Html5 canvas scrolling vertically and horizontally

Solution 1:

<canvas> context doesn't have a built-in scroll method.

You then have multiple ways to circumvent this limitation.

The first one, is as in @markE's answer, to scale your context's matrix so that your drawings fit into the required space. You could also refactor your code so that all coordinates are relative to the canvas size.
This way, you won't need scrollbars and all your drawings will just be scaled appropriately, which is the desirable behavior in most common cases.


But if you really need to have some scrolling feature, here are some ways :


The easiest and most recommended one : let the browser handle it.

You will have to set the size of your canvas to the maximum of your drawings, and wrap it in an other element which will scroll. By setting the overflow:auto css property on the container, our scrollbars appear and we have our scrolling feature.

In following example, the canvas is 5000px wide and the container 200px.

var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');
ctx.textAlign = 'center';
for (var w = 0; w < canvas.width; w += 100) {
  for (var h = 0; h < canvas.height; h += 100) {
    ctx.fillText(w + ',' + h, w, h);
  }
}
#container {
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  overflow: auto;
  border: 1px solid;
}
canvas{
  display: block;
}
<div id="container">
  <canvas id="canvas" height="5000" width="5000"></canvas>
</div>

Main advantages :

  • easily implemented.
  • users are used to these scrollbars.

Main caveats :

  • You're limited by canvas maximum sizes.
  • If your canvas is animated, you'll also draw for each frame parts of the canvas that aren't visible.
  • You have small control on scrollbars look and you'll still have to implement drag-to-scroll feature yourself for desktop browsers.

A second solution, is to implement this feature yourself, using canvas transform methods : particularly translate, transform and setTransform.

Here is an example :

var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');

var app = {};
// the total area of our drawings, can be very large now
app.WIDTH = 5000;
app.HEIGHT = 5000;

app.draw = function() {
  // reset everything (clears the canvas + transform + fillStyle + any other property of the context)
  canvas.width = canvas.width;

  // move our context by the inverse of our scrollbars' left and top property
  ctx.setTransform(1, 0, 0, 1, -app.scrollbars.left, -app.scrollbars.top);

  ctx.textAlign = 'center';
  // draw only the visible area
  var visibleLeft = app.scrollbars.left;
  var visibleWidth = visibleLeft + canvas.width;
  var visibleTop = app.scrollbars.top
  var visibleHeight = visibleTop + canvas.height;

  // you probably will have to make other calculations than these ones to get your drawings
  // to draw only where required
  for (var w = visibleLeft; w < visibleWidth + 50; w += 100) {
    for (var h = visibleTop; h < visibleHeight + 50; h += 100) {
      var x = Math.round((w) / 100) * 100;
      var y = Math.round((h) / 100) * 100;
      ctx.fillText(x + ',' + y, x, y);
    }
  }

  // draw our scrollbars on top if needed
  app.scrollbars.draw();
}

app.scrollbars = function() {
  var scrollbars = {};
  // initial position
  scrollbars.left = 0;
  scrollbars.top = 0;
  // a single constructor for both horizontal and vertical	
  var ScrollBar = function(vertical) {
    var that = {
      vertical: vertical
    };

    that.left = vertical ? canvas.width - 10 : 0;
    that.top = vertical ? 0 : canvas.height - 10;
    that.height = vertical ? canvas.height - 10 : 5;
    that.width = vertical ? 5 : canvas.width - 10;
    that.fill = '#dedede';

    that.cursor = {
      radius: 5,
      fill: '#bababa'
    };
    that.cursor.top = vertical ? that.cursor.radius : that.top + that.cursor.radius / 2;
    that.cursor.left = vertical ? that.left + that.cursor.radius / 2 : that.cursor.radius;

