matchHeight makes the height of all selected elements exactly equal.
It handles many edge cases that cause similar plugins to fail.
See the jquery.matchHeight.js demo.
- match the heights of elements anywhere on the page
- row aware, handles floating elements
- responsive, automatically updates on window resize (can be throttled for performance)
- handles mixed
padding,margin,bordervalues (even if every element has them different) - handles images and other media (updates automatically after loading)
- handles hidden or none-visible elements (e.g. those inside tab controls)
- accounts for
box-sizing - data attributes API
- can be removed when needed
- maintain scroll position correctly
- callback events
- tested in IE8+, Chrome, Firefox, Chrome Android
Current version is v0.5.2. I've fully tested it and it works well, but if you use it make sure you test fully too.
Please report any issues you find.
jQuery is required, so include it first.
Download jquery.matchHeight.js and include the script in your HTML file:
<script src="jquery.matchHeight.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
Or install using Bower
bower install matchHeight
$(elements).matchHeight(byRow);
Where byRow is a boolean that enables or disables row detection, default is true.
You should apply this on the DOM ready event.
See the included test.html for a working example.
$(function() {
$('.item').matchHeight();
});
Will set all elements with the class item to the height of the tallest.
If the items are on multiple rows, the items of each row will be set to the tallest of that row.
<div data-mh="my-group">My text</div>
<div data-mh="my-group">Some other text</div>
<div data-mh="my-other-group">Even more text</div>
<div data-mh="my-other-group">The last bit of text</div>
Will set both elements in my-group to the same height, then both elements in my-other-group to be the same height respectively.
See the included test.html for a working example.
There are a few internal properties and functions you should know about:
Use the data attribute data-match-height="group-name" (or data-mh shorthand) where group-name is an arbitrary string to denote which elements should be considered as a group.
All elements with the same group name will be set to the same height when the page is loaded, regardless of their position in the DOM, without any extra code required.
Note that byRow will be enabled when using the data API, if you don't want this then use the alternative method above.
Since matchHeight automatically handles updating the layout after certain window events, you can supply functions as global callbacks if you need to be notified:
$.fn.matchHeight._beforeUpdate = function(event, groups) {
// do something before any updates are applied
}
$.fn.matchHeight._afterUpdate = function(event, groups) {
// do something after all updates are applied
}
Where event a jQuery event object (e.g. load, resize, orientationchange) and groups is a reference to $.fn.matchHeight._groups (see below).
It is possible to remove any matchHeight bindings for a given set of elements like so
$('.item').matchHeight('remove');
$.fn.matchHeight._update()
If you need to manually trigger an update of all currently set equal heights groups, for example if you've modified some content.
$.fn.matchHeight._apply(elements, byRow)
Use the apply function directly if you wish to avoid the automatic update functionality.
$.fn.matchHeight._throttle = 80;
By default, the _update method is throttled to execute at a maximum rate of once every 80ms.
Decreasing the above _throttle property will update your layout quicker, appearing smoother during resize, at the expense of performance.
If you experience lagging or freezing during resize, you should increase the _throttle property.
$.fn.matchHeight._maintainScroll = true;
Under certain conditions where the size of the page is dynamically changing, such as during resize or when adding new elements, browser bugs cause the page scroll position to change unexpectedly.
If you are observing this behaviour, use the above line to automatically attempt to force scroll position to be maintained (approximately). This is a global setting and by default it is false.
You can change the property that matchHeight will set by passing it via the options argument:
$('.item').matchHeight({ property: 'min-height' });
$.fn.matchHeight._groups
The array that contains all element groups that have had matchHeight applied. Used for automatically updating on resize events. Search and modify this array if you need to remove any groups or elements, for example if you're deleting elements.
You should ensure that there are no transitions or other animations that will delay the height changes of the elements you are matching, including any transition: all rules. Otherwise the plugin will produce unexpected results, as animations can't be accounted for.
Some browsers do not wait for webfonts to load before firing the window load event, so if the font loads too slowly the plugin may produce unexpected results.
If this is a problem, you should call _update once your font has loaded by using something like the webfontloader script.
If you change the content inside an element that has had matchHeight applied, then you must manually call $.fn.matchHeight._update() afterwards. This will update of all currently set equal heights groups.
To see what's new or changed in the latest version, see the changelog
jquery.matchHeight.js is licensed under The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2014 Liam Brummitt
This license is also supplied with the release and source code.
As stated in the license, absolutely no warranty is provided.
Making robust, responsive equal height columns for arbitrary content is difficult or impossible to do with CSS alone (at least without hacks or trickery, in a backwards compatible way).
Note you should probably ensure your layout is still usable if JavaScript is disabled.