Skip to content
Merged
Show file tree
Hide file tree
Changes from all commits
Commits
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension

Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
185 changes: 185 additions & 0 deletions src/content/docs/en/guides/prefetch.mdx
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,185 @@
---
title: Prefetch
Copy link
Copy Markdown
Member

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

need an actual comment here to trigger bot status

description: Prefetch links for snappier navigation between pages.
i18nReady: true
---

Page load times play a big role in the usability and overall enjoyment of a site. Astro's **opt-in prefetching** brings the benefits of near-instant page navigations to your multi-page application (MPA) as your visitors interact with the site.

## Enable prefetching

You can enable prefetching with the `prefetch` config:

```js title="astro.config.js" ins={4}
import { defineConfig } from 'astro/config';

export default defineConfig({
prefetch: true
})
```

A prefetch script will be added to all pages of your site. You can then add the `data-astro-prefetch` attribute to any `<a />` links on your site to opt-in to prefetching. When you hover over the link, the script will fetch the page in the background.

```html
<a href="/about" data-astro-prefetch>
```

Note that prefetching only works for links within your site, and not external links.

## Prefetch configuration

The `prefetch` config also accepts an option object to further customize prefetching.

### Prefetch strategies

Astro supports 3 prefetch strategies for various use cases:

- `hover` (default): Prefetch when you hover over or focus on the link.
- `tap`: Prefetch just before you click on the link.
- `viewport`: Prefetch as the links enter the viewport.

You can specify a strategy for an individual link by passing it to the `data-astro-prefetch` attribute:

```html
<a href="/about" data-astro-prefetch="tap">About</a>
```

Each strategy is fine-tuned to only prefetch when needed and save your users' bandwidth. For example:

- If a visitor is using [data saver mode](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/NetworkInformation/saveData) or has a [slow connection](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/NetworkInformation/effectiveType), prefetching will be turned off.
- Quickly hovering or scrolling over links will not prefetch them.
- Links that use the `viewport` strategy are prefetched with a lower priority to avoid clogging up the network.

### Default prefetch strategy

The default prefetch strategy when adding the `data-astro-prefetch` attribute is `hover`. To change it, you can configure [`prefetch.defaultStrategy`](/en/reference/configuration-reference/#prefetchdefaultstrategy) in your `astro.config.js` file:

```js title="astro.config.js" ins={4-6}
import { defineConfig } from 'astro/config';

export default defineConfig({
prefetch: {
defaultStrategy: 'viewport'
}
})
```

### Prefetch all links by default

If you want to prefetch all links, including those without the `data-astro-prefetch` attribute, you can set [`prefetch.prefetchAll`](/en/reference/configuration-reference/#prefetchprefetchall) to `true`:

```js title="astro.config.js" ins={4-6}
import { defineConfig } from 'astro/config';

export default defineConfig({
prefetch: {
prefetchAll: true
}
})
```

You can then opt-out of prefetching for individual links by setting `data-astro-prefetch="false"`:

```html
<a href="/about" data-astro-prefetch="false">About</a>
```

The default prefetch strategy for all links can be changed with `prefetch.defaultStrategy` as shown in the [Default prefetch strategy section](#default-prefetch-strategy).

## Prefetch programmatically

As some navigation might not always appear as `<a />` links, you can also prefetch programmatically with the `prefetch()` API from the `astro:prefetch` module:

```astro
<button id="btn">Click me</button>

<script>
import { prefetch } from 'astro:prefetch';

const btn = document.getElementById('btn');
btn.addEventListener('click', () => {
prefetch('/about');
});
</script>
```

You can additionally configure the priority of prefetching by passing the `with` option:

```js
// Prefetch with `fetch()`, which has a higher priority.
prefetch('/about', { with: 'fetch' });

// Prefetch with `<link rel="prefetch">`, which has a lower priority
// and manually scheduled by the browser. (default)
prefetch('/about', { with: 'link' });
```

The `prefetch()` API includes the same [data saver mode](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/NetworkInformation/saveData) and [slow connection](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/NetworkInformation/effectiveType) detection, so that it only prefetches when needed.

Make sure to only import `prefetch()` in client-side scripts as it relies on browser APIs.

## Using with View Transitions

When you use [View Transitions](/en/guides/view-transitions/) on a page, prefetching will also be enabled by default. It sets a default configuration of `{ prefetchAll: true }` which enables [prefetching for all links](#prefetch-all-links-by-default) on the page.

You can customize the prefetch configuration in `astro.config.js` to override the default. For example:

```js title="astro.config.js"
import { defineConfig } from 'astro/config';

export default defineConfig({
// Disable prefetch completely
prefetch: false
})
```

```js title="astro.config.js"
import { defineConfig } from 'astro/config';

export default defineConfig({
// Keep prefetch, but only prefetch for links with `data-astro-prefetch`
prefetch: {
prefetchAll: false
}
})
```

## Migrating from `@astrojs/prefetch`

The `@astrojs/prefetch` integration was deprecated in v3.5.0 and will eventually be removed entirely. Use the following instructions to migrate to Astro's built-in prefetching which replaces this integration.

1. Remove the `@astrojs/prefetch` integration and enable the `prefetch` config in `astro.config.js`:

```js title="astro.config.js" ins={6} del={2,5}
import { defineConfig } from 'astro/config';
import prefetch from '@astrojs/prefetch';

export default defineConfig({
integrations: [prefetch()],
prefetch: true
})
```

2. Convert from `@astrojs/prefetch`'s configuration options:

- The deprecated integration used the `selector` config option to specify which links should be prefetched upon entering the viewport.

Add `data-astro-prefetch="viewport"` to these individual links instead.

```html
<a href="/about" data-astro-prefetch="viewport">
```

- The deprecated integration used the `intentSelector` config option to specify which links should be prefetched when they were hovered over or focused.

Add `data-astro-prefetch` or `data-astro-prefetch="hover"` to these individual links instead:

```html
<!-- You can omit the value if `defaultStrategy` is set to `hover` (default) -->
<a href="/about" data-astro-prefetch>

<!-- Otherwise, you can explicitly define the prefetch strategy -->
<a href="/about" data-astro-prefetch="hover">
```

- The `throttles` option from `@astrojs/prefetch` is no longer needed as the new prefetch feature will automatically schedule and prefetch optimally.
5 changes: 5 additions & 0 deletions src/i18n/en/nav.ts
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -63,6 +63,11 @@ export default [
slug: 'guides/view-transitions',
key: 'guides/view-transitions',
},
{
text: 'Prefetch',
slug: 'guides/prefetch',
key: 'guides/prefetch',
},

{ text: 'Add-ons', header: true, type: 'learn', key: 'addons' },
{ text: 'Add integrations', slug: 'guides/integrations-guide', key: 'guides/integrations-guide' },
Expand Down