    that.draw = function() {
      if (!that.visible) {
        return;
      }
      // remember to reset the matrix
      ctx.setTransform(1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0);
      // you can give it any shape you like, all canvas drawings operations are possible
      ctx.fillStyle = that.fill;
      ctx.fillRect(that.left, that.top, that.width, that.height);
      ctx.beginPath();
      ctx.arc(that.cursor.left, that.cursor.top, that.cursor.radius, 0, Math.PI * 2);
      ctx.fillStyle = that.cursor.fill;
      ctx.fill();
    };
    // check if we're hovered
    that.isHover = function(x, y) {
      if (x >= that.left - that.cursor.radius && x <= that.left + that.width + that.cursor.radius &&
        y >= that.top - that.cursor.radius && y <= that.top + that.height + that.cursor.radius) {
        // we are so record the position of the mouse and set ourself as the one hovered
        scrollbars.mousePos = vertical ? y : x;
        scrollbars.hovered = that;
        that.visible = true;
        return true;
      }
      // we were visible last call and no wheel event is happening
      else if (that.visible && !scrollbars.willHide) {
        that.visible = false;
        // the app should be redrawn
        return true;
      }
    }

    return that;
  };

  scrollbars.horizontal = ScrollBar(0);
  scrollbars.vertical = ScrollBar(1);

  scrollbars.hovered = null;
  scrollbars.dragged = null;
  scrollbars.mousePos = null;
  // check both of our scrollbars
  scrollbars.isHover = function(x, y) {
    return this.horizontal.isHover(x, y) || this.vertical.isHover(x, y);
  };
  // draw both of our scrollbars
  scrollbars.draw = function() {
    this.horizontal.draw();
    this.vertical.draw();
  };
  // check if one of our scrollbars is visible
  scrollbars.visible = function() {
    return this.horizontal.visible || this.vertical.visible;
  };
  // hide it...
  scrollbars.hide = function() {
    // only if we're not using the mousewheel or dragging the cursor
    if (this.willHide || this.dragged) {
      return;
    }
    this.horizontal.visible = false;
    this.vertical.visible = false;
  };

  // get the area's coord relative to our scrollbar
  var toAreaCoord = function(pos, scrollBar) {
    var sbBase = scrollBar.vertical ? scrollBar.top : scrollBar.left;
    var sbMax = scrollBar.vertical ? scrollBar.height : scrollBar.width;
    var areaMax = scrollBar.vertical ? app.HEIGHT - canvas.height : app.WIDTH - canvas.width;

    var ratio = (pos - sbBase) / (sbMax - sbBase);

    return areaMax * ratio;
  };

  // get the scrollbar's coord relative to our total area
  var toScrollCoords = function(pos, scrollBar) {
    var sbBase = scrollBar.vertical ? scrollBar.top : scrollBar.left;
    var sbMax = scrollBar.vertical ? scrollBar.height : scrollBar.width;
    var areaMax = scrollBar.vertical ? app.HEIGHT - canvas.height : app.WIDTH - canvas.width;

    var ratio = pos / areaMax;

    return ((sbMax - sbBase) * ratio) + sbBase;
  }

  scrollbars.scroll = function() {
      // check which one of the scrollbars is active
      var vertical = this.hovered.vertical;
      // until where our cursor can go
      var maxCursorPos = this.hovered[vertical ? 'height' : 'width'];
      var pos = vertical ? 'top' : 'left';
      // check that we're not out of the bounds
      this.hovered.cursor[pos] = this.mousePos < 0 ? 0 :
        this.mousePos > maxCursorPos ? maxCursorPos : this.mousePos;

      // seems ok so tell the app we scrolled
      this[pos] = toAreaCoord(this.hovered.cursor[pos], this.hovered);
      // redraw everything
      app.draw();
    }
    // because we will hide it after a small time
  scrollbars.willHide;
  // called by the wheel event
  scrollbars.scrollBy = function(deltaX, deltaY) {
    // it's not coming from our scrollbars
    this.hovered = null;
    // we're moving horizontally
    if (deltaX) {
      var newLeft = this.left + deltaX;
      // make sure we're in the bounds
      this.left = newLeft > app.WIDTH - canvas.width ? app.WIDTH - canvas.width : newLeft < 0 ? 0 : newLeft;
      // update the horizontal cursor
      this.horizontal.cursor.left = toScrollCoords(this.left, this.horizontal);
      // show our scrollbar
      this.horizontal.visible = true;
    }
    if (deltaY) {
      var newTop = this.top + deltaY;
      this.top = newTop > app.HEIGHT - canvas.height ? app.HEIGHT - canvas.height : newTop < 0 ? 0 : newTop;
      this.vertical.cursor.top = toScrollCoords(this.top, this.vertical);
      this.vertical.visible = true;
    }
    // if we were called less than the required timeout
    clearTimeout(this.willHide);
    this.willHide = setTimeout(function() {
      scrollbars.willHide = null;
      scrollbars.hide();
      app.draw();
    }, 500);
    // redraw everything
    app.draw();
  };

