react-router-dom

What is react-router-dom?

The react-router-dom package is a popular library for handling routing in React web applications. It allows developers to implement dynamic routing in a web app, which is not possible with static routing. With react-router-dom, you can define routes, navigate between them, handle parameters and query strings, and manage the history stack, among other things.

What are react-router-dom's main functionalities?

Basic Routing

This code demonstrates how to set up basic routing in a React application using react-router-dom. It uses the BrowserRouter, Route, and Switch components to define routes for different components in the app.

import { BrowserRouter as Router, Route, Switch } from 'react-router-dom';

function App() {
  return (
    <Router>
      <Switch>
        <Route exact path='/' component={Home} />
        <Route path='/about' component={About} />
        <Route path='/contact' component={Contact} />
      </Switch>
    </Router>
  );
}

Link Navigation

This code snippet shows how to use the Link component to create navigation links that allow users to click through different routes without causing a page reload.

import { Link } from 'react-router-dom';

function Navbar() {
  return (
    <nav>
      <Link to='/'>Home</Link>
      <Link to='/about'>About</Link>
      <Link to='/contact'>Contact</Link>
    </nav>
  );
}

Route Parameters

This example demonstrates how to handle dynamic routes using route parameters. The useParams hook is used to access the parameters of the current route.

import { Route, useParams } from 'react-router-dom';

function User() {
  let { userId } = useParams();
  return <h2>User ID: {userId}</h2>;
}

function Users() {
  return (
    <Route path='/users/:userId' component={User} />
  );
}

Programmatic Navigation

This code shows how to navigate programmatically using the useHistory hook. It allows you to push a new entry onto the history stack, mimicking the behavior of a navigation action.

import { useHistory } from 'react-router-dom';

function HomeButton() {
  let history = useHistory();

  function handleClick() {
    history.push('/home');
  }

  return (
    <button type='button' onClick={handleClick}>
      Go home
    </button>
  );
}

Other packages similar to react-router-dom

reach-router

Reach Router is another routing library for React with a more straightforward, accessible approach compared to react-router-dom. It automatically manages focus for accessibility, and routing is more component-based. However, as of my knowledge cutoff in 2023, Reach Router has been officially merged with React Router, and the team recommends using React Router for new projects.

wouter

Wouter is a minimalist routing library for React and Preact that does not rely on the context API. It offers a simpler API and smaller bundle size compared to react-router-dom, making it a good choice for smaller projects or when you want to keep your project lightweight.

navi

Navi is a JavaScript library for declaratively mapping URLs to asynchronous content. It's designed to work with React and allows for lazy-loading routes, which can help improve performance in large applications. Navi provides a different approach to routing by focusing on content-first routing, which can be beneficial for certain types of applications.

README

React Router DOM

The react-router-dom package contains bindings for using React Router in web applications. Please see the Getting Started guide for more information on how to get started with React Router.

Changelog

v6.14.2

Date: 2023-07-17

Patch Changes

• Add missing <Form state> prop to populate history.state on submission navigations (#10630)
• Trigger an error if a defer promise resolves/rejects with undefined in order to match the behavior of loaders and actions which must return a value or null (#10690)
• Properly handle fetcher redirects interrupted by normal navigations (#10674)
• Initial-load fetchers should not automatically revalidate on GET navigations (#10688)
• Properly decode element id when emulating hash scrolling via <ScrollRestoration> (#10682)
• Typescript: Enhance the return type of Route.lazy to prohibit returning an empty object (#10634)
• SSR: Support proper hydration of Error subclasses such as ReferenceError/TypeError (#10633)

Full Changelog: v6.14.1...v6.14.2