Developed By
Gautam Kumar - Full stack developer
DEEP DIVE INTO
Sticky positioning is a relatively new and useful feature that allows an element to act as both relatively positioned and fixed positioned, depending on its scroll position.
Elements with a sticky position are initially in the normal flow, but they become fixed to the viewport once they reach a specified scroll position. Here's a deep dive into the CSS properties related to sticky positioning:
position: sticky;:
This is the main property that enables sticky positioning. It's used to specify that an element should be positioned according to the normal flow until it crosses a specified threshold, at which point it becomes fixed to the viewport.
css.sticky-element {
position: sticky;
top: 20px; /* The threshold at which the element becomes sticky */
}
top, right, bottom, left:
These properties are used in conjunction with position: sticky; to define the offset at which the element becomes sticky. You can specify values in pixels, percentages, or other length units.
css.sticky-element {
position: sticky;
top: 20px; /* The element becomes sticky when it reaches 20px from the top of the viewport */
}
z-index:
The z-index property determines the stacking order of sticky elements when they overlap. Elements with higher z-index values will appear above elements with lower values.
css.sticky-element {
position: sticky;
top: 20px;
z-index: 100;
}
Threshold: Sticky elements become fixed to the viewport when they cross a specified threshold, which is determined by the value of the top, right, bottom, or left properties.
Relative Positioning: Sticky elements are initially positioned according to the normal flow of the document. They start behaving as fixed elements only when the user scrolls the page to the specified threshold position.
Scroll Direction: Sticky positioning works in both vertical and horizontal directions, depending on whether you use top, right, bottom, or left.
Parent Scrolling: Sticky elements are typically placed inside a container with a scrollable overflow. When the container is scrolled, the sticky element will become fixed relative to the container's viewport.
Compatibility: Sticky positioning is supported in modern web browsers. For older browsers that don't support it, the element will behave as a relatively positioned element.
Dynamic Changes: You can dynamically change the threshold value (e.g., using JavaScript) to make a sticky element stick at different scroll positions.
Use Cases: Sticky positioning is commonly used for creating navigation bars that stay at the top of the viewport as the user scrolls down, or for sticky sidebars that remain visible while content scrolls past them.
In this example, the navigation bar becomes sticky and stays at the top of the viewport when the user scrolls down the page. Sticky positioning is a powerful feature for creating interactive and user-friendly web layouts.