  return scrollbars;
}();

var mousedown = function(e) {
  // tell the browser we handle this
  e.preventDefault();
  // we're over one the scrollbars
  if (app.scrollbars.hovered) {
    // new promotion ! it becomes the dragged one
    app.scrollbars.dragged = app.scrollbars.hovered;
    app.scrollbars.scroll();
  }
};

var mousemove = function(e) {
  // check the coordinates of our canvas in the document
  var rect = canvas.getBoundingClientRect();
  var x = e.clientX - rect.left;
  var y = e.clientY - rect.top;
  // we're dragging something
  if (app.scrollbars.dragged) {
    // update the mouse position
    app.scrollbars.mousePos = app.scrollbars.dragged.vertical ? y : x;
    app.scrollbars.scroll();
  } else if (app.scrollbars.isHover(x, y)) {
    // something has changed, redraw to show or hide the scrollbar
    app.draw();
  }
  e.preventDefault();
};
var mouseup = function() {
  // we dropped it
  app.scrollbars.dragged = null;
};

var mouseout = function() {
  // we're out
  if (app.scrollbars.visible()) {
    app.scrollbars.hide();
    app.scrollbars.dragged = false;
    app.draw();
  }
};

var mouseWheel = function(e) {
  e.preventDefault();
  app.scrollbars.scrollBy(e.deltaX, e.deltaY);
};

canvas.addEventListener('mousemove', mousemove);
canvas.addEventListener('mousedown', mousedown);
canvas.addEventListener('mouseup', mouseup);
canvas.addEventListener('mouseout', mouseout);
canvas.addEventListener('wheel', mouseWheel);

range.onchange = function() {
  app.WIDTH = app.HEIGHT = this.value;
  app.scrollbars.left = 0;
  app.scrollbars.top = 0;
  app.draw();
};

// an initial drawing
app.draw();
canvas {border: 1px solid;}
span{font-size: .8em;}
<canvas id="canvas" width="200" height="150"></canvas>
<span>
  change the total area size
  <input type="range" min="250" max="5000000" steps="250" value="5000" id="range" />
</span>

Main advantages :

  • no limitation for the size of your drawing areas.
  • you can customize your scrollbars as you wish.
  • you can control when the scrollbars are enable or not.
  • you can get the visible area quite easily.

Main caveats:

  • a bit more code than the CSS solution...
  • no really, that's a lot of code...

A third way I wrote some time ago for an other question took advantage of the ability to draw an other canvas with ctx.drawImage(). It has its own caveats and advantages, so I let you pick the one you need, but this last one also had a drag and slide feature which can be useful.

Solution 2:

So your node drawings don't fit on the canvas size?

You can easily "shrink" your content to fit the visible canvas with just 1 command!

The context.scale(horizontalRescale,verticalRescale) command will shrink every following drawing by your specified horizontalRescale & verticalRescale percentages.

An Important note: You must make horizontalRescale,verticalRescale the same value or your content will be distorted.

The nice thing about using context.scale is that you don't have to change any of the code that draws your nodes ... canvas automatically scales all those nodes for you.

For example, this code will shrink your nodes to 80% of their original size:

var downscaleFactor= 0.80;

context.scale( downscaleFactor, downscaleFactor );

Rather than go through your 200+ lines of code, I leave it to you to calculate downscaleFactor.