Package Exports

state-in-url
state-in-url/encodeState
state-in-url/encoder
state-in-url/next
state-in-url/useSharedState
state-in-url/useUrlEncode
state-in-url/useUrlStateBase
state-in-url/utils

Readme

Easily share state between unrelated React components, with IDE autocomplete and TS validation. Without any hasssle or boilerplate.

npm bundle size (minified + gzip)

Don't hesitate to open an issue if you found a bug, or for requesting features

Demo-gif

DEMO | DEMO2 | Demo on Codesandbox

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Why use state-in-url?

state-in-url Simple state management with optional URL sync. Share complex states between unrelated React components, TS-friendly, NextJS compatible. Most of users don't care about URL, so, can use it to store your app state.

Use cases

🧮 Store unsaved user forms in URL
🙃 Share the state between different components without changing url, good as alternative to signals and other state management tools
🧠 Sync data between unrelated client components
🔗 Shareable URLs with full application state
🔄 Easy state persistence across page reloads

Features

🧩 Simple: No providers, reducers, boilerplate or new concepts, API similar to React.useState
📘 Typescript support and type Safety: Preserves data types and structure, good developer experience with IDE suggestions, strong typing and JSDoc comments
⚛️ Framework Flexibility: Separate hooks for Next.js and React.js applications, and functions for pure JS
⚙ Well tested: Unit tests and Playwright tests, high quality and support
⚡ Fast: Minimal rerenders
🪶 Lightweight: Zero dependencies for a smaller footprint

Table of content

Installation
useUrlState for Next.js
useUrlStateBase for other routers
useSharedState hook for React.js/Next.js
useUrlEncode for React.js
encodeState and decodeState for pure JS usage
auto sync state with url
Low-level encode and decode functions
Best practices
Gothas
Roadmap
Contact & Support
Changelog
License
Inspiration

installation

1. Install package

# npm
npm install --save state-in-url
# yarn
yarn add state-in-url
# pnpm
pnpm add state-in-url

2. Edit tsconfig.json

In tsconfig.json in compilerOptions set "moduleResolution": "Bundler", or"moduleResolution": "Node16", or "moduleResolution": "NodeNext". Possibly need to set "module": "ES2022", or "module": "ESNext"

useUrlState hook for Next.js

Docs

useUrlState is a custom React hook for Next.js applications that make communication between client components easy. It allows you to share any complex state and sync it with the URL search parameters, providing a way to persist state across page reloads and share application state via URLs.

Usage examples

Basic

Define state shape

// userState.ts
// State shape should be stored in a constant, don't pass an object directly
export const userState: UserState = { name: '', age: 0 }

type UserState = { name: string, age: number }

Import it and use

'use client'
import { useUrlState } from 'state-in-url/next';

import { userState } from './userState';

function MyComponent() {
  // can pass `replace` arg, it's control will `updateUrl` will use `rounter.push` or `router.replace`, default replace=true
  // const { state, updateState, updateUrl } = useUrlState({ defaultState: userState, searchParams, replace: false });
  const { state, updateState, updateUrl } = useUrlState({ defaultState: userState });

  // won't let you to accidently mutate state directly, requires TS
  // state.name = 'John' // <- error

  return (
    <div>
      <input value={state.name}
        onChange={(ev) => { updateState({ name: ev.target.value }) }}
        onBlur={() => updateUrl()}
      />
      <input value={state.age}
        onChange={(ev) => { updateState({ age: +ev.target.value }) }}
        onBlur={() => updateUrl()}
      />

      // same api as React.useState
      <input value={state.name}
        onChange={(ev) => { updateState(curr => ({ ...curr, name: ev.target.value })) }}
        onBlur={() => updateUrl()}
      />

      <button onClick={() => updateUrl(userState)}>
        Reset
      </button>

    </div>
  )
}

With complex state shape

export const form: Form = {
  name: '',
  age: undefined,
  'agree to terms': false,
  tags: [],
};

type Form = {
  name: string;
  age?: number;
  'agree to terms': boolean;
  tags: { id: string; value: { text: string; time: Date } }[];
};

'use client'
import { useUrlState } from 'state-in-url/next';

import { form } from './form';

function TagsComponent() {
  // `state` will infer from Form type!
  const { state, updateUrl } = useUrlState({ defaultState: form });

  const onChangeTags = React.useCallback(
    (tag: (typeof tags)[number]) => {
      updateUrl((curr) => ({
        ...curr,
        tags: curr.tags.find((t) => t.id === tag.id)
          ? curr.tags.filter((t) => t.id !== tag.id)
          : curr.tags.concat(tag),
      }));
    },
    [updateUrl],
  );

  return (
    <div>
      <Field text="Tags">
        <div className="flex flex-wrap gap-2">
          {tags.map((tag) => (
            <Tag
              active={!!state.tags.find((t) => t.id === tag.id)}
              text={tag.value.text}
              onClick={() => onChangeTags(tag)}
              key={tag.id}
            />
          ))}
        </div>
      </Field>
    </div>
  );
}

const tags = [
  {
    id: '1',
    value: { text: 'React.js', time: new Date('2024-07-17T04:53:17.000Z') },
  },
  {
    id: '2',
    value: { text: 'Next.js', time: new Date('2024-07-18T04:53:17.000Z') },
  },
  {
    id: '3',
    value: { text: 'TailwindCSS', time: new Date('2024-07-19T04:53:17.000Z') },
  },
];

