How to Scroll a Child Component into View in React

Creating a seamless user experience often involves dynamically managing the layout and visibility of components on a webpage. A common scenario in web development is the need to automatically scroll a specific component into view. For instance, on a landing page, you might want to bring a contact form to the user’s attention by automatically scrolling to it when they click a “Contact Us” button.

In a traditional HTML and JavaScript setup, accessing the DOM element to scroll to is straightforward. You can use various methods like:

document.getElementById(id); // Find the element by element id
document.getElementsByTagName(name); // Find the element by tag name
document.getElementsByClassName(name); // Find the element by class name

However, in React, direct DOM manipulation is discouraged in favor of a more declarative approach. React provides a way to access DOM nodes through refs. Here’s a basic example:

const inputRef = useRef(null);

// In your component's return statement
<Contact ref={inputRef} />;

But what if the element you want to scroll to is not a direct child but nested deeper in the component tree? This is where forwardRef comes into play.

The Power of ForwardRef in React

React’s forwardRef is a special hook that allows refs to be passed through components, reaching deeper into the component hierarchy. This is essential when you need to access a DOM element that is not a direct child of the component where the ref is defined.

Let’s see how forwardRef can be implemented:

import React, { forwardRef, useRef } from "react";

// Defining a child component that accepts a ref
const Contact = forwardRef((props, ref) => <form ref={ref}>{/* Form content */}</form>);

// Parent component
const Parent = () => {
	const contactRef = useRef(null);

	// Function to scroll the contact form into view
	const scrollToContact = () => {
		contactRef.current?.scrollIntoView({ behavior: "smooth" });
	};

	return (
		<div>
			<button onClick={scrollToContact}>Contact Us</button>
			<Contact ref={contactRef} />
		</div>
	);
};

In this example, the Contact component is defined with forwardRef. This allows the Parent component to pass a ref directly to the Contact form. When the user clicks the “Contact Us” button, the scrollToContact function is triggered, scrolling the form into view smoothly.

Conclusion

Using forwardRef in React makes it easier to control the visibility and positioning of nested components, enhancing the user experience without compromising the declarative nature of React. This approach aligns with React’s component-based architecture, allowing for more maintainable and readable code.

Experiment with forwardRef in your projects to see how it can simplify interactions with DOM elements in a React environment. For more detailed information and advanced use cases, the React documentation on forwardRef is an excellent resource