Check if element is visible in DOM

Question

Is there any way that I can check if an element is visible in pure JS  no jQuery     So  for example  in this page  Performance Bikes  if you hover over Deals  on the top menu   a window of deals appear  but at the beginning it was not shown  It is in the HTML but it is not visible   So  given a DOM element  how can I check if it is visible or not  I tried    window getComputedStyle my element   display       but it doesn t seem to be working   I wonder which attributes should I check  It comes to my mind   display      none  visibility      hidden    Any others that I might be missing

User · Answer

So what I found is the most feasible method:

function visible(elm) {
  if(!elm.offsetHeight && !elm.offsetWidth) { return false; }
  if(getComputedStyle(elm).visibility === 'hidden') { return false; }
  return true;
}

This is build on these facts:

A display: none element (even a nested one) doesn't have a width nor height.
visiblity is hidden even for nested elements.

So no need for testing offsetParent or looping up in the DOM tree to test which parent has visibility: hidden. This should work even in IE 9.

You could argue if opacity: 0 and collapsed elements (has a width but no height - or visa versa) is not really visible either. But then again they are not per say hidden.

User · Answer

Improving on  Guy Messika s answer above  breaking and returning false if the center point  X is  lt  0 is wrong as the element right side may go into the view  here s a fix   private isVisible elem        const style   getComputedStyle elem        if  style display      none   return false      if  style visibility      visible   return false      if   style opacity as any      0  return false       if           elem offsetWidth           elem offsetHeight           elem getBoundingClientRect   height           elem getBoundingClientRect   width     0       return false       const elementPoints             center                x  elem getBoundingClientRect   left   elem offsetWidth   2              y  elem getBoundingClientRect   top   elem offsetHeight   2                     topLeft                x  elem getBoundingClientRect   left              y  elem getBoundingClientRect   top                     topRight                x  elem getBoundingClientRect   right              y  elem getBoundingClientRect   top                     bottomLeft                x  elem getBoundingClientRect   left              y  elem getBoundingClientRect   bottom                     bottomRight                x  elem getBoundingClientRect   right              y  elem getBoundingClientRect   bottom                         const docWidth   document documentElement clientWidth    window innerWidth      const docHeight   document documentElement clientHeight    window innerHeight       if  elementPoints topLeft x  gt  docWidth  return false      if  elementPoints topLeft y  gt  docHeight  return false      if  elementPoints bottomRight x  lt  0  return false      if  elementPoints bottomRight y  lt  0  return false       for  let index in elementPoints            const point   elementPoints index           let pointContainer   document elementFromPoint point x  point y           if  pointContainer     null                do                   if  pointContainer     elem  return true                while  pointContainer   pointContainer parentNode                       return false

User · Answer

To elaborate on everyone s great answers  here is the implementation that was used in the Mozilla Fathom project         Yield an element and each of its ancestors      export function  ancestors element        yield element      let parent      while   parent   element parentNode      null  amp  amp  parent nodeType     parent ELEMENT NODE            yield parent          element   parent                  Return whether an element is practically visible  considering things like 0    size or opacity    visibility  hidden   and   overflow  hidden          Merely being scrolled off the page in either horizontally or vertically    doesn t count as invisible  the result of this function is meant to be    independent of viewport size         throws  Error  The element  or perhaps one of its ancestors  is not in a        window  so we can t find the  getComputedStyle    routine to call  That        routine is the source of most of the information we use  so you should        pick a different strategy for non-window contexts      export function isVisible fnodeOrElement           This could be 5x more efficient if https   github com w3c csswg-drafts issues 4122 happens      const element   toDomElement fnodeOrElement       const elementWindow   windowForElement element       const elementRect   element getBoundingClientRect        const elementStyle   elementWindow getComputedStyle element          Alternative to reading   display  none   due to Bug 1381071      if  elementRect width     0  amp  amp  elementRect height     0  amp  amp  elementStyle overflow      hidden             return false            if  elementStyle visibility      hidden             return false               Check if the element is irrevocably off-screen      if  elementRect x   elementRect width  lt  0            elementRect y   elementRect height  lt  0                 return false            for  const ancestor of ancestors element             const isElement   ancestor     element          const style   isElement   elementStyle   elementWindow getComputedStyle ancestor           if  style opacity      0                 return false                    if  style display      contents                      display  contents   elements have no box themselves  but children are                still rendered              continue                    const rect   isElement   elementRect   ancestor getBoundingClientRect            if   rect width     0    rect height     0   amp  amp  elementStyle overflow      hidden                    Zero-sized ancestors don   t make descendants hidden unless the descendant                has   overflow  hidden                return false                      return true     It checks on every parent s opacity  display  and rectangle

