Scrollers are a cool way to show data visualizations in general, and maps where things happen in particular. I’ve been wanting to do one since I watched this Mike Bostock example, and now I’ve finally learned how to do it.

The simplest example

The example is taken from this Tony Chu’s block. Scroll down to see how the Hayan typhoon track:

The code is quite simple. Le’ts see first the css part:

#container { position : relative ; z-index : 100 ; height : 100vh ; overflow : scroll ; } #sticky { position : absolute ; top : 5vh ; right : 0 ; width : 48% ; z-index : 50 ; } .panel { width : 100% ; padding-left : 20px ; padding-top : 25vh ; padding-bottom : 25vh ; } .panel p { padding-right : 50% ;} .panel :first-child { padding-top : 5vh ;} .panel :last-child { padding-bottom : 45vh ;}

container is will be the place where both the text will be placed. Note that we are using vh units, which are in % of the viewport

sticky is the place where the map will be placed. As its name indicates, it won’t move. Note that is placed at the right part of the screen with the right tag.

The divs with the class panel will have the content that scrolls. Note the padding-top and padding-bottom that are with vh units. This will be useful to maintain a separation when texts are short. Two secions with a single word would still make a nice visualization. The padding-right asserts that the content will be in two columns.

The html would be like this, but including the text:

<div id= "sticky" ></div> <div id= "container" > <div id= "content" > <div class= "panel" > <p> Your text here... </p> </div> </div>

Note the content node. It will be used to calculate the vertical length of all the sections (panel classed divs)

Let’s see now the relevant JavaScript parts:

var WIDTH = 0.9 * window . innerWidth / 2 ; var HEIGHT = 0.9 * window . innerHeight ; var svg = d3 . select ( " #sticky " ). append ( " svg " ) . attr ( ' width ' , WIDTH ) . attr ( ' height ' , HEIGHT ); var body = d3 . select ( ' body ' ). node (); var container = d3 . select ( ' #container ' ); var content = d3 . select ( ' #content ' ); var SCROLL_LENGTH = content . node (). getBoundingClientRect (). height - HEIGHT ;

The initial svg map width and height of the visible window are taken from the window object properties. The map will be half of the window width and all the height

SCROLL_LENGTH is the amount of pixels you can scroll down. Since some content is already shown, it has to be calculated as the whole content height minus the viewport height which is already visible

var hayanPathScale = d3 . scale . linear () . domain ([ 0 , SCROLL_LENGTH ]) . range ([ 0 , haiyanPath . node (). getTotalLength ()]) . clamp ( true );

The map is created as in this example. The main change is that the animation won’t be an interval but will be controlled by the scroller

The scale relates which portion of the path must be drawn for each scrolled pixel. So the domain will be the scroll length (we can move from 0 to SCROLL_LENGTH pixels down the page), and the range is the path length (we can draw from 0 to all the path pixels)

container . on ( " scroll.scroller " , function () { newScrollTop = container . node (). scrollTop }); var setDimensions = function () { ... } var render = function () { if ( scrollTop !== newScrollTop ) { scrollTop = newScrollTop ... } window . requestAnimationFrame ( render ) } window . requestAnimationFrame ( render ) window . onresize = setDimensions

Those are the functinos that controll the window resizing and scroll:

When the scroll.scroll event happens in the container div, a new newScrollTop variable value is calculated

setDimensions holds all what has to be done when the window is resized. The map has to look the same, so the scale must be changed, the size of the svg too, etc.

render is the function that acts when the scroll is moved. The render is only done when newScrollTop changes, so we are not rendering the same all the time if the scroll doesn’t change. Note that at the end of the function, the function is called again using window.requestAnimationFrame(render). The function is called too when the script is first loaded.

setDimensions is fired with the window.onresize event

With these functions we can control a simple scroller.

How does the render function look like:

if ( scrollTop !== newScrollTop ) { scrollTop = newScrollTop haiyanPath . style ( ' stroke-dashoffset ' , function ( d ) { return haiyanPath . node (). getTotalLength () - hayanPathScale ( scrollTop ) + ' px ' ; }); } window . requestAnimationFrame ( render )

After checking if the newScrollTop has changed, the only thing to change is the stroke-dashoffset attribute. Take a look at this web page to see how does it work

Now, let’s see how the setDimensions function work:

WIDTH = window . innerWidth / 2 ; HEIGHT = window . innerHeight ; SCROLL_LENGTH = content . node (). getBoundingClientRect (). height - HEIGHT ; projection . scale ( 6 * ( WIDTH + 1 ) / 2 / Math . PI ) . translate ([ WIDTH / 2 , HEIGHT / 2 ]); path . projection ( projection ); landPath . attr ( " d " , path ); countriesPath . attr ( " d " , path ); graticulePath . attr ( " d " , path ); haiyanPath . attr ( " d " , pathLine ( track )); hayanPathScale . domain ([ 0 , SCROLL_LENGTH ]) . range ([ 0 , haiyanPath . node (). getTotalLength ()]); haiyanPath . style ( ' stroke-dasharray ' , function ( d ) { var l = d3 . select ( this ). node (). getTotalLength (); return l + ' px, ' + l + ' px ' ; }) . style ( ' stroke-dashoffset ' , function ( d ) { return d3 . select ( this ). node (). getTotalLength () - hayanPathScale ( scrollTop ) + ' px ' ; });