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

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

import Vue from 'vue'
import Router from 'vue-router'
import VueRouterBackButton from 'vue-router-back-button'

Vue.use(Router)

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

Vue.use(VueRouterBackButton, { router })

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>

Navigate without saving it to the history

Sometimes you don't want to store a programmatic navigation in the history because users should not get back to it.

Use router.replace('/path') instead of router.push('/path')

Ignoring routes with the same name

If you want to ignore routes with the same name, just set the ignoreRoutesWithSameName option to true

Vue.use(VueRouterBackButton, {
    router,
    ignoreRoutesWithSameName: true,
})

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

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)

Nuxt support

Add a new plugin file: ~/plugins/vue-router-back-button.js

import Vue from 'vue';
import VueRouterBackButton from 'vue-router-back-button'

export default ({ app }) => {
    Vue.use(VueRouterBackButton, { router: app.router });
};

Add the reference to the plugins section of nuxt.config.js

...
  plugins: [
    ...
    { mode: 'client', src: '~plugins/vue-router-back-button.js' },
    ...
  ],
...

Now you just need to use nuxt-link instead of router-link

<template>
    <nuxt-link :to="to">
        &#8592; Back
    </nuxt-link>
</template>

<script>
export default {
    computed: {
        to () {
            if (this.client || !this.$routerHistory || !this.$routerHistory.hasPrevious()) {
                // probably ssr, or hasn't navigated yet.
                return { path: '/' };
            }

            return { path: this.$routerHistory.previous().path };
        },
    },
};
</script>

Author

Maxim Vanhove Web developer at Starring Jane

MaximVanhove / vue-router-back-button