Scrolling “Go To Top” Link Using Dojo

By  on  

One of the most popular code snippets of posted on my blog has been the scrolling "Go To Top" link snippet. The premise of the snippet is simple: once the user scrolls an element (usually the BODY element) past a given threshold, a "Go To Top" anchor fades into view. Simple, stylish, and functional -- the definition of a good JavaScript-powered enhancement. I've showed you how to accomplish this task using jQuery and MooTools; here's how you can accomplish that same effect using Dojo.

The HTML

<a href="#top" id="gototop" class="no-click no-print">Top of Page</a>
<!-- you could also create this dynamically using dojo -->

Just a simple "top" link.

The CSS

	#gototop { visibility:hidden; position:fixed; right:5px; bottom:5px; color:#999; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; border:1px solid  #ccc; background:#eee; padding:10px; }

It's important to hide the element during the initial page load.

The Dojo JavaScript

dojo.ready(function() {
	var link = dojo.byId("gototop");
	dojo.style(link,{ opacity: 0, visibility:"hidden" });
	dojo.connect(window,"onscroll",function(e) {
		var scrollY = -dojo.position(dojo.body()).y, thresh = 100;
		dojo.anim(topLink, { opacity: (scrollY > thresh ? 1 : 0 ) });
	});
});

When the DOM is ready we grab the link, styling it so that it will hidden via visibility instead of display. On each scroll of the body, we calculate the position of the page and show or hide the link depending on the page position. Easy!

There you have it. Another framework, another flavor of JavaScript, another awesome snippet. Happy scrolling!

Recent Features

  • By
    Write Simple, Elegant and Maintainable Media Queries with Sass

    I spent a few months experimenting with different approaches for writing simple, elegant and maintainable media queries with Sass. Each solution had something that I really liked, but I couldn't find one that covered everything I needed to do, so I ventured into creating my...

  • By
    9 Mind-Blowing Canvas Demos

    The <canvas> element has been a revelation for the visual experts among our ranks.  Canvas provides the means for incredible and efficient animations with the added bonus of no Flash; these developers can flash their awesome JavaScript skills instead.  Here are nine unbelievable canvas demos that...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    MooTools Star Ratings with MooStarRating

    I've said it over and over but I'll say it again:  JavaScript's main role in web applications is to enhance otherwise boring, static functionality provided by the browser.  One perfect example of this is the Javascript/AJAX-powered star rating systems that have become popular over the...

  • By
    Elegant Overflow with CSS Ellipsis

    Overflow with text is always a big issue, especially in a programmatic environment. There's always only so much space but variable content to add into that space. I was recently working on a table for displaying user information and noticed that longer strings were...

Discussion

  1. smion

    hey, your demo isn’t working for me (firefox 3.6.3) – the button appears but it doesn’t scroll to top ;)

    ps: it would be VERY helpfull, if you can trans-code this to mootools :-)

  2. @smion: Updated the link. Also — there’s a link to the MooTools version above.

  3. Champ

    Walsh… I am having trouble getting it to go back up. How do you get yours to go up?

  4. Very useful tutorial. I will try to apply it on my blog. Good work.

  5. Catar4x

    I love it ! Thank you David !

    If you can do this for all anchor link, it would be sick !

  6. @Catar4x

    Do you mean something like this?

    http://www.cinsoft.net/mylib-examples.html#scrollinganchors

    PS. Dojo sucks!

  7. Catar4x

    Yeah, David made this one time for Mootools. :)

  8. Manoj

    Thank u so much…Very useful tutorial. I will try to apply it on my blog. Good work

  9. SSK

    Thank you David… simple and nice scroll….

  10. robot

    It works in IE and Firefox, but no in Chrome! How to solve of it? Thanks!

  11. Roman

    it not work in safari too.
    it is bad news for us!

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!