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

This package simply re-exports everything from react-router to smooth the upgrade path for v6 applications. Once upgraded you can change all of your imports and remove it from your dependencies:

-import { Routes } from "react-router-dom"
+import { Routes } from "react-router"

Changelog

v7.6.2

Date: 2025-06-03

Patch Changes

• create-react-router - Update tar-fs (#13675)

• react-router - (INTERNAL) Slight refactor of internal headers() function processing for use with RSC (#13639)

• react-router @react-router/dev - Avoid additional with-props chunk in Framework Mode by moving route module component prop logic from the Vite plugin to react-router (#13650)

• @react-router/dev - When future.unstable_viteEnvironmentApi is enabled and an absolute Vite base has been configured, ensure critical CSS is handled correctly during development (#13598)

• @react-router/dev - Update vite-node (#13673)

• @react-router/dev - Fix typegen for non-{.js,.jsx,.ts,.tsx} routes like .mdx (#12453)

• @react-router/dev - Fix href types for optional dynamic params (#13725)

  7.6.1 introduced fixes for href when using optional static segments, but those fixes caused regressions with how optional dynamic params worked in 7.6.0:

  // 7.6.0
  href("/users/:id?"); // ✅
  href("/users/:id?", { id: 1 }); // ✅
  
  // 7.6.1
  href("/users/:id?"); // ❌
  href("/users/:id?", { id: 1 }); // ❌
  

  Now, optional static segments are expanded into different paths for href, but optional dynamic params are not. This way href can unambiguously refer to an exact URL path, all while keeping the number of path options to a minimum.

  // 7.6.2
  
  // path: /users/:id?/edit?
  href("
  //    ^ suggestions when cursor is here:
  //
  //    /users/:id?
  //    /users/:id?/edit
  

  Additionally, you can pass params from component props without needing to narrow them manually:

  declare const params: { id?: number };
  
  // 7.6.0
  href("/users/:id?", params);
  
  // 7.6.1
  href("/users/:id?", params); // ❌
  "id" in params ? href("/users/:id", params) : href("/users"); // works... but is annoying
  
  // 7.6.2
  href("/users/:id?", params); // restores behavior of 7.6.0
  

Changes by Package

• create-react-router
• react-router
• @react-router/architect
• @react-router/cloudflare
• @react-router/dev
• @react-router/express
• @react-router/fs-routes
• @react-router/node
• @react-router/remix-config-routes-adapter
• @react-router/serve

Full Changelog: v7.6.1...v7.6.2