Vue router back button

A simple VueJS package to extend vue-router with a back button.

Why? I could just add "history.back()"

Sure thing, but the in browser history does not account for programatic navigation. This is where vue-router-back-button comes in. This package does not just sends you to the previous route. Instead it tracks your navigation and sends you back to where you came from.

Regular

Overview page > show page > edit page After save, a programatic navigation to show page > go back will take you to edit page

Vue-router-back-button

Overview page > show page > edit page After save, a programatic navigation to show page > go back will take you to overview page as intented

Dependencies

• vue >2.3.3
• vue-router >2.6.0

Setup

npm install vue-router-back-button --save-dev

Tell Vue to use routerHistory and add writeHistory as Global After Hook.

import Vue from 'vue'
import Router from 'vue-router'
import { routerHistory, writeHistory } from 'vue-router-back-button'

Vue.use(Router)
Vue.use(routerHistory)

const router = new Router({
    routes: []
})

router.afterEach(writeHistory)

Usage

Going back

You can add this anywhere in your app as $routerHistory is installed globally. If you can't go back, $routerHistory.previous().path will return null.

<router-link
    v-if="$routerHistory.hasPrevious()"
    :to="{ path: $routerHistory.previous().path }">
    GO BACK
</router-link>

Going forward

If you went back, you might want to undo that action right? Well now you can go forward as well!

<router-link
    v-if="$routerHistory.hasForward()"
    :to="{ path: $routerHistory.next().path }">
    GO FORWARD
</router-link>

Documentation

Function	Description
previous ()	Returns the previous visited path in an object
hasPrevious()	Returns true if the user can go back
next ()	Returns the next visited path in an object, this happens when a user went back
hasForward ()	Returns true if the user can go forward

TODO

• Add an es5 build for people who sadly aren't using es6
• Add Testing

Feel free to send PR's or request new features (I'll might need to rename this to vue-router-history if you do though)

Author

Maxim Vanhove Web developer at Starring Jane