9

Ok, I thought this would be really simple, but it's turning out not to be. I think I'm just messing something up in my HTML/CSS, but here goes.

I have a basic page like so:

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <link href='test2.css' rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script src="test2.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="scroll"></div>
  </body>
</html>

test2.css

* {
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
}

html, body {
  height: 100%;
  width: 100%;
}

#scroll {
  height: 100%;
  width: 100%;
  overflow: scroll;
  background-color: black;
}

test2.js

$(document).ready(function() {
  // my resolution is 1440x900
  alert('innerwidth should be 1425');
  // all of these return 1440
  alert('body innerwidth: ' + $('body').innerWidth());
  alert('document width: ' + $(document).width());
  alert('window width: ' + $(window).width());
  alert('scroll div innerwidth: ' + $('#scroll').innerWidth());
  alert('document.documentElement.clientWidth: ' + document.documentElement.clientWidth);
  alert('document.documentElement.scrollWidth: ' + document.documentElement.scrollWidth);
});

So I've got one element on the page... a div that takes up the entire screen, or rather it should be taking up the entire screen minus the scrollbars. Now, I've been doing some snooping on how to grab the width and height of a page without the scrollbars, but unfortunately, none of them return the proper value... which makes me believe I'm missing the boat in my HTML or CSS.

I looked at the following:

jquery - how to get screen width without scrollbar?

how to get the browser window size without the scroll bars

So what I need is for a method to return the value of my viewable screen minus the respective scrollbar value... so for my width, my value should be 1425 because the scrollbar is 15 pixels wide. I thought that's what innerWidth's job was, but apparently I'm wrong?

Can anyone provide any insight? (I'm running Firefox 24.)

EDIT

To add some background, I've got a blank page. I will be adding elements one by one to this page, and I need to use the width of the page when calculating the sizes for these elements. Eventually, this page will grow and grow until the scrollbar appears, which is why I'm trying to force the scrollbar there from the start, but apparently, that still doesn't do anything.

EDIT2

Here's something even more interesting... if I do document.getElementById('scroll').clientWidth, I get the proper innerWidth, but if I do $('#scroll').width() or $('#scroll').innerWidth(), they both return the max resolution... sounds like a jQuery bug.

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incutonez
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  • Possible duplicate of [How to get screen width without (minus) scrollbar?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8339377/how-to-get-screen-width-without-minus-scrollbar) – Bengi Besçeli Aug 02 '16 at 08:45

4 Answers4

3

I got this somewhere and would give credit if I knew where, but this has been succesfull for me. I added the result as padding when setting the html overflow to hidden.

Problem is that the scrollbar is a feature of the browser and not the web page self. Measurement should be done dynamically. A measurement with a scrollbar and a measurement without a scrollbar will resolve into calculating the difference in width.

Found the source: http://www.fleegix.org/articles/2006/05/30/getting-the-scrollbar-width-in-pixels

scrollCompensate = function () {
    var inner = document.createElement('p');
    inner.style.width = "100%";
    inner.style.height = "200px";

    var outer = document.createElement('div');
    outer.style.position = "absolute";
    outer.style.top = "0px";
    outer.style.left = "0px";
    outer.style.visibility = "hidden";
    outer.style.width = "200px";
    outer.style.height = "150px";
    outer.style.overflow = "hidden";
    outer.appendChild(inner);

    document.body.appendChild(outer);
    var w1 = inner.offsetWidth;
    outer.style.overflow = 'scroll';
    var w2 = inner.offsetWidth;
    if (w1 == w2) w2 = outer.clientWidth;

    document.body.removeChild(outer);

    return (w1 - w2);
}

var htmlpadding = scrollCompensate();
Daniel
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  • Hmm, this looks a bit complicated for something so simple as the width of the screen. – incutonez Oct 04 '13 at 04:25
  • Added some more description. It looks a bit complicated, but not really. Actually these are necessary steps. I have been breaking my head as well back then. Interesting to see these odd results in width measurements .. :-) – Daniel Oct 04 '13 at 05:10
  • Here's something even more interesting... if I do `document.getElementById('scroll').clientWidth`, I get the proper innerWidth, but if I do `$('#scroll').width()` or `$('#scroll').innerWidth()`, they both return the max resolution... sounds like a jQuery bug. – incutonez Oct 04 '13 at 05:20
  • I don't know if it has something to do with margins or paddings, like I do a reset when starting CSS to set these to zero. Maybe this may be interesting too. Note the outerHeight(true) .. [see here](http://www.texelate.co.uk/blog/jquery-whats-the-difference-between-height-innerheight-and-outerheight/) – Daniel Oct 04 '13 at 05:25
  • Hmm, but my paddings and margins are being zeroed out. Maybe I just don't understand width/innerWidth? By the looks of that table, width shouldn't include padding, border, or margin... innerWidth should include only paddiing. So it looks like they aren't, but they do include the scrollbars... that's sort of misleading. – incutonez Oct 04 '13 at 13:43
3

The correct answer is in this post marked as accepted: CSS media queries and JavaScript window width do not match

This is the correct code:

function viewport() {
  var e = window, a = 'inner';
  if (!('innerWidth' in window )) {
    a = 'client';
    e = document.documentElement || document.body;
  }
  return { width : e[ a+'Width' ] , height : e[ a+'Height' ] };
}
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Tim Baas
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2

Discovered a very hacky solution... by adding this before my alerts in test2.js, I get the proper width:

var p = $('body').append('<p style="height: 100%; width: 100%;"></p>');
alert(p.width());
$('body').remove('p');

And consequently, all of the alerts now have the proper width. I also don't even need overflow-y in the CSS if I do it this way. Curious why this solves it...

The real answer should be keeping the HTML and CSS as is, then using document.getElementById('scroll').clientWidth. Using clientWidth gets the viewable area minus the scrollbar width.

incutonez
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1

The correct width of the page is given by $(document).width(). Your problem is that you're using a scroll within the div (overflow: scroll). Using $(document).width() the returned value is already discounting the visible width of the scroll, but how do you put a scroll within the div value returned is no longer the same. As the width of the scroll is not standard and varies from system to system and browser to browser, it is difficult to solve.

I suggest you remove the scroll of the div and let the browser manage this by default in the body, then yes you have the correct width.

Walter Gandarella
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    Well, the problem I have with this is... let's say I have a blank page, and using your knowledge, not having `overflow:scroll` on any elements. I use the width of the page to size elements that I add in one at a time, and eventually this page grows to where it needs a scrollbar. Well, once that scrollbar comes into the picture, all of my previous elements are sized wrong, so now I'm out of luck. Does that make sense? – incutonez Oct 04 '13 at 04:18