React Router v6: A Beginner’s Guide to Routing in React Apps

Mastering React Router v6: A Comprehensive Guide

Why Choose React Router?

When building single-page applications (SPAs) with multiple views, you need a mechanism to navigate between them without refreshing the entire webpage. While you can achieve this using conditional rendering, syncing the application URL with views is crucial. This is where React Router comes in – a fully-featured routing library for React apps that offers pre-developed components, Hooks, and utility functions to create modern routing strategies.

Getting Started with React Router

To take full advantage of this tutorial, ensure you have Node.js v14.x.x (or greater) installed, along with a package manager like npm or Yarn. Basic knowledge of JavaScript, React, and React Hooks is also required.

React Router Project Packages

React Router is a monorepo project consisting of five different npm packages, each serving a distinct purpose:

1. react-router-dom: Offers routing features for React web applications.
2. react-router-native: Provides routing features for React Native apps.
3. react-router: Implements common core logic for react-router-dom and react-router-native packages.
4. @remix-run/router: A frontend-library-agnostic implementation of application routing.
5. react-router-dom-v5-compat: Helps with incremental v5-to-v6 migration.

Creating Routes with React Router v6

To create routes, you’ll need to import the necessary components from react-router-dom. The BrowserRouter component handles routing by storing the routing context in the browser URL and implements backward/forward navigation with the inbuilt history stack.

Building Functional Components

Create functional components using the Route component, which renders the UI of a React component based on the current URL. The element prop allows you to pass a React component rather than just its name, making it easy to pass props down the routes.

Implementing a 404 View

Implement a 404 view for invalid route entries by adding a no-match route with the * syntax.

Adding a Navigation Menu

Use the Link component from react-router-dom to navigate between routes without refreshing the webpage.

Handling Nested Routes

Nesting routing is crucial in React apps. Use the Outlet component to render any matching children for a particular route with relative path definitions.

Accessing URL Parameters and Dynamic Parameters of a Route

Use the useParams Hook to access dynamic parameters of a route, such as the slug of a blog post.

Using the useRoutes Hook

Define routes without using HTML-like nested JSX routing trees with the useRoutes Hook.

Protecting Routes

Implement protected routes based on custom conditional checks to limit publicly available app routes. Use the Navigate component for redirection.

By following this comprehensive guide, you’ll master the art of using React Router v6 in your React apps.