remix-flat-routes

Remix Flat Routes

This package enables you to define your routes using the flat-routes convention. This is based on the gist by Ryan Florence

🛠 Installation

npm install -D remix-flat-routes

⚙️ Configuration

Update your remix.config.js file and use the custom routes config option.

const { flatRoutes } = require('remix-flat-routes')

/**
 * @type {import("@remix-run/dev").AppConfig}
 */
module.exports = {
  // ignore all files in routes folder to prevent
  // default remix convention from picking up routes
  ignoredRouteFiles: ['**/*'],
  routes: async defineRoutes => {
    return flatRoutes('routes', defineRoutes, {
      basePath: '/', // optional base path (defaults to /)
      paramPrefixChar: '$', // optional specify param prefix
      ignoredRouteFiles: [], // same as remix config
    })
  },
}

API

function flatRoutes(
  baseDir: string,
  defineRoutes: DefineRoutesFunction,
  options: FlatRoutesOptions,
)

type FlatRoutesOptions = {
  basePath?: string // optional base path (default is '/')
  paramPrefixChar?: string // optional param prefix (default is '$')
  ignoredRouteFiles?: string[] // optional files to ingore as routes (same as Remix config option)
  visitFiles?: VisitFilesFunction // optional visitor (useful for tests to provide files without file system)
}

NOTE: baseDir should be relative to the app folder. If you want to use the routes folder, you will need to update the ignoredRouteFiles property to ignore all files: **/*

🔨 Flat Routes Convention

Example (flat-files)

routes/
  _auth.forgot-password.tsx
  _auth.login.tsx
  _auth.reset-password.tsx
  _auth.signup.tsx
  _auth.tsx
  _landing.about.tsx
  _landing.index.tsx
  _landing.tsx
  app.calendar.$day.tsx
  app.calendar.index.tsx
  app.calendar.tsx
  app.projects.$id.tsx
  app.projects.tsx
  app.tsx
  app_.projects.$id.roadmap.tsx
  app_.projects.$id.roadmap[.pdf].tsx

As React Router routes:

<Routes>
  <Route element={<Auth />}>
    <Route path="forgot-password" element={<Forgot />} />
    <Route path="login" element={<Login />} />
    <Route path="reset-password" element={<Reset />} />
    <Route path="signup" element={<Signup />} />
  </Route>
  <Route element={<Landing />}>
    <Route path="about" element={<About />} />
    <Route index element={<Index />} />
  </Route>
  <Route path="app" element={<App />}>
    <Route path="calendar" element={<Calendar />}>
      <Route path=":day" element={<Day />} />
      <Route index element={<CalendarIndex />} />
    </Route>
    <Route path="projects" element={<Projects />}>
      <Route path=":id" element={<Project />} />
    </Route>
  </Route>
  <Route path="app/projects/:id/roadmap" element={<Roadmap />} />
  <Route path="app/projects/:id/roadmap.pdf" />
</Routes>

Individual explanations:

filename	url	nests inside of...
_auth.forgot-password.tsx	/forgot-password	_auth.tsx
_auth.login.tsx	/login	_auth.tsx
_auth.reset-password.tsx	/reset-password	_auth.tsx
_auth.signup.tsx	/signup	_auth.tsx
_auth.tsx	n/a	root.tsx
_landing.about.tsx	/about	_landing.tsx
_landing.index.tsx	/	_landing.tsx
_landing.tsx	n/a	root.tsx
app.calendar.$day.tsx	/app/calendar/:day	app.calendar.tsx
app.calendar.index.tsx	/app/calendar	app.calendar.tsx
app.projects.$id.tsx	/app/projects/:id	app.projects.tsx
app.projects.tsx	/app/projects	app.tsx
app.tsx	/app	root.tsx
app_.projects.$id.roadmap.tsx	/app/projects/:id/roadmap	root.tsx
app_.projects.$id.roadmap[.pdf].tsx	/app/projects/:id/roadmap.pdf	n/a (resource route)

Nested Layouts

Default match

By default, flat-routes will nest the current route into the parent layout that has the longest matching prefix.

Given the layout route app.calendar.tsx, the following routes will be nested under app.calendar.tsx since app.calendar is the longest matching prefix.

• app.calendar.index.tsx
• app.calendar.$day.tsx

Override match

Sometimes you want to use a parent layout that is higher up in the route hierarchy. With the default Remix convention, you would use dot (.) notation instead of nested folders. With flat-routes, since routes files always use dots, there is a different convention to specify which layout to nest under.

