Next-path-helper NPM

Path Manager

When we build a modern web app, it's common for us to end up with a lot of routes. Throughout our projects we implement links to those routes. When we need to change a route, however, updating each place in which we've created a link can be a frustrating process.

Path Manager aims to make this easier in your NextJS Apps using the App Router. That's right this does not work with the NextJS pages router. Path Manager will identify your app router directory and generate a central cache of all your route paths. These are stored in the following format:

{
  label: string; // labels can be used as the display text for your links
  path: (...args: (string | number)[]) => string; // returns the path to your route. Accepts arguments for dynamic routes, such as id references or slugs.
  type: 'static' | 'dynamic'; // used internally to generate names and path generation
  group?: string; // recognises group dirs like (auth) and ignores, but makes a record.
  navs: string[]; // allows you to label paths according to nav lists you use. These nav lists can be generated via the API later.
}

Installation

To install the package, you can use npm or yarn:

npm i next-path-helper

yarn add next-path-helper

Usage

Initial Setup

First, import the pathManager:

// layout.tsx
import { pathManager } from "next-path-helper";

// Initial build of the path list
pathManager.buildPathList();

console.log("Paths:", pathManager.getPaths());

You may then choose to pass pathManager to a context which wraps your project.

Methods

addPath

Adds a path to the path manager. You shouldn't need this.

pathManager.addPath(key: string, pathInfo: PathInfo): void

key: The key for the path.
pathInfo: The information about the path.

updatePath

Updates an existing path. If you're using watcher, this will be done automatically.

pathManager.updatePath(key: string, pathInfo: PathInfo): void

key: The key for the path.
pathInfo: The information about the path.

getPath

Retrieves the path information for a given key. You can use this when adding a single link somewhere in your project.

pathManager.getPath(key: string): PathInfo | undefined

key: The key of the path.

getPaths

Retrieves all the paths managed by the path manager.

pathManager.getPaths(): Record<string, PathInfo>

addNav

Adds navigation links to a path.

pathManager.addNav(key: string, ...navs: string[]): void

key: The key of the path.
navs: The navigation links to add.

addPathsToNav

pathManager.addPathsToNav(keys: string[], nav: string): void

keys: An array of path keys.
nav: The navigation link to add.

This function finds each path by its key and adds the specified nav link to each path's navs array. If a path key does not exist, an error message is logged.

removeNav

Removes a navigation link from a path.

pathManager.removeNav(key: string, nav: string): void

key: The key of the path.
nav: The navigation link to remove.

getNavList

Retrieves a list of navigation links that match a keyword.

pathManager.getNavList(keyword: string): NavLink[]

keyword: The keyword to match.

makeNavList

Creates a navigation list based on a specified order of keys.

pathManager.makeNavList(keys: string[]): NavLink[]

keys: An array of path keys.

This function takes an array of path keys and returns an array of navigation links in the same order as the keys provided.

buildPathList

Builds the path list by locating the app directory and processing its subdirectories.

pathManager.buildPathList(): void

Example

Here is an example usage of the PathManager class:

import { pathManager } from "next-path-helper";

// Initial build of the path list
pathManager.buildPathList();

// Add navigation items to the path
pathManager.addNav("examplePath", "mainnav", "sidebar");

// Get specific path by key
const pathInfo = pathManager.getPath("examplePath");
console.log("Path Info:", pathInfo);

// Get all paths
const allPaths = pathManager.getPaths();
console.log("All Paths:", allPaths);

// Get paths with 'mainnav' in their navs array
const mainNavItems = pathManager.getNavList("mainnav");
console.log('Paths with "mainnav" in navs:', mainNavItems);

// Create a navigation list based on a specified order of keys
const customNavList = pathManager.makeNavList(["examplePath", "anotherPath"]);
console.log("Custom Navigation List:", customNavList);

// Remove navigation item from the path
pathManager.removeNav("examplePath", "sidebar");
console.log("Updated Path Info:", pathManager.getPath("examplePath"));

Watching for Changes

Create a new file in the project root, along with your config files named watch.js.
Paste this code:

import { startPathWatcher } from "next-path-helper/dist/utils/watch.js";

if (process.env.NODE_ENV !== "production") {
  startPathWatcher();
} else {
  console.log("Watcher not started in production environment");
}

Add a script into your package.json:

scripts {
  "watch": "node watch.js",
}

Open up a terminal and npm run watch

How I like to use the package

My personal preference for using the package is to create a paths.ts document in __lib.

import { pathManager } from "next-path-helper";

export const {
  addPath,
  getPath,
  getPaths,
  getNavList,
  makeNavList,
  updatePath,
  addNav,
  addPathsToNav,
  buildPathList,
} = pathManager;

addPathsToNav(["home", "about", "account"], "main");

export const navListOrdered = makeNavList(["home", "about", "account"]); // dictate the order of the links
export const navListUnordered = getNavList("main");