yew-nav-link

May 12, 2026 · View on GitHub

yew-nav-link

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

🌐 Live demo → — 📖 Architectural book →

Overview
Installation
Requirements
Quick Start
Components
CSS Integration
- Bootstrap 5
- Tailwind CSS
Architecture
Examples
API Reference
Migration Guides
Coverage
Contributing
License

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>
}

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>
        </>
    }
}

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

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

For why the crate is shaped this way — the trade-offs picked over each alternative — see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the overview and docs/adr/ for individual architecture decision records.

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,
}

Project documentation

File	Purpose
Architectural book	Rendered mdBook of the documents below — search, syntax-highlighting, navigation. Source lives under `docs/`.
`docs/REQUIREMENTS.md`	Functional and non-functional requirements (what the crate does, the constraints under which it does it)
`docs/ARCHITECTURE.md`	Module layout, the active-state algorithm, hook contracts, breadcrumb context flow
`docs/ROADMAP.md`	Trajectory through 0.10.x (current line) toward 1.0 (API freeze)
`docs/BRANCHING.md`	Branching, commit, and merge policy enforced on `main`
`SECURITY.md`	Coordinated disclosure policy
`CONTRIBUTING.md`	Workflow, commit format, code standards

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.

Coverage

Target: 95%+ coverage, tracked via Codecov.

yew-nav-link

yew-nav-link

Table of Contents

Overview

Installation

Requirements

Quick Start

Component Syntax

Function Syntax

Partial Matching

Custom CSS Classes

Programmatic Navigation

Components

Core Navigation

UI Components

Hooks

Utilities

CSS Integration

Bootstrap 5

Tailwind CSS

Architecture

Examples

API Reference

`NavLink<R>`

`Match`

`nav_link<R>` Function

`BreadcrumbItem`

Project documentation

Migration Guides

Coverage

Sunburst

Grid

Icicle

Contributing

License