The package @wordpress/interactivity-router enables loading content from other pages without a full page reload. Currently, the only supported mode is “region-based”. Full “client-side navigation” is still in experimental phase.

The package defines an Interactivity API store with the core/router namespace, exposing state and 2 actions: navigate and prefetch to handle client-side navigation.

The @wordpress/interactivity-router package was introduced in WordPress Core in v6.5. This means this package is already bundled in Core in any version of WordPress higher than v6.5.

Usage

The package is intended to be imported dynamically in the view.js files of interactive blocks. This is done in in order to reduce the JS bundle size on the initial page load.

/* view.js */

import { store, withSyncEvent } from '@wordpress/interactivity';

// This is how you would typically use the navigate() action in your block.
store( 'my-namespace/myblock', {
    actions: {
        // The withSyncEvent() utility needs to be used because preventDefault() requires synchronous event access.
        goToPage: withSyncEvent( function* ( e ) {
            e.preventDefault();

            // We import the package dynamically to reduce the initial JS bundle size.
            // Async actions are defined as generators so the import() must be called with `yield`.
            const { actions } = yield import(
                '@wordpress/interactivity-router'
            );
            yield actions.navigate( e.target.href );
        } ),
    },
} );

Now, you can call actions.navigate() in your block’s view.js file to navigate to a different page or e.g. pass it to a data-wp-on--click attribute.

When loaded, this package adds the following state and actions to the core/router store:

const { state, actions } = store( 'core/router', {
    state: {
        url: window.location.href,
    },
    actions: {
        *navigate(href, options) {...},
        prefetch(url, options) {...},
    }
})

Directives

data-wp-router-region

It defines a region that is updated on navigation. It requires a unique ID as the value and must be used alongside data-wp-interactive to receive the proper namespace. Router regions can be placed anywhere within interactive regions, including nested interactive elements.

The value can be a string with the region ID, or a JSON object containing the id and an optional attachTo property.

Example:

<div data-wp-interactive="myblock" data-wp-router-region="main-list">
    <ul>
        <li><a href="/post-1">Post 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="/post-2">Post 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="/post-3">Post 3</a></li>
    </ul>
    <a data-wp-on--click="actions.navigate" href="/page/2">Page 2</a>
</div>

The attachTo property is a CSS selector that points to the parent element where the new router region should be rendered. This is useful for regions that may not exist on the initial page but are present on subsequent pages, like a modal or an overlay.

When navigating between pages:

• If a region exists on both the current and the new page, its content is updated. attachTo is ignored in this case.
• If a region without attachTo exists on the new page but not on the current one, it is not added to the DOM.
• If a region with attachTo exists on the new page but not on the current one, it is created and appended to the parent element specified in attachTo.
• If a region exists on the current page but not on the new one, it is removed from the DOM. attachTo is ignored in this case.

Example with attachTo:

<div
    data-wp-interactive="myblock"
    data-wp-router-region='{ "id": "myblock/overlay", "attachTo": "body" }'
>
    I'm in a new region!
</div>

Actions

navigate

Navigates to the specified page.

This function normalizes the passed href, fetches the page HTML if needed, and updates any interactive regions whose contents have changed in the new page. It also creates a new entry in the browser session history.

Params

navigate( href: string, options: NavigateOptions = {} )

• href: The page href.
• options: Options object.
  • force: If true, it forces re-fetching the URL. navigate() always caches the page, so if the page has been navigated to before, it will be used. Default is false.
  • html: HTML string to be used instead of fetching the requested URL.
  • replace: If true, it replaces the current entry in the browser session history. Default is false.
  • timeout: Time until the navigation is aborted, in milliseconds. Default is 10000.
  • loadingAnimation: Whether an animation should be shown while navigating. Default to true.
  • screenReaderAnnouncement: Whether a message for screen readers should be announced while navigating. Default to true.

prefetch

Prefetches the page for the passed URL. The page is cached and can be used for navigation.

The function normalizes the URL and stores internally the fetch promise, to avoid triggering a second fetch for an ongoing request.

Params

prefetch( url: string, options: PrefetchOptions = {} )

• url: The page url.
• options: Options object.
  • force: If true, forces fetching the URL again.
  • html: HTML string to be used instead of fetching the requested URL.

State

state.url is a reactive property synchronized with the current URL.

Installation

Install the module:

npm install @wordpress/interactivity-router --save

This step is only required if you use the Interactivity API outside WordPress.

Within WordPress, the package is already bundled in Core. To ensure it’s enqueued, add @wordpress/interactivity-router to the dependency array of the script module. This process is often done automatically with tools like wp-scripts.

Furthermore, this package assumes your code will run in an ES2015+ environment. If you’re using an environment with limited or no support for such language features and APIs, you should include the polyfill shipped in @wordpress/babel-preset-default in your code.

License

Interactivity API proposal, as part of Gutenberg and the WordPress project is free software, and is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 or (at your option) any later version. See LICENSE.md for complete license.