How to get first visible body element (on screen) with pure javascript

Question

Someone knows how to reference the "nearest to the top" dom element currently on visible screen?

Something like this solution: How to get first visible DOM element currently showing on the screen? ; but purely on javascript.

Don't care about position coords, nor anything else, than just get reference to it.

Thanks in advance

The linked question uses JavaScript, what do you mean "purely in JavaScript"? — Armen Michaeli, Sep 18 '19 at 12:05
Is this something that needs to be calculated frequently (on scroll, for instance)? If so, you might find [`IntersectionObserver`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Intersection_Observer_API) useful. — spender, Sep 18 '19 at 12:07
@spender Rite. That's why I pointed "element currently on visible screen". Thaks for your note!! — NBK, Sep 19 '19 at 14:01

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 18 '19 at 12:34

This is basically the same code as this answer but without jQuery.

function visible(elem) {
  return !(elem.clientHeight === 0 || elem.clientWidth === 0)
}

let first;
let firstOffY;
let allVisible = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('body > *')).filter(visible)
for(const elem of allVisible) {
  //Calculaate the offset to the document 
  //See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/18673641/7448536
  const offY = elem.getBoundingClientRect().top + document.documentElement.scrollTop
  if (first == null || offY < firstOffY) {
    first = elem;
    firstOffY = offY;
  }
}

first.classList.add('highlight');

.highlight {
  background-color: yellow;
}

<div>
  <p>Some Text</p>
  <h1>Headline</h1>
</div>

document.querySelectorAll('body > *') Select all elements under body
Array.from Convert the return value of querySelectorAll to a real array
.filter(visible) discard all elements that are not visible

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 18 '19 at 13:17

In case you need better compatibility, here a bit adjusted Wendelin's answer.

function visible(elem) {
  return !(elem.clientHeight === 0 || elem.clientWidth === 0)
}

let first;
let firstOffY;
var elems = [], source = document.querySelectorAll('body > *');
for(var elemI=0;elemI<source.length;elemI++) {
   elems.push(source[elemI]);
}
let allVisible = elems.filter(visible)
for(var elem in allVisible) {
  elem = allVisible[elem];
  //Calculaate the offset to the document 
  //See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/18673641/7448536
  const offY = elem.getBoundingClientRect().top + document.documentElement.scrollTop
  if (first == null || offY < firstOffY) {
    first = elem;
    firstOffY = offY;
  }
} 

console.log(first.outerHTML);
first.classList.add('highlight');

.highlight {
  background-color: yellow;
}

<div>
  <p>Some Text</p>
  <h1>Headline</h1>
</div>

How to get first visible body element (on screen) with pure javascript

2 Answers2