb/react-chat-app

Thank you!

Answer №1

My recommendation would be to utilize CSS for this task

To achieve the desired layout for the chatbox content, you can use the following CSS code which aligns the content to the bottom.

.chat-container {
  height: 100px;
  overflow: auto;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column-reverse;
}

Answer №2

Instead of using document query, it's recommended to utilize refs

class ChatMessages extends React.Component {
    constructor() {
        super()
        this.chatMessagesRef = React.createRef()
    }

    updateScroll() {
      this.chatMessagesRef.current.scrollTo(0, this.chatMessagesRef.current.scrollHeight)
    }

   render() {
    const messages = store.getState().messages.map((msg) => {
      this.updateScroll();
      return (
        <ChatMessage
          name={msg.displayName}
          message={msg.text}
          time={msg.timestamp}
          pic={msg.pic}
          key={msg.timestamp}
          clas={msg.who}
        />
      );
    });

    return (
      <div ref={this.chatMessagesRef} className="chat-messages">
        <div className="chat">
        </div>
        <div className="send-message">
          <input
            type="text"
            placeholder="Type your message here"
            className="message-input"
            onKeyPress={this.handleKeyDown}
          />
          <button onClick={this.sendMessage}>Send</button>
        </div>
      </div>
    );
  }
}
export default ChatMessages;

Have you considered implementing the scroll functionality using ref and scrollTo?

Answer №3

add a placeholder div after the chat history.

<div ref={chatEndRef}></div>

    const chatEndRef = useRef(null)

    const [chatHistory, setChatHistory] = useState([]);

when there are new messages in the chat history, utilize useEffect to handle the update.

    useEffect(() => {
        chatEndRef.current.scrollIntoView({ behavior: 'smooth' })
    }, [chatHistory])

Answer №4

If you are only retrieving messages from the state, consider invoking the updateScroll function within the componentDidMount method.

Alternatively, utilize a ref for your message div to obtain the height instead of relying on querySelector.

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