Scroll Restoration in Single Page Apps

What Is Scroll Restoration?

Scroll restoration refers to maintaining or restoring the scroll position of a web page when navigating between different views or pages within a Single Page Application (SPA). Unlike traditional multi-page websites where the browser automatically handles scroll position on page reloads or back/forward navigation, SPAs dynamically update content without full page reloads, so scroll behavior must be managed manually.

Why Is Scroll Restoration Important in SPAs?

User Experience: When users navigate back to a previous view, they expect the page to appear where they left off, not at the top.

Consistency: Helps maintain context, especially on long pages or lists.

Navigation Intuition: Prevents confusion when scrolling resets unexpectedly.

Common Challenges

Default browser scroll behavior is overridden because SPAs usually update content using JavaScript without triggering a full page reload.

Scroll position can be lost or reset when navigating between views.

Managing scroll when using client-side routing libraries (like React Router, Vue Router).

How to Implement Scroll Restoration

Manual Scroll Management

Save the scroll position when leaving a view (e.g., using window.scrollY).

Restore the saved scroll position when returning to that view (using window.scrollTo(x, y)).

Using Routing Library Features

Many SPA routing libraries provide built-in support or hooks for scroll restoration.

For example, React Router v6 allows custom scroll handling by listening to route changes.

History API and Scroll Restoration

Browsers provide a history.scrollRestoration property which can be set to 'manual' or 'auto'.

In SPAs, often set to 'manual' and implement custom scroll logic to have fine-grained control.

Example in React

jsx

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import { useEffect } from 'react';

import { useLocation } from 'react-router-dom';

function ScrollToTop() {

const { pathname } = useLocation();

useEffect(() => {

window.scrollTo(0, 0); // Scroll to top on every route change

}, [pathname]);

return null;

}

export default ScrollToTop;

This component scrolls to the top whenever the route changes.

For restoring scroll positions, you’d save positions per route and restore accordingly.

Best Practices

Save scroll positions per route when navigating away.

Restore scroll positions when returning to routes (especially for “Back” navigation).

Consider scroll behavior for dynamic content loading (e.g., infinite scroll).

Test scroll behavior on different devices and browsers.

Summary

Scroll restoration in SPAs improves user experience by managing scroll positions manually because SPA navigation does not trigger native browser scroll behavior. Implementing it involves saving and restoring scroll positions using JavaScript and integrating with routing logic.

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