User · Answer

According to this MDN documentation  an element s offsetParent property will return null whenever it  or any of its parents  is hidden via the display style property   Just make sure that the element isn t fixed   A script to check this  if you have no position  fixed  elements on your page  might look like      Where el is the DOM element you d like to test for visibility function isHidden el        return  el offsetParent     null      On the other hand  if you do have position fixed elements that might get caught in this search  you will sadly  and slowly  have to use window getComputedStyle     The function in that case might be      Where el is the DOM element you d like to test for visibility function isHidden el        var style   window getComputedStyle el       return  style display      none       Option  2 is probably a little more straightforward since it accounts for more edge cases  but I bet its a good deal slower  too  so if you have to repeat this operation many times  best to probably avoid it

User · Answer

If element is regular visible  display block and visibillity visible   but some parent container is hidden  then we can use clientWidth and clientHeight for check that   function isVisible  ele      return  ele clientWidth     0  amp  amp      ele clientHeight     0  amp  amp      ele style opacity     0  amp  amp      ele style visibility      hidden       Plunker  click here

User · Answer

I ve got a more performant solution compared to AlexZ s getComputedStyle   solution when one has position  fixed  elements  if one is willing to ignore some edge cases  check comments    function isVisible el           offsetParent would be null if display  none  is set         However Chrome  IE and MS Edge returns offsetParent as null for elements        with CSS position  fixed   So check whether the dimensions are zero          This check would be inaccurate if position is  fixed  AND dimensions were        intentionally set to zero  But  it is good enough for most cases        if   el offsetParent  amp  amp  el offsetWidth     0  amp  amp  el offsetHeight     0            return false            return true      Side note  Strictly speaking   visibility  needs to be defined first  In my case  I am considering an element visible as long as I can run all DOM methods properties on it without problems  even if opacity is 0 or CSS visibility property is  hidden  etc

User · Answer

This is what I did   HTML  amp  CSS  Made the element hidden by default   lt html gt   lt body gt    lt button onclick  myFunction    gt Click Me lt  button gt    lt p id  demo  style   visibility  hidden   gt Hello World lt  p gt     lt  body gt   lt  html gt     JavaScript  Added a code to check whether the visibility is hidden or not    lt script gt  function myFunction        if   document getElementById  demo   style visibility      hidden       document getElementById  demo   style visibility    visible           else document getElementById  demo   style visibility    hidden      lt  script gt

User · Answer

The jQuery code from http   code jquery com jquery-1 11 1 js has an isHidden param  var isHidden   function  elem  el            isHidden might be called from jQuery filter function         in that case  element will be second argument     elem   el    elem      return jQuery css  elem   display         none      jQuery contains  elem ownerDocument  elem         So it looks like there is an extra check related to the owner document  I wonder if this really catches the following cases    Elements hidden behind other elements based on zIndex Elements with transparency full making them invisible Elements positioned off screen  ie left  -1000px  Elements with visibility hidden Elements with display none Elements with no visible text or sub elements Elements with height or width set to 0

