Navigo
A simple minimalistic JavaScript router with a fallback for older browsers.
(Demo source files)
Installation
Via npm with npm install navigo
or drop lib/navigo.min.js
into your page.
Usage
Initialization
var root = null;
var useHash = true;
var hash = '#!';
var router = new Navigo(root, useHash, hash);
The constructor of the library accepts three argument - root
, useHash
and hash
. The first one is the main URL of
your application. If you call the constructor without parameters then Navigo figures out the root URL based on your routes.
If useHash
set to true
then the router uses an old routing approach with hash in the URL. Navigo anyways falls back
to this mode if there is no History API supported. The hash
parameter allows you to configure the hash character. To
make your URLs crawlable by Google you should use use '#!'. Read more at developers.google.com.
Adding a route
router
.on('/products/list', function () {
})
.resolve();
Adding a main/root handler
router
.on(function () {
})
.resolve();
Adding multiple routes
router
.on({
'/products/list': function () { ... },
'/products': function () { ... },
...
})
.resolve();
The order of routes adding do matter. The URL which is added earlier and matches wins. For example:
router
.on({
'products/:id': function () {
setContent('Products');
},
'products': function () {
setContent('About');
},
'*': function () {
setContent('Home')
}
})
.resolve();
- Have in mind that the order of the added routes using this method does not matter anymore. However, if we add series of routes by calling
on
multiple times we should consider the order of the calls.
Parameterized URLs:
router
.on('/user/:id/:action', function (params) {
})
.resolve();
Accessing GET parameters
Every handler receives the GET parameters passed to the page.
router
.on('/user/:id/:action', function (params, query) {
})
.resolve();
In the case of the default handler and notFound
handler the function receives only query
as parameter. For example:
router.notFound(function (query) {
});
Using regular expression
router
.on(/users\/(\d+)\/(\w+)\/?/, function (id, action) {
})
.resolve();
Wild card is also supported:
router
.on('/user/*', function () {
})
.resolve();
Have in mind that every call of on
do not trigger a route check (anymore). You have to run resolve
method manually to get the routing works.
Not-found handler
router.notFound(function () {
});
Changing the page
Use the navigate
method:
router.navigate('/products/list');
You may also specify an absolute path. For example:
router.navigate('http://site.com/products/list', true);
If you want to bind page links to Navigo you have to add data-navigo
attribute. For example:
<a href="about" data-navigo>About</a>
(Have in mind that you have to fire updatePageLinks
every time when new links are placed on the page so Navigo does the binding for them.)
It's translated to:
var location = link.getAttribute('href');
...
link.addEventListener('click', e => {
e.preventDefault();
router.navigate(location);
});
Named routes
Use the following API to give a name to your route and later generate URLs:
router = new Navigo('http://site.com/', true);
router.on({
'/trip/:tripId/edit': { as: 'trip.edit', uses: handler },
'/trip/save': { as: 'trip.save', uses: handler },
'/trip/:action/:tripId': { as: 'trip.action', uses: handler }
});
console.log(router.generate('trip.edit', { tripId: 42 }));
console.log(router.generate('trip.action', { tripId: 42, action: 'save' }));
console.log(router.generate('trip.save'));
Resolving the routes
The resolving of the routes happen when resolve
method is fired which happen:
- if you manually run
router.resolve()
- every time when the page's URL changes
- if you call
navigate
Pausing the router
Sometimes you need to update the URL but you don't want to resolve your callbacks. In such cases you may call .pause()
and do .navigate('new/url/here')
. For example:
r.pause();
r.navigate('/en/products');
r.resume();
The route will be changed to /en/products
but if you have a handler for that path will not be executed.
Hooks
There is an API that allows you to run functions before firing a route handler. The hooks
object is in the format of:
{
before: function (done) { ... done(); },
after: function () { ... }
}
You may specify only one (or both) hooks. The before
hook accepts a function which you must invoke once you finish your job. Here is an examples:
router.on(
'/user/edit',
function () {
// show user edit page
},
{
before: function (done) {
// doing some async operation
done();
},
after: function () {
console.log('Data saved.');
}
}
);
You may prevent the handler to be resolved in the before
hook by invoking done(false)
:
router.on(
'/user/edit',
function () {
// show user edit page
},
{
before: function (done) {
if(!user.loggedIn) {
done(false);
} else {
done()
}
}
}
);
You may provide hooks in two other cases:
- While specifying a main/root handler
router.on(function() { ... }, hooks)
- While specifying a not-found page handler
router.notFound(function() { ... }, hooks)
API
router.on(function)
- adding handler for root/main routerouter.on(string, function)
- adding a new routerouter.on(object)
- adding a new routerouter.off(handler)
- removes the routes associated with the given handler/functionrouter.navigate(path='', absolute=false)
- if absolute
is false
then Navigo finds the root path of your app based on the provided routes.router.resolve(currentURL=undefined)
- if currentURL
is provided then the method tries resolving the registered routes to that URL and not window.location.href
.router.destroy
- removes all the registered routes and stops the URL change listening.router.link(path)
- it returns a full url of the given path
router.pause(boolean)
- it gives you a chance to change the route without resolving. Make sure that you call router.pause(false)
so you return to the previous working state.router.disableIfAPINotAvailable()
- well, it disables the route if History API is not supportedrouter.updatePageLinks()
- it triggers the data-navigo
links binding processrouter.notFound(function)
- adding a handler for not-found URL (404 page)router.lastRouteResolved()
- returns an object with the format of { url: <string>, query: <string> }
matching the latest resolved route
There are couple of static properties. You'll probably never need to touch them but here're they:
Navigo.PARAMETER_REGEXP = /([:*])(\w+)/g;
Navigo.WILDCARD_REGEXP = /\*/g;
Navigo.REPLACE_VARIABLE_REGEXP = '([^\/]+)';
Navigo.REPLACE_WILDCARD = '(?:.*)';
Navigo.FOLLOWED_BY_SLASH_REGEXP = '(?:\/$|$)';
Navigo.MATCH_REGEXP_FLAGS = '';
Navigo.MATCH_REGEXP_FLAGS
could be useful when you want a case insensitive route matching. Simple use Navigo.MATCH_REGEXP_FLAGS = 'i'
.
Tests
npm i
npm test
// or npm run test-chrome
// or npm run test-firefox
Inspiration
TODO
- A general handler for when Navigo matches some of the rules