yew-nav-link 0.9.3

Navigation link component for Yew with automatic active state detection
Documentation

yew-nav-link

Enterprise-grade navigation library for Yew — automatic active state detection and a complete component system.

🌐 Live demo →

CI Pages Crates.io docs.rs Downloads MSRV License: MIT REUSE Codecov

Table of Contents

Overview

yew-nav-link is a comprehensive navigation library for the Yew web framework. It provides:

Feature Description
NavLink Drop-in replacement for Yew Router's <Link> with automatic active class detection
Component System 15+ ready-to-use UI components (tabs, dropdowns, pagination, badges, icons)
Hooks Reactive hooks for route state, active checking, breadcrumbs, and programmatic navigation
Utilities Path manipulation, URL encoding, keyboard navigation, and query string handling
Customization Custom CSS classes, programmatic navigation, and extensible breadcrumb providers

The core NavLink component eliminates manual active state tracking. It compares the current route against the target on every render and applies the active CSS class automatically — zero configuration required.

Installation

[dependencies]
yew-nav-link = "0.9"

Requirements

Dependency Version
Rust 1.95+
Edition 2024
Yew 0.23+
yew-router 0.20+

Quick Start

Component Syntax

use yew::prelude::*;
use yew_nav_link::NavLink;
use yew_router::prelude::*;

#[derive(Clone, PartialEq, Routable)]
enum Route {
    #[at("/")]
    Home,
    #[at("/about")]
    About,
}

#[component]
fn Navigation() -> Html {
    html! {
        <nav>
            <NavLink<Route> to={Route::Home}>{ "Home" }</NavLink<Route>>
            <NavLink<Route> to={Route::About}>{ "About" }</NavLink<Route>>
        </nav>
    }
}

When the user visits /about, the second link automatically receives class="nav-link active".

Function Syntax

use yew::prelude::*;
use yew_nav_link::{nav_link, Match};
use yew_router::prelude::*;

#[component]
fn Menu() -> Html {
    html! {
        <nav>
            { nav_link(Route::Home, "Home", Match::Exact) }
            { nav_link(Route::Docs, "Docs", Match::Partial) }
        </nav>
    }
}

Partial Matching

Keep parent links highlighted on nested routes:

html! {
    <nav>
        // Active on /docs, /docs/api, /docs/anything
        <NavLink<Route> to={Route::Docs} partial=true>{ "Docs" }</NavLink<Route>>
    </nav>
}

Partial matching is segment-aware: /docs matches /docs/api but not /documentation.

Custom CSS Classes

Customize the default nav-link and active classes:

html! {
    <nav>
        // Custom base class
        <NavLink<Route> to={Route::Home} class="menu-item">{ "Home" }</NavLink<Route>>
        
        // Custom active class
        <NavLink<Route> to={Route::About} active_class="is-selected">{ "About" }</NavLink<Route>>
        
        // Both custom
        <NavLink<Route> to={Route::Contact} class="sidebar-link" active_class="highlighted">{ "Contact" }</NavLink<Route>>
    </nav>
}

Programmatic Navigation

use_navigation::<R>() returns a [Navigation<R>] handle exposing pre-built Callbacks — no manual Callback::from(...) boilerplate.

use yew::prelude::*;
use yew_nav_link::use_navigation;

#[component]
fn MyComponent() -> Html {
    let nav = use_navigation::<Route>();

    html! {
        <>
            // Push a new entry onto the history stack.
            <button onclick={nav.push_callback(Route::About).reform(|_: MouseEvent| ())}>
                { "Go to About" }
            </button>

            // Replace the current entry without growing history.
            <button onclick={nav.replace_callback(Route::Home).reform(|_: MouseEvent| ())}>
                { "Replace with Home" }
            </button>

            // Browser back / forward.
            <button onclick={nav.go_back.reform(|_: MouseEvent| ())}>{ "Back" }</button>
            <button onclick={nav.go_forward.reform(|_: MouseEvent| ())}>{ "Forward" }</button>
        </>
    }
}

Custom Breadcrumb Providers

Implement [BreadcrumbLabelProvider] to control how each path segment is rendered. The provider operates on paths (e.g. /docs/api), not on Routable enum variants — it works the same for static and parameterised routes.

use std::rc::Rc;
use yew_nav_link::{BreadcrumbLabelProvider, use_breadcrumbs};

struct MyLabels;

impl BreadcrumbLabelProvider for MyLabels {
    fn label_for_path(&self, path: &str) -> String {
        match path {
            "/" => "Home".into(),
            "/about" => "About us".into(),
            p if p.starts_with("/users/") => format!("User {}", &p[7..]),
            other => other.into(),
        }
    }
}

