Disable scrolling in an iPhone web application?

JavascriptIphoneScroll

Javascript Problem Overview


Is there any way to completely disable web page scrolling in an iPhone web app? I've tried numerous things posted on google, but none seem to work.

Here's my current header setup:

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=no;"/>
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes"/>

document.body.addEventListener('touchmove', function(e){ e.preventDefault(); });

doesn't seem to work.

Javascript Solutions


Solution 1 - Javascript

Change to the touchstart event instead of touchmove. Under One Finger Events it says that no events are sent during a pan, so touchmove may be too late.

I added the listener to document, not body.

Example:

document.ontouchstart = function(e){ 
    e.preventDefault(); 
}

Solution 2 - Javascript

document.addEventListener('touchstart', function (e) {
    e.preventDefault();
});

Do not use the ontouchmove property to register the event handler as you are running at risk of overwriting an existing event handler(s). Use addEventListener instead (see the note about IE on the MDN page).

Beware that preventing default for the touchstart event on the window or document will disable scrolling of the descending areas.

To prevent the scrolling of the document but leave all the other events intact prevent default for the first touchmove event following touchstart:

var firstMove;

window.addEventListener('touchstart', function (e) {
    firstMove = true;
});

window.addEventListener('touchmove', function (e) {
    if (firstMove) {
        e.preventDefault();

        firstMove = false;
    }
});

The reason this works is that mobile Safari is using the first move to determine if body of the document is being scrolled. I have realised this while devising a more sophisticated solution.

In case this would ever stop working, the more sophisticated solution is to inspect the touchTarget element and its parents and make a map of directions that can be scrolled to. Then use the first touchmove event to detect the scroll direction and see if it is going to scroll the document or the target element (or either of the target element parents):

var touchTarget,
    touchScreenX,
    touchScreenY,
    conditionParentUntilTrue,
    disableScroll,
    scrollMap;

conditionParentUntilTrue = function (element, condition) {
    var outcome;

    if (element === document.body) {
        return false;
    }

    outcome = condition(element);

    if (outcome) {
        return true;
    } else {
        return conditionParentUntilTrue(element.parentNode, condition);
    }
};

window.addEventListener('touchstart', function (e) {
    touchTarget = e.targetTouches[0].target;
    // a boolean map indicating if the element (or either of element parents, excluding the document.body) can be scrolled to the X direction.
    scrollMap = {}
    
    scrollMap.left = conditionParentUntilTrue(touchTarget, function (element) {
        return element.scrollLeft > 0;
    });

    scrollMap.top = conditionParentUntilTrue(touchTarget, function (element) {
        return element.scrollTop > 0;
    });

    scrollMap.right = conditionParentUntilTrue(touchTarget, function (element) {
        return element.scrollWidth > element.clientWidth &&
               element.scrollWidth - element.clientWidth > element.scrollLeft;
    });

    scrollMap.bottom =conditionParentUntilTrue(touchTarget, function (element) {
        return element.scrollHeight > element.clientHeight &&
               element.scrollHeight - element.clientHeight > element.scrollTop;
    });

    touchScreenX = e.targetTouches[0].screenX;
    touchScreenY = e.targetTouches[0].screenY;
    disableScroll = false;
});

window.addEventListener('touchmove', function (e) {
    var moveScreenX,
        moveScreenY;

    if (disableScroll) {
        e.preventDefault();

        return;
    }

    moveScreenX = e.targetTouches[0].screenX;
    moveScreenY = e.targetTouches[0].screenY;

    if (
        moveScreenX > touchScreenX && scrollMap.left ||
        moveScreenY < touchScreenY && scrollMap.bottom ||
        moveScreenX < touchScreenX && scrollMap.right ||
        moveScreenY > touchScreenY && scrollMap.top
    ) {
        // You are scrolling either the element or its parent.
        // This will not affect document.body scroll.
    } else {
        // This will affect document.body scroll.

        e.preventDefault();

        disableScroll = true;
    }
});

The reason this works is that mobile Safari is using the first touch move to determine if the document body is being scrolled or the element (or either of the target element parents) and sticks to this decision.

Solution 3 - Javascript

If you are using jquery 1.7+, this works well:

$("donotscrollme").on("touchmove", false);

Solution 4 - Javascript

This should work. No more gray areas at the top or bottom:)

<script type="text/javascript">
   function blockMove() {
      event.preventDefault() ;
}
</script>

<body ontouchmove="blockMove()">

But this also disables any scrollable areas. If you want to keep your scrollable areas and still remove the rubber band effect at the top and bottom, see here: https://github.com/joelambert/ScrollFix.

Solution 5 - Javascript

Disable:

document.ontouchstart = function(e){ e.preventDefault(); }

Enable:

document.ontouchstart = function(e){ return true; }

Solution 6 - Javascript

'self.webView.scrollView.bounces = NO;'

Just add this one line in the 'viewDidLoad' of the mainViewController.m file of your application. you can open it in the Xcode and add it .

This should make the page without any rubberband bounces still enabling the scroll in the app view.

Solution 7 - Javascript

The page has to be launched from the Home screen for the meta tag to work.

Solution 8 - Javascript

document.ontouchmove = function(e){ 
    e.preventDefault(); 
}

is actually the best choice i found out it allows you to still be able to tap on input fields as well as drag things using jQuery UI draggable but it stops the page from scrolling.

Solution 9 - Javascript

I tried above answers and particularly Gajus's but none works. Finally I found the answer below to solve the problem such that only the main body doesn't scroll but other scrolling sections inside my web app all work fine. Simply set position fixed for your body:

body {

height: 100%;
overflow: hidden;
width: 100%;
position: fixed;
}

Attributions

All content for this solution is sourced from the original question on Stackoverflow.

The content on this page is licensed under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.

Content TypeOriginal AuthorOriginal Content on Stackoverflow
QuestionStefan KendallView Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - JavascriptdrawnonwardView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - JavascriptGajusView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - JavascriptRob LauerView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - JavascriptkaleazyView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - JavascriptBrynner FerreiraView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - JavascriptChaitView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - JavascriptFreebieView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - JavascriptJosh BedoView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 9 - JavascriptTheeBenView Answer on Stackoverflow