I have developed a small chat feature where users can communicate with each other in real-time. Utilizing AJAX, the chat pulls and displays messages seamlessly.
While the functionality is smooth, there's one issue that needs attention. I want the chat box to automatically scroll down to show the latest messages every time AJAX fetches new data.
But here lies the challenge - how do I determine if a user is actively scrolling within the chat box?
To avoid disrupting user experience, I wish to disable auto-scrolling when someone is currently interacting with the chat.
Is there a way to achieve this effectively?
This is the HTML structure of the chat:
<div id="chat">
<div id="chatoutput></div>
</div>
And here's the JavaScript responsible for scrolling to the bottom:
jQuery("#chat").scrollTop($("#chat")[0].scrollHeight);