How to simulate 'position:fixed' behavior on Flexbox-aligned sidebar

Question

As it was already answered (How can I have a position: fixed; behaviour for a flexbox sized element?) absolutely/fixed positioned boxes are taken out of the normal flow of Flexbox-aligned elements. But how can I at least simulate position: fixed behavior of, say, width: 300px; height: 100vw element?

Here is a demo (http://codepen.io/anon/pen/ZGmmzR) of initial layout with sidebar on the left and content block on the right. I would like nav act like position: fixed element following user's scroll across the page. I know how to do it without Flexbox. In the first place I would consider pure CSS solution without using JavaScript. Thank you!

Solution

Edit:

A solution that somehow feels less hacky could be to make the container (.wrapper) as tall as the screen, and only add scrolling to the main <section> element:

.wrapper {
    display: flex;
    height: 100vh;
}

section {
    flex: 1 1 auto;
    overflow: auto;
}

http://codepen.io/Sphinxxxx/pen/WjwbEO

Original answer:

You could simply put everything inside <nav> in a wrapper (here: nav-wrapper), and then fix that wrapper:

...
.nav-wrapper {
    position: fixed;
    top: 0; left: 0;
}

<nav role="navigation">
    <div class="nav-wrapper">
        ...
    </div>
</nav>

http://codepen.io/anon/pen/PqXYGM

Comments

[user3576508]

This is very correct and obvious solution. I should really have some rest next time before working. Thank you!

[Vicky Chijwani]

This will only work if the nav is at one of the edges, because position: fixed positions relative to the viewport. So this won't help if, like me, you're trying to fix a nav inside a centered flex container.

[Sphinxxx]

@VickyChijwani - What would that layout look like? Do you have a demo?

[Vicky Chijwani]

@Sphinxxx sorry, I don't have a demo. But I ultimately went with an edge-positioned fixed div anyway; ran out of alternatives.

[Sphinxxx]

@SudarP - I don't have a Safari browser, but it's just basic flexbox behavior, so I assume it does.

[Burrich]

Flex solution works but with overflow property the content scrolling position is broken on refresh (position not remembered).

[Dave B]

@Burrich I used a flex layout similar to the edited solution in this answer. css-tricks.com references a simple JavaScript and local storage solution from a Twitter post (twitter.com/hakimel/status/1262337065670316033) for the remembering the scroll position of a sidebar div (or any div). css-tricks.com/memorize-scroll-position-across-page-loads. See the reader comments for recommended modifications to the code in the tweet.