serialize-query-params

serialize-query-params

A library for simplifying encoding and decoding URL query parameters.

Installation | API | useQueryParams

Used in React with use-query-params.

Installation

Using npm:

$ npm install --save serialize-query-params

By default, serialize-query-params uses URLSearchParams to handle interpreting the location string, which means it does not decode null and has limited handling of other more advanced URL parameter configurations. If you want access to those features, add a third-party library like query-string and provide its functions to updateLocation and updateInLocation as needed.

API

• Param Types
• decodeQueryParams
• encodeQueryParams
• searchStringToObject
• objectToSearchString
• updateLocation
• updateInLocation
• Type Definitions
• Serialization Utility Functions

Param Types

See all param definitions here. You can define your own parameter types by creating an object with an encode and a decode function. See the existing definitions for examples.

Note that all null and empty values are typically treated as follows:

value	encoding
null	?foo
""	?foo=
undefined	? (removed from URL)

Examples in this table assume query parameter named qp.

Param	Type	Example Decoded	Example Encoded
StringParam	string	'foo'	?qp=foo
NumberParam	number	123	?qp=123
ObjectParam	{ key: string }	{ foo: 'bar', baz: 'zzz' }	?qp=foo-bar_baz-zzz
ArrayParam	string[]	['a','b','c']	?qp=a&qp=b&qp=c
JsonParam	any	{ foo: 'bar' }	?qp=%7B%22foo%22%3A%22bar%22%7D
DateParam	Date	Date(2019, 2, 1)	?qp=2019-03-01
DateTimeParam	Date	Date(2019, 2, 1)	?qp=2019-02-28T22:00:00.000Z
BooleanParam	boolean	true	?qp=1
NumericObjectParam	{ key: number }	{ foo: 1, bar: 2 }	?qp=foo-1_bar-2
DelimitedArrayParam	string[]	['a','b','c']	?qp=a_b_c'
DelimitedNumericArrayParam	number[]	[1, 2, 3]	?qp=1_2_3'

Enum Param

You can define enum param using createEnumParam. It works as StringParam but restricts decoded output to a list of allowed strings:

import { createEnumParam } from 'serialize-query-params';

// values other than 'asc' or 'desc' will be decoded as undefined
const SortOrderEnumParam = createEnumParam(['asc', 'desc'])

Array Enum Param

You can define array enum param using createEnumArrayParam or createEnumDelimitedArrayParam. It will restricts decoded output to a list of allowed values.

import { createEnumArrayParam } from 'serialize-query-params';

// feel free to use Enum instead of union types
type Color = 'red' | 'green' | 'blue'

// values other than 'red', 'green' or 'blue' will be decoded as undefined
const ColorArrayEnumParam = createEnumArrayParam<Color[]>(['red', 'green', 'blue'])

Setting a default value

If you'd like to have a default value, you can wrap your param with withDefault():

import { withDefault, ArrayParam } from 'serialize-query-params';

// by default, nulls are converted to defaults
const NeverNullArrayParam = withDefault(ArrayParam, []);

// if you don't want nulls to be included, pass false as a third arg
const NeverUndefinedArrayParam = withDefault(ArrayParam, [], false);

Example with Custom Param

You can define your own params if the ones shipped with this package don't work for you. There are included serialization utility functions to make this easier, but you can use whatever you like.

import {
  encodeDelimitedArray,
  decodeDelimitedArray
} from 'serialize-query-params';

/** Uses a comma to delimit entries. e.g. ['a', 'b'] => qp?=a,b */
const CommaArrayParam = {
  encode: (array: string[] | null | undefined): string | undefined => 
    encodeDelimitedArray(array, ','),

  decode: (arrayStr: string | string[] | null | undefined): string[] | undefined => 
    decodeDelimitedArray(arrayStr, ',')
};

decodeQueryParams

decodeQueryParams<QPCMap extends QueryParamConfigMap>(
  paramConfigMap: QPCMap,
  encodedQuery: Partial<EncodedValueMap<QPCMap>>
): DecodedValueMap<QPCMap>

Convert the values in query from strings to their natural types via the decode functions configured in paramConfigMap.

