IntersectionObserver

The IntersectionObserver interface of the the Intersection Observer API provides a way to asynchronously observe changes in the intersection of a target element with an ancestor element or with a top-level document's viewport. The ancestor element or viewport is referred to as the root.

When an IntersectionObserver is created, it's configured to watch for given ratios of visibility within the root. The configuration cannot be changed once the IntersectionObserver is created, so a given observer object is only useful for watching for specific changes in degree of visibility; however, you can watch multiple target elements with the same observer.

Constructor

IntersectionObserver.IntersectionObserver()

Creates a new IntersectionObserver object which will execute a specified callback function when it detects that a target element's visibility has crossed one or more thresholds.

Properties

IntersectionObserver.root Read only

A specific ancestor of the target element being observed. If no value was passed to the constructor or this is null, the top-level document's viewport is used.

IntersectionObserver.rootMargin Read only

An offset rectangle applied to the root's bounding box when calculating intersections, effectively shrinking or growing the root for calculation purposes. The value returned by this property may not be the same as the one specified when calling the constructor as it may be changed to match internal requirements. Each offset can be expressed in pixels (px) or as a percentage (%). The default is "0px 0px 0px 0px".

IntersectionObserver.thresholds Read only

A list of thresholds, sorted in increasing numeric order, where each threshold is a ratio of intersection area to bounding box area of an observed target. Notifications for a target are generated when any of the thresholds are crossed for that target. If no value was passed to the constructor, 0 is used.

Methods

IntersectionObserver.disconnect()

Stops the IntersectionObserver object from observing any target.

IntersectionObserver.observe()

Tells the IntersectionObserver a target element to observe.

IntersectionObserver.takeRecords()

Returns an array of IntersectionObserverEntry objects for all observed targets and stops observing all of them.

IntersectionObserver.unobserve()

Tells the IntersectionObserver to stop observing a particular target element.

Examples

var intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver(function(entries) {
  // If intersectionRatio is 0, the target is out of view
  // and we do not need to do anything.
  if (entries[0].intersectionRatio <= 0) return;
  loadItems(10);
  console.log('Loaded new items');
});
// start observing
intersectionObserver.observe(document.querySelector('.scrollerFooter'));

Specifications

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

1. From version 53 until version 55 (exclusive): this feature is behind the dom.IntersectionObserver.enabled preference (needs to be set to true). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.