In this episode, we're diving into how to automatically scroll to a specific post on a discussion page after performing some action (like posting a reply or visiting a link to a specific message). We'll start by tweaking our backend pagination so we have enough replies on a single page to see some scrolling action in the first place.
Once we have the setup ready, we'll install and use the vue-scrollto library to handle the actual scrolling. I walk you through passing the postId prop down to our component, and then use Vue's lifecycle hooks (onMounted and onUpdated) to trigger the scroll at the right time—whenever the page is loaded or updated.
We'll go over how to build a scroll-to-post function that targets the right element based on its ID, and talk about why you sometimes need to wait for Vue's next render (using nextTick) before actually scrolling, to make sure the element exists in the DOM.
After some quick debugging (like making sure we're not trying to scroll to a deleted post!), you'll see how the scroll works—and even play with the scroll duration for fun. Finally, you'll see how this makes the experience slick: if you post a new reply, you're not only taken to the correct page, but scrolled right to the reply you just posted. It's a great little UX touch for any discussion or forum app!