User · Answer

If you re interested in visible by the user   function isVisible elem        if    elem instanceof Element   throw Error  DomUtil  elem is not an element         const style   getComputedStyle elem       if  style display      none   return false      if  style visibility      visible   return false      if  style opacity  lt  0 1  return false      if  elem offsetWidth   elem offsetHeight   elem getBoundingClientRect   height           elem getBoundingClientRect   width     0            return false            const elemCenter               x  elem getBoundingClientRect   left   elem offsetWidth   2          y  elem getBoundingClientRect   top   elem offsetHeight   2            if  elemCenter x  lt  0  return false      if  elemCenter x  gt   document documentElement clientWidth    window innerWidth   return false      if  elemCenter y  lt  0  return false      if  elemCenter y  gt   document documentElement clientHeight    window innerHeight   return false      let pointContainer   document elementFromPoint elemCenter x  elemCenter y       do           if  pointContainer     elem  return true        while  pointContainer   pointContainer parentNode       return false      Tested on  using mocha terminology     describe only  visibility   function          let div  visible  notVisible  inViewport  leftOfViewport  rightOfViewport  aboveViewport          belowViewport  notDisplayed  zeroOpacity  zIndex1  zIndex2      before      gt            div   document createElement  div            document querySelector  body   appendChild div           div appendChild visible   document createElement  div             visible style          border  1px solid black  margin  5px  display  inline-block            visible textContent    visible           div appendChild inViewport   visible cloneNode false            inViewport textContent    inViewport           div appendChild notDisplayed   visible cloneNode false            notDisplayed style display    none           notDisplayed textContent      notDisplayed           div appendChild notVisible   visible cloneNode false            notVisible style visibility    hidden           notVisible textContent         notVisible           div appendChild leftOfViewport   visible cloneNode false            leftOfViewport style position    absolute           leftOfViewport style right    100000px           leftOfViewport textContent    leftOfViewport           div appendChild rightOfViewport   leftOfViewport cloneNode false            rightOfViewport style right          0           rightOfViewport style left          100000px           rightOfViewport textContent    rightOfViewport           div appendChild aboveViewport   leftOfViewport cloneNode false            aboveViewport style right          0           aboveViewport style bottom          100000px           aboveViewport textContent    aboveViewport           div appendChild belowViewport   leftOfViewport cloneNode false            belowViewport style right          0           belowViewport style top          100000px           belowViewport textContent    belowViewport           div appendChild zeroOpacity   visible cloneNode false            zeroOpacity textContent      zeroOpacity           zeroOpacity style opacity    0           div appendChild zIndex1   visible cloneNode false            zIndex1 textContent    zIndex1           zIndex1 style position    absolute           zIndex1 style left   zIndex1 style top   zIndex1 style width   zIndex1 style height    100px           zIndex1 style zIndex    1           div appendChild zIndex2   zIndex1 cloneNode false            zIndex2 textContent    zIndex2           zIndex2 style left   zIndex2 style top    90px           zIndex2 style width   zIndex2 style height    120px           zIndex2 style backgroundColor    red           zIndex2 style zIndex    2               after      gt            div parentNode removeChild div               it  isVisible   true        gt            expect isVisible div   to be true          expect isVisible visible   to be true          expect isVisible inViewport   to be true          expect isVisible zIndex2   to be true              it  isVisible   false        gt            expect isVisible notDisplayed   to be false          expect isVisible notVisible   to be false          expect isVisible document createElement  div     to be false          expect isVisible zIndex1   to be false          expect isVisible zeroOpacity   to be false          expect isVisible leftOfViewport   to be false          expect isVisible rightOfViewport   to be false          expect isVisible aboveViewport   to be false          expect isVisible belowViewport   to be false

User · Answer

A little addition to ohad navon s answer   If the center of the element belongs to the another element we won t find it   So to make sure that one of the points of the element is found to be visible  function isElementVisible elem        if    elem instanceof Element   throw Error  DomUtil  elem is not an element         const style   getComputedStyle elem       if  style display      none   return false      if  style visibility      visible   return false      if  style opacity     0  return false      if  elem offsetWidth   elem offsetHeight   elem getBoundingClientRect   height           elem getBoundingClientRect   width     0            return false            var elementPoints              center                 x  elem getBoundingClientRect   left   elem offsetWidth   2              y  elem getBoundingClientRect   top   elem offsetHeight   2                     top-left                 x  elem getBoundingClientRect   left              y  elem getBoundingClientRect   top                     top-right                 x  elem getBoundingClientRect   right              y  elem getBoundingClientRect   top                     bottom-left                 x  elem getBoundingClientRect   left              y  elem getBoundingClientRect   bottom                     bottom-right                 x  elem getBoundingClientRect   right              y  elem getBoundingClientRect   bottom                      for index in elementPoints            var point   elementPoints index           if  point x  lt  0  return false          if  point x  gt   document documentElement clientWidth    window innerWidth   return false          if  point y  lt  0  return false          if  point y  gt   document documentElement clientHeight    window innerHeight   return false          let pointContainer   document elementFromPoint point x  point y           if  pointContainer     null                do                   if  pointContainer     elem  return true                while  pointContainer   pointContainer parentNode                       return false

