Using arrow keys with jQuery scrollTo

Question

I have successfully implemented the scrollTo jQuery plugin which scrolls to the next div with the class "new" when a link is clicked. However, I would also like to be able to use the arrow keys to scroll up and down to the next/previous divs of the same class.

I have looked all over the internet but have been unable to find out how to do this. I am very new to JS so very simple instructions would be appreciated!

Here is the relevant code:

<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(function($){

 $('<div id="next_arrow"></div>') 
  .prependTo("body") //append the Next arrow div to the bottom of the document
  .click(function(){ 
   scrollTop = $(window).scrollTop();
   $('.new').each(function(i, h2){ // loop through article headings
    h2top = $(h2).offset().top; // get article heading top
    if (scrollTop < h2top) { // compare if document is below heading
     $.scrollTo(h2, 800); // scroll to in .8 of a second
     return false; // exit function
    }
   });
  });

});
</script>

What do I need to add to this to make the arrow keys work?

Thanks, Ted

Answer 1

You can use the keydown event listener to listen for keypresses. You can use this on <input> fields and the like. Because keydown events bubble up the DOM, you can use it on the document object to catch any keypress on the page:

$(function () {
  $(document).keydown(function (evt) {
    alert("Key pressed: " + evt.keyCode);
  });
});

Each keypress has a code. If you use the code above in your web page, you'll see that the key code for the down arrow is 40. You can solo this out using an if or switch statement in the handler:

jQuery(function () {

  $(document).keydown(function (evt) {
    if (evt.keyCode == 40) { // down arrow
      alert("You pressed down.");
    }
  });

});

Now you need to bind in the code that actually jumps to the next heading. I recommend abstracting the code out into a function so you can use it for both keypresses and clicks. Here is the function, together with a variant of your original code that uses it:

// Here is the function:

function scrollToNew () {
  scrollTop = $(window).scrollTop();
  $('.new').each(function(i, h2){ // loop through article headings
    h2top = $(h2).offset().top; // get article heading top
    if (scrollTop < h2top) { // compare if document is below heading
      $.scrollTo(h2, 800); // scroll to in .8 of a second
      return false; // exit function
    }
  });
}

// Here is your original code, modified to use the function:

jQuery(function () {

  $("#next").click(scrollToNew);

});

Finally, you can add in the keypress code and call the function from there:

function scrollToNew () {
  scrollTop = $(window).scrollTop();
  $('.new').each(function(i, h2){ // loop through article headings
    h2top = $(h2).offset().top; // get article heading top
    if (scrollTop < h2top) { // compare if document is below heading
      $.scrollTo(h2, 800); // scroll to in .8 of a second
      return false; // exit function
    }
  });
}

jQuery(function () {

  $("#next").click(scrollToNew);

  $(document).keydown(function (evt) {
    if (evt.keyCode == 40) { // down arrow
      evt.preventDefault(); // prevents the usual scrolling behaviour
      scrollToNew(); // scroll to the next new heading instead
    }
  });

});

Update: To scroll upwards, do two things. Change the keydown handler to:

  $(document).keydown(function (evt) {
    if (evt.keyCode == 40) { // down arrow
      evt.preventDefault(); // prevents the usual scrolling behaviour
      scrollToNew(); // scroll to the next new heading instead
    } else if (evt.keyCode == 38) { // up arrow
      evt.preventDefault();
      scrollToLast();
    }
  }

and write a scrollToLast() function based off of scrollToNew() that finds the last new heading that isn't on the page:

function scrollToLast () {
  scrollTop = $(window).scrollTop();

  var scrollToThis = null;

  // Find the last element with class 'new' that isn't on-screen:
  $('.new').each(function(i, h2) {
    h2top = $(h2).offset().top;
    if (scrollTop > h2top) {
      // This one's not on-screen - make a note and keep going:
      scrollToThis = h2;
    } else {
      // This one's on-screen - the last one is the one we want:
      return false;
    }
  });

  // If we found an element in the loop above, scroll to it:
  if(scrollToThis != null) {
    $.scrollTo(scrollToThis, 800);
  }
}