threeaims/react-router

A complete routing solution for React.js

React Router

A complete routing library for React.

You are viewing docs for the latest code on master. Check out other releases for the version you have installed.

Also, please refer to the CHANGELOG when upgrading.

**** NPM USERS THIS PACKAGE MOVED ****

This package has moved from react-nested-router to react-router.

Update your package.json to point to the new package, or if you aren't ready to update, make sure your package.json specifically points to 0.3.5 or less, 0.3.6 just throws an error telling you the package has moved.

SemVer

Before our 1.0 release, breaking API changes will cause a bump to 0.x. For example, 0.4.1 and 0.4.8 will have the same API, but 0.5.0 will have breaking changes.

Features

• Nested views mapped to nested routes
• Modular construction of route hierarchy
• Fully asynchronous transition hooks
• Transition abort / redirect / retry
• Dynamic segments
• Query parameters
• Links with automatic .active class when their route is active
• Multiple root routes
• Hash or HTML5 history URLs

Check out the examples directory to see how simple previously complex UI and workflows are to create.

Installation

npm install react-router
# or
bower install react-router

This library is written with CommonJS modules. If you are using browserify, webpack, or similar, you can consume it like anything else installed from npm.

There is also a UMD build available on bower, find the library on window.ReactRouter.

Usage

var Route = require('react-router').Route;

React.renderComponent((
  <Route handler={App}>
    <Route name="about" handler={About}/>
    <Route name="users" handler={Users}>
      <Route name="user" path="/user/:userId" handler={User}/>
    </Route>
  </Route>
), document.body);

Or if JSX isn't your jam:

React.renderComponent((
  Route({handler: App},
    Route({name: "about", handler: About}),
    Route({name: "users", handler: Users},
      Route({name: "user", path: "/user/:userId", handler: User})
    )
  )
), document.body);

• Urls will be matched to the deepest route, and then all the routes up the hierarchy are activated and their "handlers" (normal React components) will be rendered.

• Each handler will receive a params property containing the matched parameters form the url, like :userId.

• Handlers also receive a query prop equal to a dictionary of the current query params.

• Parent routes will receive a activeRouteHandler property. Its a function that will render the active child route handler.

Here's the rest of the application:

var Link = require('react-router').Link;

var App = React.createClass({
  render: function() {
    return (
      <div>
        <ul>
          <li><Link to="about">About</Link></li>
          <li><Link to="users">Users</Link></li>
          <li><Link to="user" userId="123">User 123</Link></li>
        </ul>
        <this.props.activeRouteHandler/>
      </div>
    );
  }
});

var About = React.createClass({
  render: function() {
    return <h2>About</h2>;
  }
});

var Users = React.createClass({
  render: function() {
    return (
      <div>
        <h2>Users</h2>
        <this.props.activeRouteHandler/>
      </div>
    );
  }
});

var User = React.createClass({
  render: function() {
    return <div>{this.props.params.userId}</div>
  }
});

To better understand what is happening with activeRouteHandler perhaps an example without the router will help. Lets take the scenario where /users/2 has been matched. Your render method, without this router, might look something like this:

render: function() {
  var user = <User params={{userId: 2}}/>;
  var users = <Users activeRouteHandler={user}/>;
  return <App activeRouteHandler={users}/>;
}

Instead, the router manages this view hierarchy for you.

Benefits of This Approach

1. Incredible screen-creation productivity - There is only one use-case when a user visits a route: render something. Every user interface has layers (or nesting) whether its a simple navbar or multiple levels of master-detail. Coupling nested routes to these nested views gets rid of a ton of work for the developer to wire all of it together when the user switches routes. Adding new screens could not get faster.

2. Immediate understanding of application structure - When routes are declared in one place, developers can easily construct a mental image of the application. It's essentially a sitemap. There's not a better way to get so much information about your app this quickly.

3. Code tractability - When a developer gets a ticket to fix a bug at as specific url they simply 1) look at the route config, then 2) go find the handler for that route. Every entry point into your application is represented by these routes.

4. URLs are your first thought, not an after-thought - With React Nested Router, you don't get UI on the page without configuring a url first. Fortunately, its wildly productive this way, too.

Related Modules

• https://github.com/bjyoungblood/rnr-constrained-route - validate paths and parameters on route handlers.

API

Route (component)

Configuration component to declare your application's routes and view hierarchy.

