Router based layout for Vue 3 applications using Vite

This works best along with the vite-plugin-pages.

Layouts are stored in the /src/layouts folder by default and are standard Vue components with a <router-view></router-view> in the template.

Pages without a layout specified use default.vue for their layout.

You can use route blocks to allow each page to determine its layout. The block below in a page will look for /src/layouts/users.vue for its layout.

See the Vitesse starter template for a working example.

<route lang="yaml">
meta:
  layout: users
</route>

Install Layouts:

$ npm install -D vite-plugin-vue-layouts

Add to your vite.config.js:

import Vue from '@vitejs/plugin-vue';
import Pages from 'vite-plugin-pages';
import Layouts from 'vite-plugin-vue-layouts';

export default {
  plugins: [Vue(), Pages(), Layouts()],
};

In main.ts, you need to add a few lines to import the generated code and setup the layouts.

import { createRouter } from 'vue-router'
import { setupLayouts } from 'virtual:generated-layouts'
import generatedRoutes from '~pages'

const routes = setupLayouts(generatedRoutes)

const router = createRouter({
  // ...
  routes,
});

import { createRouter } from 'vue-router/auto'
import { setupLayouts } from 'virtual:generated-layouts'

const router = createRouter({
  // ...
  extendRoutes: (routes) => setupLayouts(routes),
})

If you want type definition of virtual:generated-layouts, add vite-plugin-vue-layouts/client to compilerOptions.types of your tsconfig:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "types": ["vite-plugin-vue-layouts/client"]
  }
}

interface UserOptions {
  layoutsDirs?: string | string[]
  pagesDir?: string
  exclude: string[]
  defaultLayout?: string
}

To use custom configuration, pass your options to Layouts when instantiating the plugin:

// vite.config.js
import Layouts from 'vite-plugin-vue-layouts';

export default {
  plugins: [
    Layouts({
      layoutsDirs: 'src/mylayouts',
      pagesDir: 'src/pages',
      defaultLayout: 'myDefault'
    }),
  ],
};

Relative path to the layouts directory. Supports globs. All .vue files in this folder are imported async into the generated code.

Can also be an array of layout dirs

Can use ** to support scenarios like module1/layouts and modules2/layouts with a setting of src/**/layouts

Any files named __*__.vue will be excluded, and you can specify any additional exclusions with the exclude option

Default: 'src/layouts'

Defines the pages dir to avoid HMR reloading for all added or deleted files anywhere in the projet.

Relative path to the pages directory. If you want it to watch for all files, like in v0.8.0 or earlier, set to null.

Can also be an array of layout dirs or use ** glob patterns

Default: 'src/pages'

setupLayouts transforms the original router by

1. Replacing every page with its specified layout
2. Appending the original page in the children property.

Simply put, layouts are nested routes with the same path.

Before:

router: [ page1, page2, page3 ]

After setupLayouts():

router: [
  layoutA: page1,
  layoutB: page2,
  layoutA: page3,
]

That means you have the full flexibility of the vue-router API at your disposal.

Layouts and Transitions work as expected and explained in the vue-router docs only as long as Component changes on each route. So if you want a transition between pages with the same layout and a different layout, you have to mutate :key on <component> (for a detailed example, see the vue docs about transitions between elements).

App.vue

<template>
  <router-view v-slot="{ Component, route }">
    <transition name="slide">
      <component :is="Component" :key="route" />
    </transition>
  </router-view>
</template>

Now Vue will always trigger a transition if you change the route.

If you want to send data down from the layout to the page, use props

<router-view foo="bar" />

If you want to set state in your page and do something with it in your layout, add additional properties to a route's meta property. Doing so only works if you know the state at build-time.

You can use the <route> block if you work with vite-plugin-pages.

In page.vue:

<template><div>Content</div></template>
<route lang="yaml">
meta:
  layout: default
  bgColor: yellow
</route>

Now you can read bgColor in layout.vue:

<script setup>
import { useRouter } from 'vue-router'
</script>
<template>
  <div :style="`background: ${useRouter().currentRoute.value.meta.bgColor};`">
    <router-view />
  </div>
</template>

If you need to set bgColor dynamically at run-time, you can use custom events.

Emit the event in page.vue:

<script setup>
import { defineEmit } from 'vue'
const emit = defineEmit(['setColor'])

if (2 + 2 === 4)
  emit('setColor', 'green')
else
  emit('setColor', 'red')
</script>

Listen for setColor custom-event in layout.vue:

<script setup>
import { ref } from 'vue'

const bgColor = ref('yellow')
const setBg = (color) => {
  bgColor.value = color
}
</script>

<template>
  <main :style="`background: ${bgColor};`">
    <router-view @set-color="setBg" />
  </main>
</template>

The clientSideLayout uses a simpler virtual file + glob import scheme, This means that its hmr is faster and more accurate, but also more limited

// vite.config.js
import { ClientSideLayout } from 'vite-plugin-vue-layouts'

export default {
  plugins: [
    ClientSideLayout({
      layoutsDir: 'src/mylayouts', // default to 'src/layouts'
      defaultLayout: 'myDefault', // default to 'default', no need '.vue'
      importMode: 'sync' // The default will automatically detect -> ssg is sync，other is async
    }),
  ],
};