Scroll animation in plain JavaScript

I am trying to build a scroll animation section when visitors click on the anchor. As you might notice the variable “id” will show #1, this will match the id value of the section itself. How could I add the scroll animation to this javascript?

var section = document.getElementsByTagName("section"),
  nav = document.getElementById("nav-bar"),
  navHeight = nav.offsetHeight,
  navAnchor = nav.querySelectorAll("li a");

for (var i = 0; i < navAnchor.length; i++) {
  var element = navAnchor[i];

  element.addEventListener("click", function(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    var el = this,
      id = el.getAttribute("href");

    function scrollTo(element, to, duration) {
      var element = element,
        to = section + id;
      console.log(id);
      if (duration <= 0) {
        return;
      }
      var difference = to - element.scrollTop;
      var perTick = difference / duration * 10;
      consolelo

      setTimeout(function() {
        element.scrollTop = element.scrollTop + perTick;
        if (element.scrollTop === to) return;
        scrollTo(element, to, duration - 10);

      }, 500);
    }
  });
}

ul li {
  list-style-type: none;
  display: inline-block;
}

li a {
  text-decoration: none;
  display: block;
  width: 120px;
  padding-top: 10px;
  padding-bottom: 10px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  text-align: center;
}

section {
  width: 100%;
  height: 300px;
  border: 1px solid red;
}

<div class="nav-block" id="nav-bar">
  <ul class="navbar-unordered-list">
    <li class="link">
      <a href="#1" class="active">Profile</a>
    </li>

    <li class="link">
      <a href="#2" class="scroll">Personal Project</a>
    </li>

    <li class="link">
      <a href="#3" class="scroll">Skills</a>
    </li>

    <li class="link">
      <a href="#4" class="scroll">CSS Drawings</a>
    </li>

    <li class="link">
      <a href="#5" class="scroll">Contact</a>
    </li>
  </ul>
</div>

<section class="sections section1" id="1">
  1
</section>

<section class="sections section2" id="2">
  2
</section>

<section class="sections section3" id="3">
  3
</section>

<section class="sections section4" id="4">
  4
</section>

<section class="sections section5" id="5">
  5
</section>

Answer

The reason you see it move at all is that you haven’t prevented the default action of following the link, which takes you to the anchor the link references. 🙂

Separately from that, the scrollTo function shouldn’t be inside the event handler.

Assuming you want to adjust the main scrollbar, I wouldn’t use setInterval, I’d use requestAnimationFrame, see comments:

var section = document.getElementsByTagName("section"),
  nav = document.getElementById("nav-bar"),
  navHeight = nav.offsetHeight,
  navAnchor = nav.querySelectorAll("li a"),
  animate = findAnimationElement();

for (var i = 0; i < navAnchor.length; i++) {
  var element = navAnchor[i];

  element.addEventListener("click", function(e) {
    var el = this,
      id = el.getAttribute("href");

    e.preventDefault(); // <=== Don't follow the link
    scrollTo(document.getElementById(id.substring(1)), 300);
    // Skip the "#" on "#1" -----------^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  });
}

function findAnimationElement() {
  // Webkit browsers animate `body`, others animate `html` (the document element)
  var bodyCurrent = document.body.scrollTop;
  var docElCurrent = document.documentElement.scrollTop;
  document.documentElement.scrollTop = document.body.scrollTop = 10;
  var animate;
  if (document.body.scrollTop > 0) {
    animate = document.body;
    document.body.scrollTop = bodyCurrent;
  } else {
    animate = document.documentElement;
    document.documentElement.scrollTop = docElCurrent;
  }
  return animate;
}

function scrollTo(to, duration) {
  // When should we finish?
  var finishAt = Date.now() + duration;
  
  // Start
  requestAnimationFrame(tick);

  function tick() {
    // How many frames left? (60fps = 16.6ms per frame)
    var framesLeft = (finishAt - Date.now()) / 16.6;
    
    // How far do we have to go?
    var distance = to.getBoundingClientRect().top;
    if (distance <= 0) {
      // Done (this shouldn't happen, belt & braces)
      return;
    }
    
    // Adjust by one frame's worth
    if (framesLeft <= 1) {
      // Last call
      animate.scrollTop += distance;
    } else {
      // Not the last, adjust and schedule next
      animate.scrollTop += Math.max(1, distance / framesLeft);
      requestAnimationFrame(tick);
    }
  }
}

ul li {
  list-style-type: none;
  display: inline-block;
}

li a {
  text-decoration: none;
  display: block;
  width: 120px;
  padding-top: 10px;
  padding-bottom: 10px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  text-align: center;
}

section {
  width: 100%;
  height: 300px;
  border: 1px solid red;
}

<div class="nav-block" id="nav-bar">
  <ul class="navbar-unordered-list">
    <li class="link">
      <a href="#1" class="active">Profile</a>
    </li>

    <li class="link">
      <a href="#2">Personal Project</a>
    </li>

    <li class="link">
      <a href="#3">Skills</a>
    </li>

    <li class="link">
      <a href="#4">CSS Drawings</a>
    </li>

    <li class="link">
      <a href="#5">Contact</a>
    </li>
  </ul>
</div>

<section class="sections section1" id="1">
  1
</section>

<section class="sections section2" id="2">
  2
</section>

<section class="sections section3" id="3">
  3
</section>

<section class="sections section4" id="4">
  4
</section>

<section class="sections section5" id="5">
  5
</section>