Using jquery to get element's position relative to viewport

Solution 1:

The easiest way to determine the size and position of an element is to call its getBoundingClientRect() method. This method returns element positions in viewport coordinates. It expects no arguments and returns an object with properties left, right, top, and bottom. The left and top properties give the X and Y coordinates of the upper-left corner of the element and the right and bottom properties give the coordinates of the lower-right corner.

element.getBoundingClientRect(); // Get position in viewport coordinates

Supported everywhere.

Solution 2:

Here are two functions to get the page height and the scroll amounts (x,y) without the use of the (bloated) dimensions plugin:

// getPageScroll() by quirksmode.com
function getPageScroll() {
    var xScroll, yScroll;
    if (self.pageYOffset) {
      yScroll = self.pageYOffset;
      xScroll = self.pageXOffset;
    } else if (document.documentElement && document.documentElement.scrollTop) {
      yScroll = document.documentElement.scrollTop;
      xScroll = document.documentElement.scrollLeft;
    } else if (document.body) {// all other Explorers
      yScroll = document.body.scrollTop;
      xScroll = document.body.scrollLeft;
    }
    return new Array(xScroll,yScroll)
}

// Adapted from getPageSize() by quirksmode.com
function getPageHeight() {
    var windowHeight
    if (self.innerHeight) { // all except Explorer
      windowHeight = self.innerHeight;
    } else if (document.documentElement && document.documentElement.clientHeight) {
      windowHeight = document.documentElement.clientHeight;
    } else if (document.body) { // other Explorers
      windowHeight = document.body.clientHeight;
    }
    return windowHeight
}