Props

location - The method to use for page navigation when initializing the router. May be either "hash" to use URLs with hashes in them and the hashchange event or "history" to use the HTML5 history API. This prop is only ever used on the root route that is rendered into the page. The default is "hash".

name - The name of the route, used in the Link component and the router's transition methods.

path - The path used in the URL, supporting dynamic segments. If left undefined, the path will be defined by the name. This path is always absolute from the URL "root", even if the leading slash is left off. Nested routes do not inherit the path of their parent.

handler - The component to be rendered when the route matches.

Children

Routes can be nested. When a child route matches, the parent route's handler will have an instance of the child route's handler available as this.props.activeRouteHandler(). You can then render it in the parent passing in any additional props as needed.

Examples

<Route handler={App}>
  <!-- path is automatically assigned to the name since it is omitted -->
  <Route name="about" handler={About}/>
  <Route name="users" handler={Users}>
    <!-- note the dynamic segment in the path -->
    <Route name="user" handler={User} path="/user/:id"/>
  </Route>
</Route>

Or w/o JSX:

Route({handler: App},
  Route({name: 'about', handler: About}),
  Route({name: 'users', handler: Users},
    Route({name: 'user', handler: User, path: '/user/:id'})
  )
);

Route Handler (user-defined component)

The value you pass to a route's handler prop is another component that is rendered to the page when that route is active. There are some special props and static methods available to these components.

Props

this.props.activeRouteHandler(extraProps) - The active child route handler. Use it in your render method to render the child route, passing in additional properties as needed.

this.props.params - When a route has dynamic segments like <Route path="users/:userId"/> the dynamic values are available at this.props.params.userId, etc.

this.props.query - The query parameters from the url.

Static Methods (Transition Hooks)

You can define static methods on your route handlers that will be called during route transitions.

willTransitionTo(transition, params) - Called when a route is about to render, giving you the opportunity to abort the transition. You can return a promise and the whole route hierarchy will wait for the promises to resolve before proceeding. This is especially useful for server-side rendering when you need to populate some data before the handler is rendered.

willTransitionFrom(transition, component) - Called when an active route is being transitioned out giving you an opportunity to abort the transition. The component is the current component, you'll probably need it to check its state to decide if you want to allow the transition.

Transition (object)

transition.abort() - aborts a transition

transition.redirect(to, params, query) - redirect to another route

transition.retry() - retrys a transition

Example

var Settings = React.createClass({
  statics: {
    willTransitionTo: function(transition, params) {
      return auth.isLoggedIn().then(function(loggedIn) {
        if (!loggedIn)
          return;
        transition.abort();
        return auth.logIn({transition: transition});
        // in auth module call `transition.retry()` after being logged in
      });
    },

    willTransitionFrom: function(transition, component) {
      if (component.formHasUnsavedData())) {
        if (!confirm('You have unsaved information, are you sure you want to leave this page?')) {
          transition.abort();
        }
      }
    }
  }

  //...
});

Link (Component)

Creates an anchor tag that links to a route in the application. Also gets the active class automatically when the route matches. If you change the path of your route, you don't have to change your links.

Properties

to - The name of the route to link to, or a full URL.

query - Object, Query parameters to add to the link. Access query parameters in your route handler with this.props.query.

[param] - Any parameters the route defines are passed by name through the link's properties.

Example

Given a route like <Route name="user" path="/users/:userId"/>:

<Link to="user" userId={user.id} query={{foo: bar}}>{user.name}</Link>
<!-- becomes one of these depending on your router and if the route is
active -->
<a href="/users/123?foo=bar" class="active">Michael</a>
<a href="#/users/123?foo=bar">Michael</a>

<!-- or if you have the full url already, you can just pass that in -->
<Link to="/users/123?foo=bar"/>

Top-Level Static Methods

The router has several top-level methods that may be used to navigate around the application.

var Router = require('react-router')

transitionTo(routeNameOrPath, [params[, query]]) - Programatically transition to a new route.

Router.transitionTo('user', {id: 10}, {showAge: true});
Router.transitionTo('about');
Router.transitionTo('/users/10?showAge=true');

replaceWith(routeName, [params[, query]]) - Programatically replace current route with a new route. Does not add an entry into the browser history.

Router.replaceWith('user', {id: 10}, {showAge: true});
Router.replaceWith('about');
Router.replaceWith('/users/10?showAge=true');

goBack() - Programatically go back to the last route and remove the most recent entry from the browser history.

Router.goBack();

Development

Please see CONTRIBUTING

Thanks, Ember

This library is highly inspired by the Ember.js routing API. In general, its a translation of the Ember router api to React. Huge thanks to the Ember team for solving the hardest part already.