---
title: Routing, Navigation and URL
description: The Kibana platform provides a set of tools to help developers build consistent experience around routing and browser navigation. Some of that tooling...
url: https://www.elastic.co/docs/extend/kibana/kibana-navigation
products:
  - Kibana
---

# Routing, Navigation and URL
The Kibana platform provides a set of tools to help developers build consistent experience around routing and browser navigation. Some of that tooling is inside `core`, some is available as part of various plugins.
The purpose of this guide is to give a high-level overview of available tools and to explain common approaches for handling routing and browser navigation.
This guide covers following topics:
- [Deep-linking into Kibana apps](#deep-linking)
- [Navigating between Kibana apps](#navigating-between-kibana-apps)
- [Setting up internal app routing](#routing)
- [Using history and browser location](#history-and-location)
- [Syncing state with URL](#state-sync)
- [Preserving state between navigations](#preserve-state)


## Deep-linking into Kibana apps

Assuming you want to link from your app to **Discover**. When building such URL there are two things to consider:
1. Prepending a proper `basePath`.
2. Specifying **Discover** state.


### Prepending a proper `basePath`

To prepend Kibana's `basePath` use [core.http.basePath.prepend](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/src/core/packages/http/browser-internal/src/base_path.ts) helper:
```typescript
const discoverUrl = core.http.basePath.prepend(`/discover`);

console.log(discoverUrl);
```


### Specifying state

**Consider a Kibana app URL a part of app’s plugin contract:**
1. Avoid hardcoding other app’s URL in your app’s code.
2. Avoid generating other app’s state and serializing it into URL query params.

```typescript
// Avoid relying on other app's state structure in your app's code:
const discoverUrlWithSomeState = core.http.basePath.prepend(`/discover#/?_g=(filters:!(),refreshInterval:(pause:!t,value:0),time:(from:'2020-09-10T11:39:50.203Z',to:'2020-09-10T11:40:20.249Z'))&_a=(columns:!(_source),filters:!(),index:'90943e30-9a47-11e8-b64d-95841ca0b247',interval:auto,query:(language:kuery,query:''),sort:!())`);
```

Instead, each app should expose [a locator](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/src/platform/plugins/shared/share/common/url_service/locators/README.md). Other apps should use those locators for navigation or URL creation.
```typescript
// Properly generated URL to *Discover* app. Locator code is owned by *Discover* app and available on *Discover*'s plugin contract.
const discoverUrl = await plugins.discover.locator.getUrl({filters, timeRange});
// or directly execute navigation
await plugins.discover.locator.navigate({filters, timeRange});
```

To get a better idea, take a look at **Discover** locator [implementation](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/src/platform/plugins/shared/discover/public/application/doc/locator.ts). It allows specifying various **Discover** app state pieces like: index pattern, filters, query, time range and more.
There are two ways to access locators of other apps:
1. From a plugin contract of a destination app **(preferred)**.
2. Using locator client in `share` plugin (case an explicit plugin dependency is not possible).

In case you want other apps to link to your app, then you should create a locator and expose it on your plugin’s contract.

## Navigating between Kibana apps

Kibana is a single page application and there is a set of simple rules developers should follow to make sure there is no page reload when navigating from one place in Kibana to another.
For example, navigation using native browser APIs would cause a full page reload.
```js
const urlToADashboard = core.http.basePath.prepend(`/dashboard/my-dashboard`);

// this would cause a full page reload:
window.location.href = urlToADashboard;
```

To navigate between different Kibana apps without a page reload (by default) there are APIs in `core`:
- [core.application.navigateToApp](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/src/core/packages/application/browser/src/contracts.ts)
- [core.application.navigateToUrl](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/src/core/packages/application/browser/src/contracts.ts)

Both methods offer customization such as opening the target in a new page, with an `options` parameter. All the options are optional be default.
- [core.application.navigateToApp options](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/src/core/packages/application/browser/src/contracts.ts)
- [core.application.navigateToUrl options](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/src/core/packages/application/browser/src/contracts.ts)

With Kibana's `GlobalRedirectAppLinks` global solution, regular links now work correctly without causing full page reloads:
```typescript
const MyLink = () =>
  <a href={urlToADashboard}>Go to Dashboard</a>;
```

This works automatically throughout your entire app without any additional wrapping or manual click handling. The `GlobalRedirectAppLinks` component is registered once by the core rendering service and automatically handles link clicks on the entire document, enabling SPA-friendly in-app navigation.
This means you can use regular links throughout your app without any wrapper:
```typescript
const MyApp = () =>
  <div>
    {/*...*/}
    {/* Link navigations automatically happen in SPA friendly way */}
    <a href={urlToADashboard}>Go to Dashboard</a>
    {/*...*/}
  </div>
```

<note>
  The previous `RedirectAppLinks` wrapper approach is now deprecated. It's no longer necessary to wrap component trees, as the global solution handles all links automatically. Existing usages will continue to work for backward compatibility, but new code should rely on the global solution instead.
</note>


## Advanced: Manual Navigation Control

In most cases, regular links are sufficient. However, you may need manual navigation control when you want to pass navigation state, execute custom logic, or handle special cases.