Example

import {
  stringify,
  decodeQueryParams,
  NumberParam,
  DelimitedArrayParam
} from 'serialize-query-params';

// encode each parameter according to the configuration
const decodedQuery = decodeQueryParams(
  { foo: NumberParam, bar: DelimitedArrayParam },
  { foo: '123', bar: 'a_b' }
);
// produces: { foo: 123, bar: ['a', 'b'] }

encodeQueryParams

encodeQueryParams<QPCMap extends QueryParamConfigMap>(
  paramConfigMap: QPCMap,
  query: Partial<ToBeEncodedValueMap<QPCMap>>
): Partial<EncodedValueMap<QPCMap>>

Convert the values in query to strings via the encode functions configured in paramConfigMap. This can be useful for constructing links using decoded query parameters.

Example

import {
  encodeQueryParams,
  DelimitedArrayParam,
  NumberParam,
} from 'serialize-query-params';
import { stringify } from 'query-string';

// encode each parameter according to the configuration
const encodedQuery = encodeQueryParams(
  { foo: NumberParam, bar: DelimitedArrayParam },
  { foo: 123, bar: ['a', 'b'] }
);
// produces: { foo: '123', bar: 'a_b' }

const link = `/?${stringify(encodedQuery)}`;

searchStringToObject

function searchStringToObject(searchString: string): EncodedQuery 

Default implementation of searchStringToObject powered by URLSearchParams This converts a search string like ?foo=123&bar=x to { foo: '123', bar: 'x' } This is only a very basic version, you may prefer the advanced versions offered by third party libraries like query-string ("parse") or qs.

Example

import { searchStringToObject } from 'serialize-query-params';

const obj = searchStringToObject('?foo=a&bar=x&foo=z');
// -> { foo: ['a', 'z'], bar: 'x'}

objectToSearchString

function objectToSearchString(encodedParams: EncodedQuery): string 

Default implementation of objectToSearchString powered by URLSearchParams. Does not support null values. Does not prefix with "?" This converts an object { foo: '123', bar: 'x' } to a search string ?foo=123&bar=x This is only a very basic version, you may prefer the advanced versions offered by third party libraries like query-string ("stringify") or qs.

Example

import { objectToSearchString } from 'serialize-query-params';

const obj = objectToSearchString({ foo: ['a', 'z'], bar: 'x' });
// '?foo=a&foo=z&bar=x'

updateLocation

function updateLocation(
  encodedQuery: EncodedQuery,
  location: Location,
  objectToSearchStringFn = objectToSearchString
): Location {

Creates a new location-like object with the new query string (the search field) based on the encoded query parameters passed in via encodedQuery. Parameters not specified in encodedQuery will be dropped from the URL.

Example

import { updateLocation } from 'serialize-query-params';

// location has search: ?foo=123&bar=abc
const newLocation = updateLocation({ foo: '555' }, location);

// newLocation has search: ?foo=555
// note that unspecified query parameters (bar in this case) are not retained.

updateInLocation

function updateInLocation(
  encodedQueryReplacements: EncodedQuery,
  location: Location,
  objectToSearchStringFn = objectToSearchString,
  searchStringToObjectFn = searchStringToObject
): Location {

Creates a new location-like object with the new query string (the search field) based on the encoded query parameters passed in via encodedQueryReplacements. Only parameters specified in encodedQueryReplacements are affected by this update, all other parameters are retained.

Example

import { updateInLocation } from 'serialize-query-params';

// location has search: ?foo=123&bar=abc
const newLocation = updateLocation({ foo: '555' }, location);

// newLocation has search: ?foo=555&bar=abc
// note that unspecified query parameters (bar in this case) are retained.

Development

Run the typescript compiler in watch mode:

npm run dev

Similar packages

Other packages similar to serialize-query-params

qs

The `qs` package is a query string parser and stringifier with support for nested objects, arrays, and other advanced features. It is more feature-rich compared to serialize-query-params, offering more customization options for parsing and stringifying query parameters.

query-string

The `query-string` package provides methods for parsing and stringifying URL query strings. It is similar to serialize-query-params but offers additional features like sorting keys and handling arrays and nested objects more gracefully.

url-search-params

The `url-search-params` package is a polyfill for the URLSearchParams API, which provides methods to work with the query string of a URL. It is a more modern approach and is built into modern browsers, making it a good alternative for environments that support it.