React Router Basics

Edit on GitHub
Dec 1, 2016
ReactJS
2 minutes

1ReactDOM.render((
2  <Router history={browserHistory}>
3    <Route path='/' component={Users} />
4    <Route path='/other' component={Other} />
5  </Router>
6), document.getElementById('root'))

history is required.

What we did above is we mounted a Router to the DOM, it is now going to take Routes. A route takes a path (URL) and shows a component on that path.

Link

If you want to navigate anywhere within the site, you use Link. You’ll only use actual href when you want to move away from the site. A link looks like this:

1<Link to='/other'>Other</Link>

You will not be making any server requests to go to any of these different links/pages.

Nested Routes

You can have nested routes just like you can have nested components

1ReactDOM.render((
2  <Router history={browserHistory}>
3      <Route path='/' component={Main}>
4        <Route path='/users' component={Users} />
5        <Route path='/other' component={Other} />
6      </Route>
7  </Router>
8), document.getElementById('root'))

What the could above will do is that it’ll load the Users route/component inside the Main route/component.

IndexRoute

IndexRoute let’s you render props.children. It’s aimed at setting a default UI that opens when you are at the route.

1ReactDOM.render((
2  <Router history={browserHistory}>
3    <Route path='/' component={AppLayout}>
4      <IndexRoute component={Users} />
5      <Route path='/other' component={Other} />
6    </Route>
7  </Router>
8), document.getElementById('root'))

Props

You can also pass props, like so:

1ReactDOM.render((
2  <Router history={browserHistory}>
3    <Route path='/' component={AppLayout}>
4      <IndexRoute component={Users} />
5      <Route path='/profile/:id' component={UserProfile}} />
6    </Route>
7  </Router>
8), document.getElementById('root'))

Notes