Let's say you have an app.tsx layout, and you have a route that you don't want to share with the layout, but instead want to match with root.tsx. To override the default parent match, append a trailing underscore (_) to the segment that is the immediate child of the route you want to nest under.

app_.projects.$id.roadmap.tsx will nest under root since there are no matching routes:

• ❌ app_.projects.$id.tsx
• ❌ app_.projects.tsx
• ❌ app_.tsx
• ✅ root.tsx

Conventions

filename	convention	behavior
privacy.jsx	filename	normal route
pages.tos.jsx	dot with no layout	normal route, . -> /
about.jsx	filename with children	parent layout route
about.contact.jsx	dot	child route of layout
about.index.jsx	index filename	index route of layout
about._index.jsx	alias of index.tsx	index route of layout*
about_.company.jsx	trailing underscore	url segment, no layout
app_.projects.$id.roadmap.tsx	trailing underscore	change default parent layout
_auth.jsx	leading underscore	layout nesting, no url segment
_auth.login.jsx	leading underscore	child of pathless layout route
users.$userId.jsx	leading $	URL param
docs.$.jsx	bare $	splat route
dashboard.route.jsx	route suffix	optional, ignored completely
investors/[index].jsx	brackets	escapes conventional characters

NOTE: The underscore prefix for the index route is optional but helps sort the file to the top of the directory listing.

Justification

• Make it easier to see the routes your app has defined - just pop open "routes/" and they are all right there. Since file systems typically sort folders first, when you have dozens of routes it's hard to see today which folders have layouts and which don't. Now all related routes are sorted together.

• Decrease refactor/redesign friction - while code editors are pretty good at fixing up imports when you move files around, and Remix has the "~" import alias, it's just generally easier to refactor a code base that doesn't have a bunch of nested folders. Remix will no longer force this.

  Additionally, when redesigning the user interface, it's simpler to adjust the names of files rather than creating/deleting folders and moving routes around to change the way they nest.

• Help apps migrate to Remix - Existing apps typically don't have a nested route folder structure like today's conventions. Moving to Remix is arduous because you have to deal with all of the imports.

Colocation

While the example is exclusively files, they are really just "import paths". So you could make a folder for a route instead and the index file will be imported, allowing all of a route's modules to live alongside each other. This is the flat-folders convention, as opposed to the flat-files convention detailed above.

Example (flat-folders)

routes/
  _auth.forgot-password.tsx
  _auth.login.tsx
  _auth.tsx
  _landing.about.tsx
  _landing.index.tsx
  _landing.tsx
  app.projects.tsx
  app.projects.$id.tsx
  app.tsx
  app_.projects.$id.roadmap.tsx

Each route becomes a folder with the route name minus the file extension. The route file then is named index.tsx.

So app.projects.tsx becomes app.projects/index.tsx

routes/
  _auth/
    index.tsx x <- route file (same as _auth.tsx)
  _auth.forgot-password/
    index.tsx  <- route file (same as _auth.forgot-password.tsx)
  _auth.login/
    index.tsx   <- route files (same as _auth.login.tsx)
  _landing.about/
    index.tsx   <- route file (same as _landing.about.tsx)
    employee-profile-card.tsx
    get-employee-data.server.tsx
    team-photo.jpg
  _landing.index/
    index.tsx   <- route file (same as _landing.index.tsx)
    scroll-experience.tsx
  _landing/
    index.tsx   <- route file (same as _landing.tsx)
    header.tsx
    footer.tsx
  app/
    index.tsx   <- route file (same as app.tsx)
    primary-nav.tsx
    footer.tsx
  app_.projects.$id.roadmap/
    index.tsx   <- route file (same as app_.projects.$id.roadmap.tsx)
    chart.tsx
    update-timeline.server.tsx
  app.projects/
    index.tsx <- layout file (sames as app.projects.tsx)
    project-card.tsx
    get-projects.server.tsx
    project-buttons.tsx
  app.projects.$id/
    index.tsx  <- route file (sames as app.projects.$id.tsx)

Aliases

Since the route file is now named index.tsx and you can colocate additional files in the same route folder, the index.tsx file may get lost in the list of files. You can also use the following aliases for index.tsx. The underscore prefix will sort the file to the top of the directory listing.

• _index.tsx
• _layout.tsx
• _route.tsx

NOTE: The _layout.tsx and _route.tsx files are simply more explicit about their role. They work the same as index.tsx.

As with flat files, an index route (not to be confused with index route file), can also use the underscore prefix. The route _landing.index can be saved as _landing.index/index.tsx or _landing._index/_index.tsx.

This is a bit more opinionated, but I think it's ultimately what most developers would prefer. Each route becomes its own "mini app" with all of its dependencies together. With the ignoredRouteFiles option it's completely unclear which files are routes and which aren't.

🚚 Migrating Existing Routes

You can now migrate your existing routes to the new flat-routes convention. Simply run:

npx migrate-flat-routes <sourceDir> <targetDir> [options]

Example:
  npx migrate-flat-routes ./app/routes ./app/flatroutes --convention=flat-folders

NOTE:
  sourceDir and targetDir are relative to project root

Options:
  --convention=<convention>
    The convention to use when migrating.
      flat-files - Migrates all files to a flat directory structure.
      flat-folders - Migrates all files to a flat directory structure, but
        creates folders for each route.

😍 Contributors

Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):

Kiliman 💻 📖

Ryan Florence 📖

Brandon Pittman 📖 💻

Mehdi Achour 📖

Fidel González 📖

This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!