### Intercepting Link Clicks

Use `preventDefault()` to intercept a link click and handle navigation manually:
```typescript
const MyCustomLink = () =>
  <a
    href={urlToADashboard}
    onClick={(e) => {
      e.preventDefault();
      // Custom logic here
      core.application.navigateToApp('dashboard', { path: '/my-dashboard' });
    }}
  >
    Go to Dashboard
  </a>;
```


### Passing Navigation State

Use `navigateToApp` to navigate to other apps and pass state through locators:
```typescript
const navigateWithState = async () => {
  await plugins.discover.locator.navigate({
    filters: myFilters,
    timeRange: myTimeRange,
    index: myIndexPattern,
  });
};
```


### Special Navigation Scenarios

For cases requiring full page reload or bypassing navigation guards:
```typescript
const MyForcedReloadLink = () =>
  <a
    href={urlToSomeSpecialApp}
    onClick={(e) => {
      e.preventDefault();
      core.application.navigateToUrl(urlToSomeSpecialApp, { forceRedirect: true });
    }}
  >
    Go to Special App
  </a>;
```

To bypass the default onAppLeave behavior, you can set the `skipUnload` option to `true`. This option is also available in `navigateToApp`.

## Setting up internal app routing

It is very common for Kibana apps to use React and React Router. Common rules to follow in this scenario:
- Set up `BrowserRouter` and not `HashRouter`.
- **Initialize your router with `history` instance provided by the `core`.**

This is required to make sure `core` is aware of navigations triggered inside your app, so it could act accordingly when needed.
- `Core`'s [ScopedHistory](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/src/core/packages/application/browser/src/scoped_history.ts) instance.
- [Example usage](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/src/core/packages/application/browser/src/app_mount.ts)
- [Example plugin](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/test/plugin_functional/plugins/core_plugin_a/public/application.tsx#L120)

Relative links will be resolved relative to your app’s route (e.g.: `http://localhost5601/app/{{your-app-id}}`) and setting up internal links in your app in SPA friendly way would look something like:
```typescript
import {Link} from 'react-router-dom';

const MyInternalLink = () => <Link to="/my-other-page"></Link>
```


## Using history and browser location

Try to avoid using `window.location` and `window.history` directly. Instead, consider using [ScopedHistory](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/src/core/packages/application/browser/src/scoped_history.ts) instance provided by `core`.
- This way `core` will know about location changes triggered within your app, and it would act accordingly.
- Some plugins are listening to location changes. Triggering location change manually could lead to unpredictable and hard-to-catch bugs.

Common use-case for using `core`'s [ScopedHistory](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/src/core/packages/application/browser/src/scoped_history.ts) directly:
- Reading/writing query params or hash.
- Imperatively triggering internal navigations within your app.
- Listening to browser location changes.


## Syncing state with URL

Historically Kibana apps store *a lot* of application state in the URL. The most common pattern that Kibana apps follow today is storing state in `_a` and `_g` query params in [rison](https://github.com/w33ble/rison-node#readme) format.

Those query params follow the convention:
- `_g` (**global**) - global UI state that should be shared and synced across multiple apps. common example from Analyze group apps: time range, refresh interval, **pinned** filters.
- `_a` (**application**) - UI state scoped to current app.

<note>
  After migrating to KP platform we got navigations without page reloads. Since then there is no real need to follow `_g` and `_a` separation anymore. It’s up you to decide if you want to follow this pattern or if you prefer a single query param or something else. The need for this separation earlier is explained in [Preserving state between navigations](#preserve-state).
</note>

There are utils to help you to implement such kind of state syncing.
**When you should consider using state syncing utils:**
- You want to sync your application state with URL in similar manner Analyze group applications do.
- You want to follow platform’s [working with browser history and location best practices](#history-and-location) out of the box.
- You want to support `state:storeInSessionStore` escape hatch for URL overflowing out of the box.
- You should also consider using them if you’d like to serialize state to different (not `rison`) format. Utils are composable, and you can implement your own `storage`.
- In case you want to sync part of your state with URL, but other part of it with browser storage.

**When you shouldn’t use state syncing utils:**
- Adding a query param flag or simple key/value to the URL.

Follow [these](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/src/platform/plugins/shared/kibana_utils/docs/state_sync#state-syncing-utilities) docs to learn more.

## Preserving state between navigations

Consider the scenario:
1. You are in **Dashboard** app looking at a dashboard with some filters applied;
2. Navigate to **Discover** using in-app navigation;
3. Change the time filter'
4. Navigate to **Dashboard** using in-app navigation.

You’d notice that you were navigated to **Dashboard** app with the **same state** that you left it with, except that the time filter has changed to the one you applied on **Discover** app.
Historically Kibana Analyze groups apps achieve that behavior relying on state in the URL. If you’d have a closer look on a link in the navigation, you’d notice that state is stored inside that link, and it also gets updated whenever relevant state changes happen:
![State is stored inside the navigation link](https://www.elastic.co/docs/extend/kibana/images/state_inside_the_link.png)
This is where [separation](#query-params) into `_a` and `_g` query params comes into play. What is considered a **global** state gets constantly updated in those navigation links. In the example above it was a time filter. This is backed by [KbnUrlTracker](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/src/platform/plugins/shared/kibana_utils/public/state_management/url/kbn_url_tracker.ts#L57) util. You can use it to achieve similar behavior.
<note>
  After migrating to KP navigation works without page reloads and all plugins are loaded simultaneously. Hence, likely there are simpler ways to preserve state of your application, unless you want to do it through URL.
</note>