Vue ScrollBehavior with TypeScript

Introduction

Vue ScrollBehavior is a feature provided by the Vue Router library that allows you to customize the scrolling behavior when navigating through your Vue.js application. This is especially useful when you have long pages with anchor links or when you want to control the scrolling position when going back and forth between different routes.

In this guide, we will explore how to use Vue ScrollBehavior with TypeScript, ensuring that our code is type-safe and fully compatible with Vue Router's API.

Prerequisites

To follow along with this guide, you should have a basic understanding of Vue.js, TypeScript, and have a Vue project already set up with Vue Router.

Installation

First, make sure that you have Vue Router installed in your project:

npm install vue-router

Configuring ScrollBehavior

1. Create a new file (e.g., scrollBehavior.ts) and import the necessary dependencies:

import { ScrollBehavior, Route } from 'vue-router'

2. Define the type for your scroll behavior function:

const scrollBehavior: ScrollBehavior = (
  to: Route,
  from: Route,
  savedPosition: { x: number; y: number } | void
): { x: number; y: number } | { selector: string; offset?: { x: number; y: number } } | void => {
  // Scroll behavior logic goes here
}

Note that the function should return either an object with x and y properties specifying the scroll position or an object with selector property indicating the anchor element to scroll to.

3. Implement your desired scroll behavior logic:

const scrollBehavior: ScrollBehavior = (to, from, savedPosition) => {
  if (savedPosition) {
    return savedPosition
  } else if (to.hash) {
    const element = document.getElementById(to.hash.slice(1))
    if (element) {
      return { selector: to.hash }
    }
  }
  return { x: 0, y: 0 }
}

export default scrollBehavior

In this example, if a saved position exists (e.g., when navigating back using the browser's history), it will be returned as-is. If the route has a hash, it will find the corresponding element and scroll to it. Otherwise, it will scroll to the top of the page.

4. Finally, in your router configuration file (e.g., router.ts), import the scrollBehavior function and set it as the value for the scrollBehavior property:

import Vue from 'vue'
import Router, { RouteConfig } from 'vue-router'
import scrollBehavior from './scrollBehavior'

Vue.use(Router)

const routes: RouteConfig[] = [
  // Define your routes here
]

const router = new Router({
  mode: 'history',
  base: process.env.BASE_URL,
  routes,
  scrollBehavior,
})

export default router

Conclusion

By utilizing Vue ScrollBehavior with TypeScript, you can have full control over the scrolling behavior in your Vue.js application. Its flexibility allows you to implement custom logic for scrolling to anchor links or specifying the scroll position when navigating between routes. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you will ensure a type-safe implementation and enhance the user experience of your Vue application.