How to scroll to bottom in react?

Question

I want to build a chat system and automatically scroll to the bottom when entering the window and when new messages come in. How do you automatically scroll to the bottom of

Answer 1

I just want to update the answer to match the new React.createRef() method, but it's basically the same, just have in mind the current property in the created ref:

class Messages extends React.Component {

  const messagesEndRef = React.createRef()

  componentDidMount () {
    this.scrollToBottom()
  }
  componentDidUpdate () {
    this.scrollToBottom()
  }
  scrollToBottom = () => {
    this.messagesEnd.current.scrollIntoView({ behavior: 'smooth' })
  }
  render () {
    const { messages } = this.props
    return (
      

        {messages.map(message => )}
        

      
    )
  }
}

UPDATE:

Now that hooks are available, I'm updating the answer to add the use of the useRef and useEffect hooks, the real thing doing the magic (React refs and scrollIntoView DOM method) remains the same:

import React, { useEffect, useRef } from 'react'

const Messages = ({ messages }) => {

  const messagesEndRef = useRef(null)

  const scrollToBottom = () => {
    messagesEndRef.current.scrollIntoView({ behavior: "smooth" })
  }

  useEffect(scrollToBottom, [messages]);

  return (
    

      {messages.map(message => )}
      

    
  )
}

Also made a (very basic) codesandbox if you wanna check the behaviour https://codesandbox.io/s/scrolltobottomexample-f90lz