Html – iPad Safari scrolling causes HTML elements to disappear and reappear with a delay

csshtmliosipadmobile-safari

I'm currently developing a web application using HTML5 and jQuery for iPad Safari. I'm running into a problem wherein large scroll areas cause the elements that are offscreen to appear after a delay when I scroll down to them.

What I mean by that is, if I have a row of images (or even a div with a gradient) that is offscreen, when I scroll down (or up) to it, the expected behavior is for the element to appear on screen as I am scrolling to it.

However, the element does not appear until I lift my finger off the screen and the scroller finishes all its animations.

This is causing a super noticeable problem for me, making the whole thing look choppy, although it is not. I'm guessing the iPad Safari is trying to do something to save memory. Is there a way in which I can prevent this choppy-ness from happening?

Additionally, what is iPad Safari actually trying to do?

Best Answer

You need to trick the browser to use hardware acceleration more effectively. You can do this with an empty three-dimensional transform:

-webkit-transform: translate3d(0, 0, 0)

Particularly, you'll need this on child elements that have a position:relative; declaration (or, just go all out and do it to all child elements).

It is aot a guaranteed fix, but it is fairly successful most of the time.

Hat tip: iOS 5 Native Scrolling–Grins & Gotchas

Related Solutions

Ios – iPad Safari – Make keyboard disappear

I found the solution for this at http://uihacker.blogspot.com/2011/10/javascript-hide-ios-soft-keyboard.html. Essentially, just do this (it worked for me):

var hideKeyboard = function() {
    document.activeElement.blur();
    $("input").blur();
};

Ipad safari: disable scrolling, and bounce effect

This answer is no longer applicable, unless you are developing for a very old iOS device... Please see other solutions

2011 answer: For a web/html app running inside iOS Safari you want something like

document.ontouchmove = function(event){
    event.preventDefault();
}

For iOS 5 you may want to take the following into account: document.ontouchmove and scrolling on iOS 5

Update September 2014: A more thorough approach can be found here: https://github.com/luster-io/prevent-overscroll. For that and a whole lot of useful webapp advice, see ~~http://www.luster.io/blog/9-29-14-mobile-web-checklist.html~~

Update March 2016: That last link is no longer active - see https://web.archive.org/web/20151103001838/http://www.luster.io/blog/9-29-14-mobile-web-checklist.html for the archived version instead. Thanks @falsarella for pointing that out.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ios – iPad Safari – Make keyboard disappear

Ipad safari: disable scrolling, and bounce effect

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