Using jQuery To Get Size of Viewport

Jquery Problem Overview

How do I use jQuery to determine the size of the browser viewport, and to redetect this if the page is resized? I need to make an IFRAME size into this space (coming in a little on each margin).

For those who don't know, the browser viewport is not the size of the document/page. It is the visible size of your window before the scroll.

Jquery Solutions

Solution 1 - Jquery

To get the width and height of the viewport:

var viewportWidth = $(window).width();
var viewportHeight = $(window).height();

resize event of the page:

$(window).resize(function() {
  
});

Solution 2 - Jquery

You can try viewport units (CSS3):

div { 
  height: 95vh; 
  width: 95vw; 
}

Browser support

Solution 3 - Jquery

1. Response to the main question

The script $(window).height() does work well (showing the viewport's height and not the document with scrolling height), BUT it needs that you put correctly the doctype tag in your document, for example these doctypes:

For HTML 5:

<!DOCTYPE html>

For transitional HTML4:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

Probably the default doctype assumed by some browsers is such, that $(window).height() takes the document's height and not the browser's height. With the doctype specification, it's satisfactorily solved, and I'm pretty sure you peps will avoid the "changing scroll-overflow to hidden and then back", which is, I'm sorry, a bit dirty trick, specially if you don't document it on the code for future programmer's usage.

2. An ADDITIONAL tip, note aside: Moreover, if you are doing a script, you can invent tests to help programmers in using your libraries, let me invent a couple:

~~$(document).ready(function() {~~

      if(typeof $=='undefined') {
        alert("PROGRAMMER'S Error: you haven't called JQuery library");
      } else if (typeof $.ui=='undefined') {
        alert("PROGRAMMER'S Error: you haven't installed the UI Jquery library");
      }
      if(document.doctype==null || screen.height < parseInt($(window).height()) ) {
        alert("ERROR, check your doctype, the calculated heights are not what you might expect");
      }

~~});~~

EDIT: about the part 2, "An ADDITIONAL tip, note aside": @Machiel, in yesterday's comment (2014-09-04), was UTTERLY right: the check of the $ can not be inside the ready event of Jquery, because we are, as he pointed out, assuming $ is already defined. THANKS FOR POINTING THAT OUT, and do please the rest of you readers correct this, if you used it in your scripts. My suggestion is: in your libraries put an "install_script()" function which initializes the library (put any reference to $ inside such init function, including the declaration of ready()) and AT THE BEGINNING of such "install_script()" function, check if the $ is defined, but make everything independent of JQuery, so your library can "diagnose itself" when JQuery is not yet defined. I prefer this method rather than forcing the automatic creation of a JQuery bringing it from a CDN. Those are tiny notes aside for helping out other programmers. I think that people who make libraries must be richer in the feedback to potential programmer's mistakes. For example, Google Apis need an aside manual to understand the error messages. That's absurd, to need external documentation for some tiny mistakes that don't need you to go and search a manual or a specification. The library must be SELF-DOCUMENTED. I write code even taking care of the mistakes I might commit even six months from now, and it still tries to be a clean and not-repetitive code, already-written-to-prevent-future-developer-mistakes.

Solution 4 - Jquery

You can use $(window).resize() to detect if the viewport is resized.

jQuery does not have any function to consistently detect the correctly width and height of the viewport[1] when there is a scroll bar present.

I found a solution that uses the Modernizr library and specifically the mq function which opens media queries for javascript.

Here is my solution:

// A function for detecting the viewport minimum width.
// You could use a similar function for minimum height if you wish.
var min_width;
if (Modernizr.mq('(min-width: 0px)')) {
    // Browsers that support media queries
    min_width = function (width) {
        return Modernizr.mq('(min-width: ' + width + ')');
    };
}
else {
    // Fallback for browsers that does not support media queries
    min_width = function (width) {
        return $(window).width() >= width;
    };
}

var resize = function() {
    if (min_width('768px')) {
        // Do some magic
    }
};

$(window).resize(resize);
resize();

My answer will probably not help resizing a iframe to 100% viewport width with a margin on each side, but I hope it will provide solace for webdevelopers frustrated with browser incoherence of javascript viewport width and height calculation.

Maybe this could help with regards to the iframe:

$('iframe').css('width', '100%').wrap('<div style="margin:2em"></div>');

[1] You can use $(window).width() and $(window).height() to get a number which will be correct in some browsers, but incorrect in others. In those browsers you can try to use window.innerWidth and window.innerHeight to get the correct width and height, but i would advice against this method because it would rely on user agent sniffing.

Usually the different browsers are inconsistent about whether or not they include the scrollbar as part of the window width and height.

Note: Both $(window).width() and window.innerWidth vary between operating systems using the same browser. See: https://github.com/eddiemachado/bones/issues/468#issuecomment-23626238

Solution 5 - Jquery

function showViewPortSize(display) {
    if (display) {
        var height = window.innerHeight;
        var width = window.innerWidth;
        jQuery('body')
            .prepend('<div id="viewportsize" style="z-index:9999;position:fixed;bottom:0px;left:0px;color:#fff;background:#000;padding:10px">Height: ' + height + '<br>Width: ' + width + '</div>');
        jQuery(window)
            .resize(function() {
                height = window.innerHeight;
                width = window.innerWidth;
                jQuery('#viewportsize')
                    .html('Height: ' + height + '<br>Width: ' + width);
            });
    }
}
$(document)
    .ready(function() {
        showViewPortSize(true);
    });

Solution 6 - Jquery

To get size of viewport on load and on resize (based on SimaWB response):

function getViewport() {
    var viewportWidth = $(window).width();
    var viewportHeight = $(window).height();
    $('#viewport').html('Viewport: '+viewportWidth+' x '+viewportHeight+' px');
}

getViewport();

$(window).resize(function() {
    getViewport()
});

Solution 7 - Jquery

Please note that CSS3 viewport units (vh,vw) wouldn't play well on iOS When you scroll the page, viewport size is somehow recalculated and your size of element which uses viewport units also increases. So, actually some javascript is required.

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	Volomike	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Jquery	SimaWB	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Jquery	Vitalii Fedorenko	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Jquery	David L	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Jquery	forsvunnet	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Jquery	AnuRaj	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Jquery	SandroMarques	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - Jquery	D.A.H	View Answer on Stackoverflow