create a scroll bar in a sidebar - css

Question

I'm trying to create a scroll bar inside the #main div so that I can scroll that without scrolling the page or the title but it isn't working. What am I missing?
My code is as follows:
CSS
#topbar {
height: 40px;
background-color: blue;
}
#sidebar {
position: absolute;
top: 40px;
bottom: 0px;
width: 80px;
overflow: hidden;
}
#title {
height:30px;
background-color: red;
}
#main {
height: auto;
overflow: scroll;
}
HTML
<div id="topbar">
hello
</div>
<div id="sidebar">
<div id="title">
title
</div>
<div id="main">
<!-- lots and lots of text-->
</div>
</div>
You can find an example JSFiddle here: http://jsfiddle.net/PTRCr/
Thanks

Answer 1

You're still on this project I see. There's also a lot of answers, but I see no one has made a working example of what I think you're asking for.
Here's a working example that (I hope) does what I think you're asking for.
I added content shifting wrappers so that the height can still be 100%. You can read more about that technique from this answer. I also removed all that absolute positioning, I see no reason why you should do that.
Each wrapper adjusts for the previous content, first the top bar with the height 40px and then the title with 30px.
This example should also follow your previous specifications, where the scrollbars will stay on the same baseline when resized.
As you can see, by the code below, it is possible to do a CSS only solution despite what others have lead you to believe. It just takes a bit of tricks from the bag of CSS holding.
Man, I'm such a dork.
Example | Code
HTML
<div id='container'>
<div id="top-bar">hello</div>
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="side-bar">
<div class="title">title</div>
<div class="content_wrapper">
<div class="content">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur gravida interdum dignissim. Aenean quis neque diam, ac vehicula turpis. Vestibulum lacinia libero sed massa fringilla tempor. Donec dictum metus ac justo congue lacinia sit amet quis nisi. Nam sed dolor vitae nisi venenatis imperdiet ut ullamcorper sem. Maecenas ut enim in massa ultricies lacinia quis nec lorem. Etiam vel lacus purus, a placerat lectus. Ut sed justo eros. Curabitur consequat nisi ut diam lacinia at posuere purus tristique. Quisque eu dapibus nunc.</div>
</div>
</div><div class="side-bar">
<div class="title">title</div>
<div class="content_wrapper">
<div class="content">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur gravida interdum dignissim. Aenean quis neque diam, ac vehicula turpis. Vestibulum lacinia libero sed massa fringilla tempor. Donec dictum metus ac justo congue lacinia sit amet quis nisi. Nam sed dolor vitae nisi venenatis imperdiet ut ullamcorper sem. Maecenas ut enim in massa ultricies lacinia quis nec lorem. Etiam vel lacus purus, a placerat lectus. Ut sed justo eros. Curabitur consequat nisi ut diam lacinia at posuere purus tristique. Quisque eu dapibus nunc.</div>
</div>
</div><div class="side-bar">
<div class="title">title</div>
<div class="content_wrapper">
<div class="content">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur gravida interdum dignissim. Aenean quis neque diam, ac vehicula turpis. Vestibulum lacinia libero sed massa fringilla tempor. Donec dictum metus ac justo congue lacinia sit amet quis nisi. Nam sed dolor vitae nisi venenatis imperdiet ut ullamcorper sem. Maecenas ut enim in massa ultricies lacinia quis nec lorem. Etiam vel lacus purus, a placerat lectus. Ut sed justo eros. Curabitur consequat nisi ut diam lacinia at posuere purus tristique. Quisque eu dapibus nunc.</div>
</div>
</div><div class="side-bar">
<div class="title">title</div>
<div class="content_wrapper">
<div class="content">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur gravida interdum dignissim. Aenean quis neque diam, ac vehicula turpis. Vestibulum lacinia libero sed massa fringilla tempor. Donec dictum metus ac justo congue lacinia sit amet quis nisi. Nam sed dolor vitae nisi venenatis imperdiet ut ullamcorper sem. Maecenas ut enim in massa ultricies lacinia quis nec lorem. Etiam vel lacus purus, a placerat lectus. Ut sed justo eros. Curabitur consequat nisi ut diam lacinia at posuere purus tristique. Quisque eu dapibus nunc.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
CSS
body, html{
height:100%;
width: 100%;
line-height: 100%;
margin: 0; /* Normalization */
padding: 0; /* Normalization */
}
div{
box-sizing: border-box;
-moz-box-sizing: border-box;
-webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
}
#container{
height:100%;
width: 100%;
text-align: center;
overflow: auto;
}
#top-bar{
height: 40px;
line-height: 40px;
border: 1px solid lightblue;
background: blue;
color: white;
text-align: center;
}
.side-bar {
width: 120px;
height: 100%;
text-align: center;
color: white;
border: 1px solid DarkOrchid;
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: top;
}
.title {
height:30px;
line-height: 30px;
border: 1px solid salmon;
background: red;
}
.wrapper{
margin-top: -40px;
padding-top: 40px;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
white-space: nowrap;
}
.wrapper > div{
white-space: normal;
}
.content_wrapper{
margin-top: -30px;
padding-top: 30px;
height: 100%;
}
.content{
color: black;
height: 100%;
overflow: auto;
}

Answer 2

The element you want to be scrollable, should
Have height and width defined
have attribute overflow:auto
Example:
.scrollArea {
width: 275px;
height: 100px;
padding-left: 5px;
padding-right: 5px;
border-color: #6699CC;
border-width: 1px;
border-style: solid;
float: left;
overflow: auto;
}

Answer 3

CSS are stylesheet whose only purpose are to style document. They cannot investigate a pre-existing elements.
The only ways are whether the size of the div has to be fixed or you have to use some JavaScript to find out the exact height. The ways of which this can be done with CSS have already been presented by other users.
So, here is a way you can do using jQuery
$("#main").height($(document).innerHeight()-$("#title").outerHeight() - $("#topBar").outerHeight());
Demo

Answer 4

In your case change CSS:
#sidebar {
position: absolute;
top: 40px;
bottom: 40px;
width: 80px;
overflow: scroll;
}

Answer 5

You should define the height of the <div id="main" to show the scrollbar on it. whether you calculate it using javascript or jquery.
#topbar {
height: 40px;
background-color: blue;
}
#sidebar {
position:absolute;
top: 40px;
bottom: 40px;
width: auto;
height:200px;
overflow: hidden;
}
#title {
height:30px;
background-color: red;
}
#main {
height: 100px;
width: 100%;
overflow:auto;
}
Check this updated jsFiddle.

Answer 6

You need to set height for #main. It is working at http://jsfiddle.net/PTRCr/7/
#main {
height: 100px;
overflow-y: scroll;
}

Answer 7

It is only possible if you know the height of your #title, in either px or as a percentage of its parent container
#title set in px jsFiddle
#main {
position:absolute;
top:30px; /* set this to whatever you have set the height of #title to*/
bottom:0px;
overflow-y: scroll;
}
#title set as % jsFiddle - Tested in IE/FF/Chrome