User · Answer

If we re just collecting basic ways of detecting visibility  let me not forget   opacity  gt  0 01     probably more like  1 to actually be visible  but YMMV   And as to how to obtain attributes   element getAttribute attributename     So  in your example   document getElementById  snDealsPanel   getAttribute  visibility      But wha  It doesn t work here  Look closer and you ll find that visibility is being updated not as an attribute on the element  but using the style property  This is one of many problems with trying to do what you re doing  Among others  you can t guarantee that there s actually something to see in an element  just because its visibility  display  and opacity all have the correct values  It still might lack content  or it might lack a height and width  Another object might obscure it  For more detail  a quick Google search reveals this  and even includes a library to try solving the problem   YMMV   Check out the following  which are possible duplicates of this question  with excellent answers  including some insight from the mighty John Resig  However  your specific use-case is slightly different from the standard one  so I ll refrain from flagging    How to tell if a DOM element is visible in the current viewport  How to check if an element is really visible with javascript      EDIT  OP SAYS HE S SCRAPING PAGES  NOT CREATING THEM  SO BELOW ISN T APPLICABLE  A better option  Bind the visibility of elements to model properties and always make visibility contingent on that model  much as Angular does with ng-show  You can do that using any tool you want  Angular  plain JS  whatever  Better still  you can change the DOM implementation over time  but you ll always be able to read state from the model  instead of the DOM  Reading your truth from the DOM is Bad  And slow  Much better to check the model  and trust in your implementation to ensure that the DOM state reflects the model   And use automated testing to confirm that assumption

User · Answer

The accepted answer did not worked for me  Year 2020 breakdown   The  elem offsetParent     null  method works fine in Firefox but not in Chrome  In Chrome position  fixed will also make offsetParent return null even the element if visible in the page  User Phrogz conducted a large test  2 304 divs  on elements with varying properties to demonstrate the issue  https   stackoverflow com a 11639664 4481831   Run it with multiple browsers to see the differences  Demo   x000D   x000D    different results in Chrome and Firefox console log document querySelector   hidden1   offsetParent     null Chrome  amp  Firefox console log document querySelector   fixed1   offsetParent     null in Chrome  not null in Firefox x000D       lt div id  hidden1  style  display none   gt  lt  div gt       lt div id  fixed1  style  position fixed   gt  lt  div gt  x000D   x000D   x000D    The  getComputedStyle elem  display      none   does not work because the element can be invisible because one of the parents display property is set to none  getComputedStyle will not catch that  Demo   x000D   x000D  var child1   document querySelector   child1    console log getComputedStyle child1  display     child will show  block  instead of  none  x000D   lt div id  parent1  style  display none   gt     lt div id  child1  style  display block  gt  lt  div gt   lt  div gt  x000D   x000D   x000D    The  elem clientHeight     0   This method is not influenced by position  fixed and it also check if element parents are not-visible  But it has problems with simple elements that do not have a css layout  see more here Demo   x000D   x000D  console log document querySelector   div1   clientHeight     not zero console log document querySelector   span1   clientHeight     zero x000D   lt div id  div1  gt test1 div lt  div gt   lt span id  span1  gt test2 span lt  span gt  x000D   x000D   x000D    The  elem getClientRects   length     0  may seem to solve the problems of the previous 3 methods  However it has problems with elements that use CSS tricks  other then display  none  to hide in the page  Demo  x000D   x000D  console log document querySelector   notvisible1   getClientRects   length   console log document querySelector   notvisible1   clientHeight   console log document querySelector   notvisible2   getClientRects   length   console log document querySelector   notvisible2   clientHeight   console log document querySelector   notvisible3   getClientRects   length   console log document querySelector   notvisible3   clientHeight   x000D   lt div id  notvisible1  style  height 0  overflow hidden  background-color red   gt not visible 1 lt  div gt    lt div id  notvisible2  style  visibility hidden  background-color yellow   gt not visible 2 lt  div gt    lt div id  notvisible3  style  opacity 0  background-color blue   gt not visible 3 lt  div gt  x000D   x000D   x000D     Conclusion  So what I have showed you is that no method is perfect  To make a proper visibility check  you must use a combination of the last 3 methods

