Vue

This package provides Vue bindings for @floating-ui/dom — a library that provides anchor positioning for a floating element to position it next to a given reference element.

npm install @floating-ui/vue

Usage

useFloating() is the main composable:

<script setup>
import {ref} from 'vue';
import {useFloating} from '@floating-ui/vue';
 
const reference = ref(null);
const floating = ref(null);
const {floatingStyles} = useFloating(reference, floating);
</script>
 
<template>
  <button ref="reference">Button</button>
  <div ref="floating" :style="floatingStyles">Tooltip</div>
</template>

This will position the floating Tooltip element at the bottom center of the Button element by default.

reference is the reference (or anchor) element that is being referred to for positioning.
floating is the floating element that is being positioned relative to the reference element.
floatingStyles is an object of positioning styles to apply to the floating element’s style attribute.

Disabling transform

By default, the floating element is positioned using transform in the floatingStyles object. This is the most performant way to position elements, but can be disabled:

useFloating(reference, floating, {
  transform: false,
});

If you’d like to retain transform styles while allowing transform animations, create a wrapper, where the outermost node is the positioned one, and the inner is the actual styled element.

Custom position styles

The composable returns the coordinates and positioning strategy directly if floatingStyles is not suitable for full customization.

const {x, y, strategy} = useFloating(reference, floating);

Return value

The composable returns all the values from computePosition, plus some extras to work with Vue. This includes data about the final placement and middleware data which are useful when rendering.

Options

The composable accepts all the options from computePosition, which allows you to customize the position. Here’s an example:

import {
  useFloating,
  offset,
  flip,
  shift,
} from '@floating-ui/vue';
 
// Inside your component
useFloating(reference, floating, {
  placement: 'right',
  middleware: [offset(10), flip(), shift()],
});

The composable also accepts Ref options:

import {
  useFloating,
  offset,
  flip,
  shift,
} from '@floating-ui/vue';
 
// Inside your component
const placement = ref('right');
const middleware = ref([offset(10), flip(), shift()]);
useFloating(reference, floating, {
  placement,
  middleware,
});

Middleware can alter the positioning from the basic placement, act as visibility optimizers, or provide data to use.

The docs for the middleware that were passed are available here:

Anchoring

The position is only calculated once on render, or when the reference or floating elements changed — for example, the floating element get mounted via conditional rendering.

To ensure the floating element remains anchored to its reference element in a variety of scenarios without detaching — such as when scrolling or resizing the page — you can pass the autoUpdate utility to the whileElementsMounted prop:

import {useFloating, autoUpdate} from '@floating-ui/vue';
 
// Inside your component
useFloating(reference, floating, {
  whileElementsMounted: autoUpdate,
});

To pass options to autoUpdate:

useFloating(reference, floating, {
  whileElementsMounted(...args) {
    const cleanup = autoUpdate(...args, {animationFrame: true});
    // Important! Always return the cleanup function.
    return cleanup;
  },
});

Ensure you are using conditional rendering (v-if) for the floating element, not an opacity/visibility/display style. If you are using v-show instead, avoid the whileElementsMounted prop.

Manual updating

While autoUpdate covers most cases where the position of the floating element must be updated, it does not cover every single one possible due to performance/platform limitations.

The composable returns an update() function to update the position at will:

<script setup>
const {update} = useFloating(reference, floating);
</script>
 
<template>
  <Panel @resize="update" />
</template>

Custom components

The composable also accepts custom component template refs:

<script setup>
import {ref} from 'vue';
import {useFloating} from '@floating-ui/vue';
 
import MyButton from './MyButton.vue';
import MyTooltip from './MyTooltip.vue';
 
const reference = ref(null);
const floating = ref(null);
const {floatingStyles} = useFloating(reference, floating);
</script>
 
<template>
  <MyButton ref="reference">Button</MyButton>
  <MyTooltip ref="floating">Tooltip</MyTooltip>
</template>

Effects

Positioning is done in an async function, which means the position is ready during a microtask, after layout effects are executed. This means initially, the floating element is situated at the top-left (0, 0) of its offset container — so calling DOM methods that cause side-effects like scrolling will result in unexpected behavior.

The composable returns an isPositioned boolean ref that lets you know if the floating element has been positioned:

const open = ref(false);
const {isPositioned} = useFloating(reference, floating, {
  // Synchronize `isPositioned` with an `open` ref.
  open,
});
 
// Each time the floating element opens, we want to focus and
// scroll some element into view.
watch(isPositioned, (isPositioned) => {
  if (isPositioned) {
    someElement.focus();
    someElement.scrollIntoView();
  }
});

The open option accepts a boolean ref that represents the open/close state of the floating element. This ensures you can wait each time it opens when the host component does not unmount, which is necessary in cases where the reference element relocates on the page.

Arrow

The arrow module exported from this package allows template refs in addition to elements. See arrow for details.

<script setup>
import {arrow, useFloating} from '@floating-ui/vue';
import {ref} from 'vue';
 
const reference = ref(null);
const floating = ref(null);
const floatingArrow = ref(null);
 
const {floatingStyles, middlewareData} = useFloating(
  reference,
  floating,
  {
    middleware: [arrow({element: floatingArrow})],
  },
);
</script>
 
<template>
  <span ref="reference">Reference</span>
  <div ref="floating" :style="floatingStyles">
    Floating
    <div
      ref="floatingArrow"
      :style="{
        position: 'absolute',
        left:
          middlewareData.arrow?.x != null
            ? `${middlewareData.arrow.x}px`
            : '',
        top:
          middlewareData.arrow?.y != null
            ? `${middlewareData.arrow.y}px`
            : '',
      }"
    ></div>
  </div>
</template>

Virtual Element

See Virtual Elements for details. Example:

<script setup>
import {onMounted, ref} from 'vue';
import {useFloating} from '@floating-ui/vue';
 
const reference = ref(null);
const floating = ref(null);
const {floatingStyles} = useFloating(reference, floating);
 
onMounted(() => {
  /**
   * Assign the virtual element to reference inside
   * a lifecycle hook or effect or event handler.
   */
  reference.value = {
    getBoundingClientRect() {
      return {
        // ...
      };
    },
  };
});
</script>
 
<template>
  <div ref="floating">Tooltip</div>
</template>