Keeping footer at the bottom of the page using Google MDL

12,837

Solution 1

I managed to do that by:

1. Without waterfall header

Moving the footer element outside the main element
Set the style of the .mdl-layout__content element to"flex: 1 0 auto"

Example:

<body>
  <div class="mdl-layout mdl-js-layout">
    <header class="mdl-layout__header">
      ...
    </header>
    <main class="mdl-layout__content" style="flex: 1 0 auto;">
      ...
    </main>
    <footer class="mdl-mega-footer">
      ...
    </footer>
  </div>
</body>

2. With waterfall header

Just by moving the footer element outside the main element

Example:

  <body>
    <div class="site mdl-layout mdl-js-layout">           
      <header class="mdl-layout__header mdl-layout__header--waterfall">
          <div class="mdl-layout__header-row">
              <!-- Header Content Here -->
          </div>
      </header>
      <div class="mdl-layout__drawer">
          <!-- Drawer Content -->
      </div>
      <main class="mdl-layout__content">
          <!-- Main Content -->
      </main>
      <footer class="mdl-mini-footer">
          <!-- Footer Content -->
      </footer>
    </div>
  </body>

Tests:

Short content: http://codepen.io/kabudahab/pen/vGdVQM
Long content: http://codepen.io/kabudahab/pen/JXpmpv

Solution 2

I was having the same problem, where a mdl-mini-footer was overlapping with my mdl-layout__content.

My solution was to keep the tags separate, i.e.

<main class="mdl-layout__content">
  ...
</main>
<footer class="mdl-mini-footer">
  ...
</footer>

and modify the classes as follows (taking inspiration from @K.A.D's first solution above)

.mdl-layout__content {
  flex: 1 0 auto;
}

.mdl-mini-footer {
  flex: 0 0 auto;
}

The modification of the footer class was necessary to stop the footer growing into spaces I didn't want it to (the first 0 in 0 0 auto).

Solution 3

Try This

    <main class="mdl-layout__content">
        <div class="page-content">

        </div>
        <div class="mdl-layout-spacer"></div>
        <footer class="mdl-mini-footer">
            <div class="mdl-mini-footer__left-section">
                <div class="mdl-logo">Title</div>
                <ul class="mdl-mini-footer__link-list">
                    <li><a href="#">Help</a></li>
                    <li><a href="#">Privacy & Terms</a></li>
                </ul>
            </div>
        </footer>
    </main>

Just Add:

<div class="mdl-layout-spacer"></div>

After:

<div class="page-content"></div>

12,837

CJK

I code .net stuff a lot mainly xaml (for WPF) c# and mvc. If I'm not on a computer I'm probably on my guitar.

Updated on June 20, 2022

Comments

CJK almost 2 years

As far as I can tell this isn't a duplicate question because it's a bit different than the other questions on this topic.

I'm using Google's Material Design Lite and the footer will not stay at the bottom of the page properly.

I've seen the different fixes using this trick

<div class="content">
    <div class="header"></div>
    <div class="body"></div>
    <div class="footer"></div>
</div>

and I've tried using this method

#footer {
   bottom: 0;
   width: 100%;
   position: absolute; (or fixed)
}

The first option doesn't work because Material Design Lite actually uses the footer tag. And to be honest I don't really want to do that anyway because it seems kind of sloppy to me.

The CSS method for the footer almost works but there are a few problems. When using position: absolute; it doesn't always keep the footer on the bottom of the page and it will sometimes cover content. When I try fixed the footer is always kept at the bottom of the page but when there is enough content for the page to scroll it stays at the bottom of the screen and covers content. Both fixed and absolute will keep the footer at the bottom of the screen not the page, which means that when there is enough content to scroll the footer covers content at the edge of the screen.

The behavior for fixed can be reproduced 100% of the time, but for absolute I haven't figured out what causes it to work sometimes and not others.

This is the code I have for the footer

<footer class="mdl-mini-footer">
    <div class="mdl-mini-footer--left-section">
        <button class="mdl-mini-footer--social-btn social-btn social-btn__twitter">
            <span class="visuallyhidden">Twitter</span>
         </button>
         <button class="mdl-mini-footer--social-btn social-btn social-btn__blogger">
            <span class="visuallyhidden">Facebook</span>
         </button>
         <button class="mdl-mini-footer--social-btn social-btn social-btn__gplus">
             <span class="visuallyhidden">Google Plus</span>
         </button>
     </div>
     <div class="mdl-mini-footer--right-section">
         <button class="mdl-mini-footer--social-btn social-btn__share">
             <i class="material-icons" role="presentation">share</i>
             <span class="visuallyhidden">share</span>
         </button>
     </div>
</footer>`

Has anyone else had this issue or have any ideas on a solution?

Edit to add more information:

The issue isn't with the height of the body or html they are both at 100%.

Full Layout Code

<body>
  <div class="site mdl-layout mdl-js-layout">           
    <header class="mdl-layout__header mdl-layout__header--waterfall">
        <div class="mdl-layout__header-row">
            <!-- Header Content Here -->
        </div>
    </header>
    <div class="mdl-layout__drawer">
        <!-- Drawer Content -->
    </div>
    <main class="mdl-layout__content">
         <!-- View Content Here -->
    </main>
    <footer class="mdl-mini-footer">
        <!-- Footer Content -->
    </footer>
    <div class="mdl-layout__obfuscator"></div>
  </div>
</body>

Stickers over 8 years

Have you tried the css table approach? similarly to this stackoverflow.com/a/28844062/483779

CJK over 8 years

One issue was that the waterfall header doesn't stick to the top of the screen after adding the flex style to the mdl-layout__content tag but this does keep the footer to the bottom of the page so it's a good start.
K.A.D. over 8 years

I am using the same styles for my page and I have no problem with the header. Which MDL template are you using?
CJK over 8 years

Code added. Let me know if you see any problems
K.A.D. about 8 years

@CJK: cannot you apply position fixed to header directly?
K.A.D. about 8 years

@CJK: thanks for unaccepting the answer, in your case, you do not need to add style="flex: 1 0 auto;" as you are using waterfall header. See the following example: codepen.io/kabudahab/pen/JXpmpv
CJK about 8 years

Thanks I'll try that
Ferran Maylinch about 8 years

This solution keeps the footer visible all the time. How can it be displayed (at the bottom) only when the content is short? Is the CSS table hack the only option?