Vue.js page transition fade effect with vue-router

Question

How to achieve a fade effect page transition between vue-router defined pages (components)?

Answer 1

Wrap <router-view></router-view> with <transition name="fade"></transition> and add these styles:

.fade-enter-active, .fade-leave-active {
  transition-property: opacity;
  transition-duration: .25s;
}

.fade-enter-active {
  transition-delay: .25s;
}

.fade-enter, .fade-leave-active {
  opacity: 0
}

Detailed answer

Assuming you have created your application with vue-cli, e.g.:

vue init webpack fadetransition
cd fadetransition
npm install

Install the router:

npm i vue-router

If you are not developing your app using vue-cli, make sure to add the vue router the standard way:

<script src="/path/to/vue.js"></script>
<script src="/path/to/vue-router.js"></script>

You can use e.g.: https://unpkg.com/vue-router/dist/vue-router.js

The CLI has created a backbone application for you, which you can add components to.

1) Create page components

In Vue, components (UI elements) can be nested. A page in your app can be made with a regular Vue component that is considered as the root to other components in that page.

Go to src/ and create pages/ directory. These page-root components (individual pages) will be put in this directory, while the other components used in the actual pages can be put to the ready-made components/ directory.

Create two pages in files called src/pages/Page1.vue and src/pages/Page2.vue for starters. Their content will be (edit page numbers respectively):

<template>
  <h1>Page 1</h1>
</template>

<script>
export default {
}
</script>

<style scoped>
</style>

2) Setup routing

Edit the generated src/main.js add the required imports:

import VueRouter from 'vue-router'
import Page1 from './pages/Page1'
import Page2 from './pages/Page2'

Add a global router usage:

Vue.use(VueRouter)

Add a router setup:

const router = new VueRouter({
  routes: [
    { path: '/page1', component: Page1 },
    { path: '/page2', component: Page2 },
    { path: '/', redirect: '/page1' }
  ]
})

The last route just redirects the initial path / to /page1. Edit the app initiation:

new Vue({
  router,
  el: '#app',
  render: h => h(App)
})

The whole src/main.js example is at the end of the answer.

3) Add a router view

Routing is set up by now, just a place where the page components will be rendered according to the router is missing. This is done by placing <router-view></router-view> somewhere in the templates, you will want to put it in the src/App.vue's <template> tag.

The whole src/App.vue example is at the end of the answer.

4) Add fade transition effect between page components

Wrap the <router-view></router-view> with a <transition name="fade"> element, e.g.:

<template>
  <div id="app">
    <transition name="fade">
      <router-view></router-view>
    </transition>
  </div>
</template>

Vue will do the job here: it will create and insert appropriate CSS classes starting with the name specified through-out the effect's duration, e.g.: .fade-enter-active. Now define the effects in App.vue's section:

<style>
.fade-enter-active, .fade-leave-active {
  transition-property: opacity;
  transition-duration: .25s;
}

.fade-enter-active {
  transition-delay: .25s;
}

.fade-enter, .fade-leave-active {
  opacity: 0
}
</style>

That's it. If you run the app now, e.g. with npm run dev, it will automatically display Page 1 with a fade-in effect. If you rewrite the URL to /page2, it will switch the pages with fade-out and fade-in effects.

Check out the documentation on routing and transitions for more information.

5) Optional: Add links to pages.

You can add links to particular pages with the <router-link> component, e.g.:

<router-link to="/page1">Page 1</router-link>
<router-link to="/page2">Page 2</router-link>

This automatically gives the links a router-link-active class in case they are active, but you can also specify custom classes if you are using e.g. Bootstrap:

<router-link class="nav-link" active-class="active" to="/page1">Page 1</router-link>
<router-link class="nav-link" active-class="active" to="/page2">Page 2</router-link>

Files for reference

src/main.js:

// The Vue build version to load with the `import` command
// (runtime-only or standalone) has been set in webpack.base.conf with an alias.
import Vue from 'vue'
import VueRouter from 'vue-router'

import App from './App'
import Page1 from './pages/Page1'
import Page2 from './pages/Page2'

Vue.use(VueRouter)

const router = new VueRouter({
  routes: [
    { path: '/page1', component: Page1 },
    { path: '/page2', component: Page2 },
    { path: '/', redirect: '/page1' }
  ]
})

/* eslint-disable no-new */
new Vue({
  router,
  el: '#app',
  render: h => h(App)
})

src/App.vue:

<template>
  <div id="app">
    <router-link class="nav-link" active-class="active" to="/page1">Page 1</router-link>
    <router-link class="nav-link" active-class="active" to="/page2">Page 2</router-link>
    <transition name="fade">
      <router-view></router-view>
    </transition>
  </div>
</template>

<script>
export default {
  name: 'app'
}
</script>

<style>
.fade-enter-active, .fade-leave-active {
  transition-property: opacity;
  transition-duration: .25s;
}

.fade-enter-active {
  transition-delay: .25s;
}

.fade-enter, .fade-leave-active {
  opacity: 0
}
</style>

src/pages/Page1.vue:

<template>
  <h1>Page 1</h1>
</template>

<script>
export default {
}
</script>

<style scoped>
</style>

src/pages/Page2.vue:

<template>
  <h1>Page 2</h1>
</template>

<script>
export default {
}
</script>

<style scoped>
</style>

Answer 2

Plug and Play Solution

There is also a plug and play solution called vue-page-transition which offers you all sort of transitions. (fade, flip, zoom, overlay etc.)

1 - Install the npm package:

yarn add vue-page-transition

2 - register the plugin:

import Vue from 'vue'
import VuePageTransition from 'vue-page-transition'

Vue.use(VuePageTransition)

3 - wrap your router-view with the global animation:

<vue-page-transition name="fade-in-right">
  <router-view/>
</vue-page-transition>

Learn more on GitHub: https://github.com/Orlandster/vue-page-transition