[javascript] How to check if an element is off-screen

I need to check with jQuery if a DIV element is not falling off-screen. The elements are visible and displayed according CSS attributes, but they could be intentionally placed off-screen by:

position: absolute; 
left: -1000px; 
top: -1000px;

I could not use the jQuery :visible selector as the element has a non-zero height and width.

I am not doing anything fancy. This absolute position placement is the way my Ajax framework implements the hide/show of some widgets.

No need for a plugin to check if outside of view port.

var w = Math.max(document.documentElement.clientWidth, window.innerWidth || 0)
var h = Math.max(document.documentElement.clientHeight, window.innerHeight || 0)
var d = $(document).scrollTop();

$.each($("div"),function(){
    p = $(this).position();
    //vertical
    if (p.top > h + d || p.top > h - d){
        console.log($(this))
    }
    //horizontal
    if (p.left < 0 - $(this).width() || p.left > w){
        console.log($(this))
    }
});

I know this is kind of late but this plugin should work. http://remysharp.com/2009/01/26/element-in-view-event-plugin/

$('p.inview').bind('inview', function (event, visible) {
if (visible) {
  $(this).text('You can see me!');
} else {
  $(this).text('Hidden again');
}

Well... I've found some issues in every proposed solution here.

• You should be able to choose if you want entire element to be on screen or just any part of it
• Proposed solutions fails if element is higher/wider than window and kinda covers browser window.

Here is my solution that include jQuery .fn instance function and expression. I've created more variables inside my function than I could, but for complex logical problem I like to divide it into smaller, clearly named pieces.

I'm using getBoundingClientRect method that returns element position relatively to the viewport so I don't need to care about scroll position

Useage:

$(".some-element").filter(":onscreen").doSomething();
$(".some-element").filter(":entireonscreen").doSomething();
$(".some-element").isOnScreen(); // true / false
$(".some-element").isOnScreen(true); // true / false (partially on screen)
$(".some-element").is(":onscreen"); // true / false (partially on screen)
$(".some-element").is(":entireonscreen"); // true / false 

Source:

$.fn.isOnScreen = function(partial){

    //let's be sure we're checking only one element (in case function is called on set)
    var t = $(this).first();

    //we're using getBoundingClientRect to get position of element relative to viewport
    //so we dont need to care about scroll position
    var box = t[0].getBoundingClientRect();

    //let's save window size
    var win = {
        h : $(window).height(),
        w : $(window).width()
    };

    //now we check against edges of element

    //firstly we check one axis
    //for example we check if left edge of element is between left and right edge of scree (still might be above/below)
    var topEdgeInRange = box.top >= 0 && box.top <= win.h;
    var bottomEdgeInRange = box.bottom >= 0 && box.bottom <= win.h;

    var leftEdgeInRange = box.left >= 0 && box.left <= win.w;
    var rightEdgeInRange = box.right >= 0 && box.right <= win.w;


    //here we check if element is bigger then window and 'covers' the screen in given axis
    var coverScreenHorizontally = box.left <= 0 && box.right >= win.w;
    var coverScreenVertically = box.top <= 0 && box.bottom >= win.h;

    //now we check 2nd axis
    var topEdgeInScreen = topEdgeInRange && ( leftEdgeInRange || rightEdgeInRange || coverScreenHorizontally );
    var bottomEdgeInScreen = bottomEdgeInRange && ( leftEdgeInRange || rightEdgeInRange || coverScreenHorizontally );

    var leftEdgeInScreen = leftEdgeInRange && ( topEdgeInRange || bottomEdgeInRange || coverScreenVertically );
    var rightEdgeInScreen = rightEdgeInRange && ( topEdgeInRange || bottomEdgeInRange || coverScreenVertically );

    //now knowing presence of each edge on screen, we check if element is partially or entirely present on screen
    var isPartiallyOnScreen = topEdgeInScreen || bottomEdgeInScreen || leftEdgeInScreen || rightEdgeInScreen;
    var isEntirelyOnScreen = topEdgeInScreen && bottomEdgeInScreen && leftEdgeInScreen && rightEdgeInScreen;

    return partial ? isPartiallyOnScreen : isEntirelyOnScreen;

};

$.expr.filters.onscreen = function(elem) {
  return $(elem).isOnScreen(true);
};

$.expr.filters.entireonscreen = function(elem) {
  return $(elem).isOnScreen(true);
};

• Get the distance from the top of the given element
• Add the height of the same given element. This will tell you the total number from the top of the screen to the end of the given element.

• Then all you have to do is subtract that from total document height

  jQuery(function () {
      var documentHeight = jQuery(document).height();
      var element = jQuery('#you-element');
      var distanceFromBottom = documentHeight - (element.position().top + element.outerHeight(true));
      alert(distanceFromBottom)
  });
  

You could check the position of the div using $(div).position() and check if the left and top margin properties are less than 0 :

if($(div).position().left < 0 && $(div).position().top < 0){
    alert("off screen");
}

There's a jQuery plugin here which allows users to test whether an element falls within the visible viewport of the browser, taking the browsers scroll position into account.

$('#element').visible();

You can also check for partial visibility:

$('#element').visible( true);

One drawback is that it only works with vertical positioning / scrolling, although it should be easy enough to add horizontal positioning into the mix.