#[component]
fn Crumbs() -> Html {
    // Provide the implementation through context (omitted for brevity);
    // then read the trail.
    let trail = use_breadcrumbs::<Route>();

    html! {
        <nav aria-label="Breadcrumb">
            { for trail.into_iter().map(|item| html! {
                <span aria-current={if item.is_active { "page" } else { "" }}>
                    { item.label }
                </span>
            }) }
        </nav>
    }
}

Components

Core Navigation

Component Purpose
NavLink<R> Navigation link with automatic active state
[NavList] Accessible navigation list container (<ul> with ARIA)
[NavItem] Navigation list item (<li>)
[NavDivider] Visual separator between navigation groups

UI Components

Component Purpose
[NavBadge] Badge/counter for navigation items
[NavHeader] Section header for navigation groups
[NavText] Plain text element within navigation
[NavIcon] Icon with configurable size
[NavLinkWithIcon] Link with integrated icon
[NavDropdown] Dropdown menu with items and dividers
[NavTabs] Tabbed navigation container
[NavTab] Individual tab with active state
[NavTabPanel] Content panel for tabs
[Pagination] Page navigation controls
[PageItem] Individual page indicator
[PageLink] Clickable page link

Hooks

Hook Returns Description
use_route_info() RouteInfo<R> Current route, path, and query parameters
use_is_active(route) bool Whether the given route is currently active
use_is_exact_active(route) bool Whether the route matches exactly
use_is_partial_active(route) bool Whether the route is a prefix of the current path
use_breadcrumbs() Vec<BreadcrumbItem<R>> Auto-generated breadcrumb trail from current route
use_navigation<R>() Navigation<R> Programmatic navigation (push, replace, go back/forward)
use_query_params() HashMap<String, String> URL query string parameters

Utilities

Function Description
is_absolute(path) Check if a path starts with /
join_paths(a, b) Join two path segments safely
normalize_path(path) Remove duplicate slashes and trailing slashes
urlencoding_encode(s) Percent-encode a string for URLs
urlencoding_decode(s) Decode a percent-encoded string
handle_arrow_key(config, key) Keyboard navigation handler
handle_home_end(config, key) Home/End key handler for navigation

CSS Integration

Bootstrap 5

Works out of the box — nav-link and active are native Bootstrap classes.

<ul class="nav nav-pills">
    <li class="nav-item">
        <NavLink<Route> to={Route::Home}>{ "Home" }</NavLink<Route>>
        <!-- Renders: <a class="nav-link active" href="/">Home</a> -->
    </li>
</ul>

Tailwind CSS

Define your own nav-link and active styles:

.nav-link {
    @apply px-4 py-2 text-gray-600 hover:text-gray-900 transition-colors;
}
.nav-link.active {
    @apply text-blue-600 font-semibold border-b-2 border-blue-600;
}

Architecture

yew-nav-link
├── active_link       # Core NavLink component + Match enum
├── nav               # Primitives: NavList, NavItem, NavDivider
├── components        # UI: Badge, Dropdown, Icon, Tabs, Pagination
├── hooks             # Reactive and programmatic route/navigation helpers
├── utils             # Path, URL, keyboard navigation utilities
├── attrs             # Type-safe attribute builders
└── errors            # NavError, NavResult types

See the source code and inline documentation for detailed design documentation.

Examples

A live demo is published at https://raprogramm.github.io/yew-nav-link/. It exercises every component, hook, and utility in the public API.

Run the same demo locally:

rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown
cargo install trunk

cd example
trunk serve

Open http://127.0.0.1:3000 (port set in example/trunk.toml).

API Reference

NavLink<R>

Prop Type Default Description
to R: Routable required Target route
children Children required Link content
partial bool false Enable prefix matching
class &str "nav-link" Custom CSS class (replaces default)
active_class &str "active" Custom active state class

Match

Variant Behavior
Exact Active only on exact path match
Partial Active when current path starts with target (segment-wise)

nav_link<R> Function

fn nav_link<R: Routable + PartialEq + Clone + 'static>(
    to: R,
    children: &str,
    match_mode: Match,
) -> Html

BreadcrumbItem

pub struct BreadcrumbItem {
    pub label: String,
    pub route: Option<String>,
    pub is_current: bool,
}

Migration Guides

For a full release-by-release log, see CHANGELOG.md.

From To Notes
0.8.x 0.9.x Macro feature removed; component/function APIs unchanged. See CHANGELOG [0.9.0].
0.9.0 0.9.1 Single-file SPA demo replaces the multi-page docs site under example/; library API unchanged.
0.9.1 0.9.2 BreadcrumbLabelProvider now re-exported at the crate root. Drop-in upgrade.

Target: 95%+ coverage, tracked via Codecov.

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the contribution workflow and code standards.

License

Licensed under the MIT License.