box-shadow on top of children

Question

How do I get an inset CSS3 box-shadow to render on top of its children elements?

Problem:

HTML:

Answer 1

cant be done directly from css.. (it is not shadow if it goes above overlapping elements)

you would need to rework your html a bit by adding a div (or use a pseudo element as suggested by miguelcobain's answer) to overlay the shadow and your CSS to make the new div have the shadow..

#chatroom {
  border: 1px solid #CCC;
  height: 135px;
  font-size: 0.75em;
  line-height: 1.2em;
  overflow: auto;
  position: relative;
}

.shadow {
  position: absolute;
  left: 0px;
  top: 0px;
  right: 0px;
  bottom: 0px;
  -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 0px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, .55);
  -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 0px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, .55);
  box-shadow: inset 0 0px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, .55);
}

.chatmessage {
  padding: 4px 2px;
}

.chatmessage b {
  margin-right: 2px;
}

.chatmessage:nth-child(2n) {
  background: #EEE;
}

  
User 1:Test
  
User 2:Test
  
User 1:Test
  
User 2:Test