Demo page example code

Auto sync state

  const timer = React.useRef(0 as unknown as NodeJS.Timeout);
  React.useEffect(() => {
    clearTimeout(timer.current);
    timer.current = setTimeout(() => {
      // will compare state by content not by reference and fire update only for new values
      updateUrl(state);
    }, 500);

    return () => {
      clearTimeout(timer.current);
    };
  }, [state, updateUrl]);

Syncing state onBlur will be more aligned with real world usage.

<input onBlur={() => updateUrl()} .../>

With server side rendering

export default async function Home({ searchParams }: { searchParams: object }) {
  return (
    <Form searchParams={searchParams} />
  )
}

// Form.tsx
'use client'
import React from 'react';
import { useUrlState } from 'state-in-url/next';
import { form } from './form';

const Form = ({ searchParams }: { searchParams: object }) => {
  const { state, updateState, updateUrl } = useUrlState({ defaultState: form, searchParams });
}

Using hook in `layout` component

That a tricky part, since nextjs with app router doesn't allow to access searchParams from server side. There is workaround with using middleware, but it isn't pretty and can stop working after nextjs update.

// add to appropriate `layout.tsc`
export const runtime = 'edge';

// middleware.ts
import type { NextRequest } from 'next/server';
import { NextResponse } from 'next/server';

export function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
  const url = request.url?.includes('_next') ? null : request.url;
  const sp = url?.split?.('?')?.[1] || '';

  const response = NextResponse.next();

  if (url !== null) {
    response.headers.set('searchParams', sp);
  }

  return response;
}

// Target layout component
import { headers } from 'next/headers';
import { decodeState } from 'state-in-url/encodeState';

export default async function Layout({
  children,
}: {
  children: React.ReactNode;
}) {
  const sp = headers().get('searchParams') || '';

  return (
    <div>
      <Comp1 searchParams={decodeState(sp, stateShape)} />
      {children}
    </div>
  );
}

With arbitrary state shape (not recommended)

'use client'
import { useUrlState } from 'state-in-url/next';

const someObj = {};

function SettingsComponent() {
  const { state, updateUrl, updateState } = useUrlState<object>(someObj);
}

`useUrlStateBase` hook for others routers

Hooks to create your own useUrlState hooks with other routers, e.g. react-router or tanstack router.

Docs

`useSharedState` hook for React.js

Hook to share state between any React components, tested with Next.js and Vite.

'use client'
import { useSharedState } from 'state-in-url';

export const someState = { name: '' };

function SettingsComponent() {
  const { state, setState } = useSharedState(someState);
}

Docs

`useUrlEncode` hook for React.js

Docs

`encodeState` and `decodeState` helpers

Docs

`encode` and `decode` helpers

Docs

Best Practices

Define your state shape as a constant to ensure consistency
Use TypeScript for enhanced type safety and autocomplete
Avoid storing sensitive information in URL parameters (SSN, API keys etc)
Use updateState for frequent updates and updateUrl to sync changes to url
Use Suspence to wrap client components in Next.js
Use this extension for readable TS errors

Gothas

Can pass only serializable values, Function, BigInt or Symbol won't work, probably things like ArrayBuffer neither.
Vercel servers limit size of headers (query string and other stuff) to 14KB, so keep your URL state under ~5000 words. https://vercel.com/docs/errors/URL_TOO_LONG
Tested with next.js 14 with app router, no plans to support pages.

Run locally

Clone this repo, run npm install and

npm run dev

Go to localhost:3000

Roadmap

hook for Next.js
hook for 'react-router`
hook for store state in hash ?

Contact & Support

Create a GitHub issue for bug reports, feature requests, or questions

Changelog

License

This project is licensed under the MIT license.

Inspiration

Using URL to store state in Vue

Storing state in the URL

NextJS useSearchParams

state-in-url

Package Exports

Readme

Don't hesitate to open an issue if you found a bug, or for requesting features

Why use state-in-url?

Use cases

Features

Table of content

installation

1. Install package

2. Edit tsconfig.json

useUrlState hook for Next.js

Usage examples

Basic

With complex state shape

Auto sync state

With server side rendering

Using hook in layout component

With arbitrary state shape (not recommended)

useUrlStateBase hook for others routers

useSharedState hook for React.js

useUrlEncode hook for React.js

encodeState and decodeState helpers

encode and decode helpers

Best Practices

Gothas

Run locally

Roadmap

Contact & Support

Changelog

License

Inspiration

Using hook in `layout` component

`useUrlStateBase` hook for others routers

`useSharedState` hook for React.js

`useUrlEncode` hook for React.js

`encodeState` and `decodeState` helpers

`encode` and `decode` helpers