Question

So, I’m having an issue with CSS Positioning / Height

So, I’m trying to do a sliding navigation UI from the left side of the screen (like a lot of mobile apps). The main content slides over, displaying the navigation menu beneath.

I believe to do with positioning, I can’t get height to work properly. I ultimately would like for 100% height to mean 100% of the entire page. Currently, only items that have more content will expand and the shorter ones stop at the screen edge (so they are 100% of screen vs. entire page).

Anyway here is my fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/2vP67/6/

And here is the code within the post:

HTML

<div id='wrapper'>
    <div id='navWide'> </div>
    <div id='containerWide'> </div>
    <div id='containerTall'>
        <div id='container'>
            <div id='nav'>
                <div id='navNavigate'> Open Menu </div>
                <div id='navNavigateHide'> Close Menu </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
    <div id='sideContainerTall'>
        <div id='sideContainer'>
            <div id='sideNav'>Side Navigation </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

CSS

#wrapper {
    width:100%;
    min-width:1000px;
    height:100%;
    min-height:100%;
    position:relative;
    top:0;
    left:0;
    z-index:0;
}
#navWide {
    color: #ffffff;
    background:#222222;
    width:100%;
    min-width:1000px;
    height:45px;
    position:fixed;
    top:0;
    left:0;
    z-index:100;
}
#containerWide {
    width:100%;
    min-width:1000px;
    min-height:100%;
    position:absolute;
    top:45px;
    z-index:100;
}
#containerTall {
    color: #000000;
    background:#dadada;
    width:960px;
    min-height:100%;
    margin-left:-480px;
    position:absolute;
    top:0;
    left:50%;
    z-index:1000;
}
/***** main container *****/

#container {
    width:960px;
    min-height:585px;
}
#nav {
    color: #ffffff;
    background:#222222;
    width:960px;
    height:45px;
    position:fixed;
    top:0;
    z-index:10000;
}
#navNavigate {
    background:yellow;
    font-size:10px;
    color:#888888;
    width:32px;
    height:32px;
    padding:7px 6px 6px 6px;
    float:left;
    cursor:pointer;
}
#navNavigateHide {
    background:yellow;
    font-size:10px;
    color:#888888;
    width:32px;
    height:32px;
    padding:7px 6px 6px 6px;
    float:left;
    cursor:pointer;
    display:none;
}
#sideContainerTall {
    background:#888888;
    width:264px;
    min-height:100%;
    margin-left:-480px;
    position:absolute;
    top:0;
    left:50%;
    z-index:500;
}
#sideContainer {
    width:264px;
    min-height:585px;
    display:none;
}
#sideContainerTall {
    background:#888888;
    width:264px;
    min-height:100%;
    margin-left:-480px;
    position:absolute;
    top:0;
    left:50%;
    z-index:500;
}
#sideContainer {
    width:264px;
    min-height:585px;
    display:none;
}
#sideNav {
    width:264px;
    height:648px;
    float:left;
}

Javascript

$(document).ready(function() {

    $('div#navNavigate').click(function() {

        $('div#navNavigate').hide();

        $('div#navNavigateHide').show();

        $('div#sideContainer').show();

        $('div#containerTall').animate({
            'left': '+=264px'
        });
    });

    $('div#navNavigateHide').click(function() {

        $('div#navNavigate').show();

        $('div#navNavigateHide').hide();
        $('div#containerTall').animate({
            'left': '-=264px'
        }, function() {
            $('div#sideContainer').hide();
        });
    });

});

Answer 1

Setting the height to 100% or any percent value relative to the browser window, for that matter, is illegal. This is because height cannot be set as a function of percent, because theoretically the browser window could go on forever with a scrollbar. Kind of a weird quirk. The only way you can achieve this is through javascript.

height = window.innerHeight;

getElementById('wrapper').style.height = height;