[html] Bootstrap fixed header and footer with scrolling body-content area in fluid-container

I was surprised I could not find a simple answer to this problem by Googling, but most responses to scrolling content panels either did not work properly, or did not work with bootstrap.

Answers like this one have full page scroll-bars, which seems wrong.

I am simply trying to have 100% height html and body with no browser scrollbar, but scrolling visible on the body content area only. It needs to behave with bootstrap menu heights etc.

So far the only way seems to work, at all, is using absolutely position content and footers elements.

html {
  height: 100%;
}
html body {
  height: 100%;
  overflow: hidden;
}
html body .container-fluid.body-content {
  position: absolute;
  top: 50px;
  bottom: 30px;
  right: 0;
  left: 0;
  overflow-y: auto;
}

footer {
    position: absolute;
    left: 0;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 0;
    height: 30px;
}

But this just seems the wrong way to go about it and seems to impact Bootstrap layouts negatively. For instance, if the menu line wraps to two lines, the content area goes under the nav-bar div.

Can any please tell me the correct way to go about this styling, that is compatible with an out-of-the-box MVC Razor/Bootstrap application?

Notes:

• It needs to work with IE8 onwards.
• It needs to work with Bootstrap, so if Boostrap is adjusted (header/footer sizes) then it will correct itself too.

Update:

Here is a JSFiddle to work with (including my latest solution from answer below):

JSFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/TrueBlueAussie/6cbrjrt5/

Until I get a better option, this is the most "bootstrappy" answer I can work out:

JSFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/TrueBlueAussie/6cbrjrt5/

I have switched to using LESS and including the Bootstrap Source NuGet package to ensure compatibility (by giving me access to the bootstrap variables.less file:

in _layout.cshtml master page

• Move footer outside the body-content container
• Use boostrap's navbar-fixed-bottom on the footer
• Drop the <hr/> before the footer (as now redundant)

Relevant page HTML:

<div class="container-fluid body-content">
    @RenderBody()
</div>
<footer class="navbar-fixed-bottom">
    <p>&copy; @DateTime.Now.Year - My ASP.NET Application</p>
</footer>

In Site.less

• Set HTML and BODY heights to 100%
• Set BODY overflow to hidden
• Set body-content div position to absolute
• Set body-content div top to @navbar-height instead of hard-wiring value
• Set body-content div bottom to 30px.
• Set body-content div left and right to 0
• Set body-content div overflow-y to auto

Site.less

html {
    height: 100%;

    body {
        height: 100%;
        overflow: hidden;

        .container-fluid.body-content {
            position: absolute;
            top: @navbar-height;
            bottom: 30px;
            right: 0;
            left: 0;
            overflow-y: auto;
        }
    }
}

The remaining problem is there seems to be no defining variable for the footer height in bootstrap. If someone call tell me if there is a magic 30px variable defined in Bootstrap I would appreciate it.

Add the following css to disable the default scroll:

body {
    overflow: hidden;
}

And change the #content css to this to make the scroll only on content body:

#content {
    max-height: calc(100% - 120px);
    overflow-y: scroll;
    padding: 0px 10%;
    margin-top: 60px;
}

See fiddle here.

Edit:

Actually, I'm not sure what was the issue you were facing, since it seems that your css is working. I have only added the HTML and the header css statement:

html {_x000D_
  height: 100%;_x000D_
}_x000D_
html body {_x000D_
  height: 100%;_x000D_
  overflow: hidden;_x000D_
}_x000D_
html body .container-fluid.body-content {_x000D_
  position: absolute;_x000D_
  top: 50px;_x000D_
  bottom: 30px;_x000D_
  right: 0;_x000D_
  left: 0;_x000D_
  overflow-y: auto;_x000D_
}_x000D_
header {_x000D_
    position: absolute;_x000D_
    left: 0;_x000D_
    right: 0;_x000D_
    top: 0;_x000D_
    background-color: #4C4;_x000D_
    height: 50px;_x000D_
}_x000D_
footer {_x000D_
    position: absolute;_x000D_
    left: 0;_x000D_
    right: 0;_x000D_
    bottom: 0;_x000D_
    background-color: #4C4;_x000D_
    height: 30px;_x000D_
}

<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.2/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>_x000D_
<header></header>_x000D_
<div class="container-fluid body-content">_x000D_
  Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>_x000D_
  Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>_x000D_
  Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>_x000D_
  Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>_x000D_
  Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>_x000D_
</div>_x000D_
<footer></footer>

Another option would be using flexbox.

While it's not supported by IE8 and IE9, you could consider:

• Not minding about those old IE versions
• Providing a fallback
• Using a polyfill

Despite some additional browser-specific style prefixing would be necessary for full cross-browser support, you can see the basic usage either on this fiddle and on the following snippet:

html {_x000D_
  height: 100%;_x000D_
}_x000D_
html body {_x000D_
  height: 100%;_x000D_
  overflow: hidden;_x000D_
  display: flex;_x000D_
  flex-direction: column;_x000D_
}_x000D_
html body .container-fluid.body-content {_x000D_
  width: 100%;_x000D_
  overflow-y: auto;_x000D_
}_x000D_
header {_x000D_
    background-color: #4C4;_x000D_
    min-height: 50px;_x000D_
    width: 100%;_x000D_
}_x000D_
footer {_x000D_
    background-color: #4C4;_x000D_
    min-height: 30px;_x000D_
    width: 100%;_x000D_
}

<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.2/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>_x000D_
<header></header>_x000D_
<div class="container-fluid body-content">_x000D_
  Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>_x000D_
  Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>_x000D_
  Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>_x000D_
  Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>_x000D_
  Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>Lorem Ipsum<br/>_x000D_
</div>_x000D_
<footer></footer>