React Router has gone through some changes over the years. Here’s an intro to the latest version: React Router 4.
Same as installing any package. You’ll probably want react-router-dom
and not react-router
, though:
$ yarn add react-router-dom
# or with npm:
$ npm install react-router-dom --save
It’s actually pretty intuitive. Just define Routes in the child element of a Router:
import React, { Component } from 'react';
// This example's for browser use, so I'm using `BrowserRouter`.
// The are other routers for other environments, though.
import { BrowserRouter, Route } from 'react-router-dom';
// Your components.
import AboutPage from './AboutPage';
import HomePage from './HomePage';
class App extends Component {
render() {
return (
<BrowserRouter>
<div>
{/* `component` will render when `path` matches the user's location */}
{/* `exact` makes it so it only renders if `path` matches exactly. */}
{/* Otherwise, `HomePage` would render on "mysite.com/About" as well as "mysite.com/". */}
<Route exact path="/" component={HomePage}/>
<Route path="/About" component={AboutPage}/>
</div>
</BrowserRouter>
);
}
}
export default App;
Of course, routes aren’t that useful if the user has to manually edit the URL. React Router offers a solution in the form of the Link
component:
import React from 'react';
import { Link } from 'react-router-dom';
// Our Home Page. Exciting stuff.
export default function HomePage() {
return (
<div>
<h1>{'Home Page'}</h1>
{/* A link to the About route. */}
<Link to="/About">{'Check out our About Page!'}</Link>
</div>
);
}
If you’re wondering why you shouldn’t just use an anchor tag (<a>
): React Router does some cool stuff with the history object.
Thanks for learning with the DigitalOcean Community. Check out our offerings for compute, storage, networking, and managed databases.
This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.
You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!
Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.
Full documentation for every DigitalOcean product.
The Wave has everything you need to know about building a business, from raising funding to marketing your product.
Stay up to date by signing up for DigitalOcean’s Infrastructure as a Newsletter.
New accounts only. By submitting your email you agree to our Privacy Policy
Scale up as you grow — whether you're running one virtual machine or ten thousand.
Sign up and get $200 in credit for your first 60 days with DigitalOcean.*
*This promotional offer applies to new accounts only.