Anchor scroll position to the bottom

css/anchor-scroll-position-to-the-bottom.md

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+# Anchor scroll position to the bottom
+
+Recently, I was building a vertical "timeline" for an explorable explanation, in which new elements would be added below any existing ones. As elements were added, I wanted the scroll position anchored to the bottom of the timeline, as it would be in a chat app.
+
+Specifically:
+
+- The first element should start at the top.
+- New elements should enter the timeline below any existing elements.
+- If the container is scrolled to the bottom, it should remain scrolled to the bottom to reveal new elements as they're added.
+- But if the container is scrolled _up_, the scroll position should remain the same such that new elements are added below the fold.
+
+Initially, I thought I might have to mess around with [`MutationObserver`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/MutationObserver), but I found [this StackOverflow answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/44051405) with a neat CSS-only solution.
+
+The answer used `flex-direction: column-reverse`. That mostly works, with two caveats:
+
+1. Elements start at the bottom, rather than the top.
+2. More seriously, the markup needs to be in reverse order.
+
+Luckily, a commenter pointed out a trick to fix both of those: wrap the list in another element, and apply the flexbox properties to the _wrapper_. Then, to force the list to the top of the wrapper, add a shim before it in the markup (which places it below it in the wrapper's `column-reverse` flexbox flow).
+
+All in all, the markup would look something like this:
+
+```html
+<div class="wrapper">
+  <div class="shim"></div>
+  <ul>
+    <!-- items go here -->
+  </ul>
+</div>
+```
+
+And the CSS would look like this:
+
+```css
+.wrapper {
+  display: flex;
+  flex-direction: column-reverse;
+  overflow: auto;
+}
+
+.shim {
+  flex: 1;
+}
+```