vue-url-state

A Vue 3 composable for syncing reactive state with URL query parameters. Automatically keeps your component state in sync with the URL, making it perfect for search filters, pagination, tabs, and other stateful UI components that should be bookmarkable and shareable.

Features

• 🔄 Bidirectional sync - Component state ↔ URL query parameters
• 🎯 Type-safe - Full TypeScript support with proper type inference
• 🚀 Vue 3 + Vue Router 4 - Built specifically for the modern Vue ecosystem
• 🎛️ Flexible parsing - Supports strings, numbers, booleans, and arrays
• ⚡ Debounced updates - Prevents excessive URL updates
• 🔧 Customizable - Custom parsers and serializers for complex data types
• 📦 Lightweight - Zero dependencies beyond the Vue ecosystem

Requirements

• Vue 3.x
• Vue Router 4.x (required: this composable will not work without Vue Router)

Table of Contents

• Demo
• Installation
• Basic Usage
• Supported Types
• Examples
• Advanced Usage
• API Reference
• Options
• Type Safety
• License
• Contributing

Demo

Try it live on CodeSandbox: vue-url-state Demo

Installation

npm install vue-url-state

Basic Usage

<template>
  <div>
    <input v-model="searchTerm" placeholder="Search..." />
    <p>Search term: {{ searchTerm }}</p>
  </div>
</template>

<script setup>
import { useQueryState } from 'vue-url-state'

// Syncs with ?search=... in URL
const searchTerm = useQueryState('search', '')
</script>

Supported Types

The composable automatically handles type conversion for:

• string - Direct string values
• number - Parsed from string to number
• boolean - 'true'/'false' string conversion
• string[] - Array of strings
• number[] - Array of numbers parsed from strings
• null - Removes parameter from URL when null

Examples

Search with Debouncing

<script setup>
import { useQueryState } from 'vue-url-state'

const searchTerm = useQueryState('q', '', {
  debounce: 300 // Wait 300ms before updating URL
})
</script>

Pagination

<script setup>
import { useQueryState } from 'vue-url-state'

const currentPage = useQueryState('page', 1)
const pageSize = useQueryState('size', 10)
</script>

Filters with Arrays

<script setup>
import { useQueryState } from 'vue-url-state'

const selectedTags = useQueryState('tags', [])
const selectedIds = useQueryState('ids', [0]) // Array of numbers
</script>

Boolean Toggles

<script setup>
import { useQueryState } from 'vue-url-state'

const showAdvanced = useQueryState('advanced', false)
const isPublished = useQueryState('published', true)
</script>

Replace vs Push Navigation

<script setup>
import { useQueryState } from 'vue-url-state'

// Default: adds to browser history
const searchTerm = useQueryState('search', '')

// Replace: replaces current history entry
const filterTerm = useQueryState('filter', '', {
  replace: true
})
</script>

Advanced Usage

Custom Parsers and Serializers

<script setup>
import { useQueryState } from 'vue-url-state'

// Custom date handling
const selectedDate = useQueryState('date', new Date(), {
  parse: (val) => val ? new Date(val) : new Date(),
  serialize: (date) => date.toISOString().split('T')[0]
})

// Custom object handling
const userPrefs = useQueryState('prefs', { theme: 'light', lang: 'en' }, {
  parse: (val) => {
    try {
      return val ? JSON.parse(val) : { theme: 'light', lang: 'en' }
    } catch {
      return { theme: 'light', lang: 'en' }
    }
  },
  serialize: (obj) => JSON.stringify(obj)
})
</script>

Complete Search Example

<template>
  <div>
    <input v-model="searchTerm" placeholder="Search..." />
    <select v-model="category">
      <option value="">All Categories</option>
      <option value="posts">Posts</option>
      <option value="users">Users</option>
    </select>
    <label>
      <input v-model="showAdvanced" type="checkbox" />
      Show Advanced Options
    </label>
    <div v-if="showAdvanced">
      <input v-model="minPrice" type="number" placeholder="Min Price" />
      <input v-model="maxPrice" type="number" placeholder="Max Price" />
    </div>
    <button @click="currentPage = 1">Reset Page</button>
    <div>Page: {{ currentPage }}</div>
  </div>
</template>

<script setup>
import { useQueryState } from 'vue-url-state'

const searchTerm = useQueryState('q', '', { debounce: 300 })
const category = useQueryState('category', '')
const showAdvanced = useQueryState('advanced', false)
const minPrice = useQueryState('min', 0)
const maxPrice = useQueryState('max', 1000)
const currentPage = useQueryState('page', 1)
</script>

API Reference

useQueryState(key, defaultValue, options)

Main composable function for syncing state with URL query parameters.

Parameters:

• key - The query parameter key
• defaultValue - Default value and type inference
• options - Configuration options

Returns: Ref<T> - Reactive reference synced with URL

defaultParser(defaultValue)

Utility function that creates a default parser based on the default value type.

import { defaultParser, defaultSerializer } from 'vue-url-state'

const customParser = defaultParser('') // Creates a string parser
const result = customParser('hello') // Returns 'hello'

defaultSerializer(defaultValue)

Utility function that creates a default serializer based on the default value type.

import { defaultSerializer } from 'vue-url-state'

const customSerializer = defaultSerializer('')
const result = customSerializer('hello') // Returns 'hello'

Types

import type { SupportedType, UseQueryStateOptions } from 'vue-url-state'

// SupportedType = string | number | boolean | string[] | number[] | null
// UseQueryStateOptions<T> = { parse?, serialize?, replace?, debounce? }

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
parse	(val: string | string[] | null | undefined) => T	Auto-generated	Custom parser for converting URL values to your type
serialize	(val: T) => string | string[] | null	Auto-generated	Custom serializer for converting your type to URL values
replace	boolean	false	Use router.replace() instead of router.push()
debounce	number	0	Debounce delay in milliseconds before updating URL

Type Safety

The composable provides full TypeScript support with automatic type inference:

const searchTerm = useQueryState('search', '') // Ref<string>
const count = useQueryState('count', 0) // Ref<number>
const isActive = useQueryState('active', false) // Ref<boolean>
const tags = useQueryState('tags', ['']) // Ref<string[]>
const ids = useQueryState('ids', [0]) // Ref<number[]>

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a pull request or open an issue if you have suggestions, bug reports, or feature requests. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

If you have questions or need help, feel free to reach out!