🌐 Vue Router Introduction – Navigate Your Vue Apps Like a Pro (2025 Guide)

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🧲 Introduction – What Is Vue Router?

Vue Router is the official routing library for Vue.js, enabling navigation between different views or pages within a Vue application. It’s an essential tool for building Single Page Applications (SPAs) where content changes dynamically without reloading the entire page.

🎯 In this guide, you’ll learn:

• What Vue Router is and why it’s needed
• Basic concepts: routes, links, navigation
• Key features: dynamic routing, lazy loading, nested routes
• Real-world examples and best practices

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🚦 Why Do You Need Routing in Vue?

When building modern web apps, you often need:

• Multiple pages or views
• Navigation between them
• Back/forward browser support
• Deep linking via URL

Vue Router enables this by mapping URLs to components, keeping the UI and the URL in sync.

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📘 Core Concept – What Is a Route?

A route is a mapping between a URL path and a Vue component.

✅ Example:

{
  path: '/about',
  component: AboutPage
}

When a user visits /about, the AboutPage component is rendered.

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🔧 Installing Vue Router

Use Vue CLI or manual npm installation:

npm install vue-router

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🧱 Setting Up Vue Router

✅ router/index.js

import { createRouter, createWebHistory } from 'vue-router'
import Home from '../views/Home.vue'
import About from '../views/About.vue'

const routes = [
  { path: '/', component: Home },
  { path: '/about', component: About }
]

const router = createRouter({
  history: createWebHistory(),
  routes
})

export default router

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✅ main.js

import { createApp } from 'vue'
import App from './App.vue'
import router from './router'

createApp(App).use(router).mount('#app')

🧠 This integrates routing into your Vue app.

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🧭 Navigating with <router-link>

Instead of traditional <a> tags, use Vue’s built-in <router-link>:

<router-link to="/about">About</router-link>

🧠 This avoids page reloads and uses Vue Router to handle navigation.

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🔁 Displaying Views with <router-view>

Where do the components render? Inside the <router-view> tag:

<template>
  <router-view></router-view>
</template>

This acts as a placeholder for the current route’s component.

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🧬 Dynamic Routes

Dynamic segments allow parameterized paths:

{ path: '/user/:id', component: UserProfile }

Usage:

<router-link to="/user/42">View User 42</router-link>

Inside UserProfile.vue, access the ID:

this.$route.params.id

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🧰 Nested Routes

You can nest routes inside parent components:

{
  path: '/dashboard',
  component: Dashboard,
  children: [
    { path: 'stats', component: Stats },
    { path: 'profile', component: UserProfile }
  ]
}

🧠 Useful for layouts that share common elements like sidebars or navbars.

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🧩 Lazy Loading Routes

Improve performance with code splitting:

{
  path: '/about',
  component: () => import('../views/About.vue')
}

Vue only loads this component when the route is visited.

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🔐 Navigation Guards

Control route access based on authentication or roles:

router.beforeEach((to, from, next) => {
  if (to.meta.requiresAuth && !isLoggedIn()) {
    next('/login')
  } else {
    next()
  }
})

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🚫 Common Mistakes

❌ Mistake	✅ Solution
Using <a href="..."> for routing	Use <router-link> instead
Forgetting <router-view>	Always include it in App.vue or layout
Mixing routes with full-page reloads	Let Vue handle SPA navigation entirely

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📌 Summary – Recap & Next Steps

Vue Router enables SPA navigation with clean URL handling, dynamic components, and deep linking. It forms the backbone of any multi-view Vue.js application.

🔍 Key Takeaways:

• Map paths to components using routes
• Use <router-link> for navigation
• Render views using <router-view>
• Add dynamic and nested routing as needed

⚙️ Real-World Relevance:
Vue Router is essential in building dashboards, blogs, admin panels, or any modern multi-page Vue application.

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❓ FAQ Section

❓ What is Vue Router used for?

✅ Vue Router manages navigation and URL routing in Vue Single Page Applications (SPAs).

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❓ How do I install and use Vue Router?

✅ Install via npm:

npm install vue-router

Then import and use it in your Vue app.

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❓ What is <router-link> in Vue?

✅ It replaces <a> for navigation:

<router-link to="/home">Home</router-link>

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❓ What is the purpose of <router-view>?

✅ It’s a placeholder where the matched component for the route renders.

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❓ Can I pass parameters in routes?

✅ Yes. Use dynamic routes like /user/:id and access via this.$route.params.id.

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