User · Answer

Use the same code as jQuery does   jQuery expr pseudos visible   function  elem         return     elem offsetWidth    elem offsetHeight    elem getClientRects   length         So  in a function   function isVisible e        return     e offsetWidth    e offsetHeight    e getClientRects   length        Works like a charm in my Win IE10  Linux Firefox 45  Linux Chrome 52     Many thanks to jQuery without jQuery

User · Answer

Just for the reference it should be noted that getBoundingClientRect   can work in certain cases   For example  a simple check that the element is hidden using display  none could look somewhat like this   var box   element getBoundingClientRect    var visible   box width  amp  amp  box height    This is also handy because it also covers zero-width  zero-height and position  fixed cases  However  it shall not report elements hidden with opacity  0 or visibility  hidden  but neither would offsetParent

User · Answer

This may help   Hide the element by positioning it on far most left position and then check the offsetLeft property  If you want to use jQuery you can simply check the  visible selector and get the visibility state of the element   HTML     lt div id  myDiv  gt Hello lt  div gt    CSS     lt  -- for javaScript-- gt   myDiv     position absolute     left   -2000px      lt  -- for jQuery -- gt   myDiv      visibility hidden      javaScript    var myStyle   document getElementById  myDiv   offsetLeft   if myStyle  lt  0        alert  Div is hidden          jQuery    if       MyElement   is   visible      true            alert  Div is visible                  jsFiddle

User · Answer

Combining a couple answers above   function isVisible  ele        var style   window getComputedStyle ele       return  style width      0   amp  amp      style height      0   amp  amp      style opacity      0   amp  amp      style display    none   amp  amp      style visibility     hidden       Like AlexZ said  this may be slower than some of your other options if you know more specifically what you re looking for  but this should catch all of the main ways elements are hidden    But  it also depends what counts as visible for you  Just for example  a div s height can be set to 0px but the contents still visible depending on the overflow properties  Or a div s contents could be made the same color as the background so it is not visible to users but still rendered on the page  Or a div could be moved off screen or hidden behind other divs  or it s contents could be non-visible but the border still visible  To a certain extent  visible  is a subjective term

User · Answer

This is a way to determine it for all css properties including visibility   html    lt div id  element  gt div content lt  div gt    css    element   visibility hidden      javascript   var element   document getElementById  element     if element style visibility     hidden    alert  hidden      else   alert  visible        It works for any css property and is very versatile and reliable

User · Answer

All the other solutions broke for some situation for me     See the winning answer breaking at    http   plnkr co edit 6CSCA2fe4Gqt4jCBP2wu p preview  Eventually  I decided that the best solution was   elem  is   visible   - however  this is not pure javascript  it is jquery     so I peeked at their source and found what I wanted  jQuery expr filters visible   function  elem         return     elem offsetWidth    elem offsetHeight    elem getClientRects   length         This is the source  https   github com jquery jquery blob master src css hiddenVisibleSelectors js

User · Answer

Here s the code I wrote to find the only visible among a few similar elements  and return the value of its  class  attribute without jQuery        Build a NodeList    var nl   document querySelectorAll   myCssSelector          convert it to array    var myArray      for var i   nl length  i--  myArray unshift nl i           now find the visible    with offsetWidth more than 0  item    for  i  0  i  lt  myArray length  i         var curEl   myArray i       if  curEl offsetWidth     0         return curEl getAttribute  class

[javascript] Check if element is visible in DOM

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