ReactJS Router

As there is no inbuilt routing in React, the React JS Router enables routing support in React and navigation to different components in multi-page applications. It renders components for corresponding routes and assigned URLs.

What is React Router ?

React Router is a standard library for routing in React. It enables the navigation among views of various components in a React Application, allows changing the browser URL, and keeps the UI in sync with the URL. Let us create a simple application to React to understand how the React Router works. The application will contain three components the home component, about component, and contact component. We will use React Router to navigate between these components.

Steps to Create React Application and Install React Router

Step 1: Create React Project 

npm create-react-app myreactapp

Step 2: Change your directory and enter your main folder charting as

cd myreactapp

Step 3: To install react-router in your application write the following command in your terminal

npm i react-router-dom

Step 4: Importing React Router

import { BrowserRouter, Routes, Route } from "react-router-dom";

Project Structure:

The updated dependencies in package.json file.

"dependencies": {
        "@testing-library/jest-dom": "^5.17.0",
        "@testing-library/react": "^13.4.0",
        "@testing-library/user-event": "^13.5.0",
        "react": "^18.2.0",
        "react-dom": "^18.2.0",
        "react-router-dom": "^5.3.4",
        "react-scripts": "5.0.1",
        "web-vitals": "^2.1.4"
},

React Router Components:

The Main Components of React Router are:

• BrowserRouter: BrowserRouter is a router implementation that uses the HTML5 history API(pushState, replaceState, and the popstate event) to keep your UI in sync with the URL. It is the parent component that is used to store all of the other components.
• Routes: It’s a new component introduced in the v6 and an upgrade of the component. The main advantages of Routes over Switch are:
  • Relative s and s
  • Routes are chosen based on the best match instead of being traversed in order.
• Route: Route is the conditionally shown component that renders some UI when its path matches the current URL.
• Link: The link component is used to create links to different routes and implement navigation around the application. It works like an HTML anchor tag.

Implementing React Router

Example: This example shows navigation using react-router-dom to Home, About and Contact Components.

Javascript

// Filename - App.js

import React, { Component } from "react";
import {
    BrowserRouter as Router,
    Routes,
    Route,
    Link,
} from "react-router-dom";
import Home from "./component/home";
import About from "./component/about";
import Contact from "./component/contact";
import "./App.css";

class App extends Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <Router>
                <div className="App">
                    <ul className="App-header">
                        <li>
                            <Link to="/">Home</Link>
                        </li>
                        <li>
                            <Link to="/about">
                                About Us
                            </Link>
                        </li>
                        <li>
                            <Link to="/contact">
                                Contact Us
                            </Link>
                        </li>
                    </ul>
                    <Routes>
                        <Route
                            exact
                            path="/"
                            element={<Home />}
                        ></Route>
                        <Route
                            exact
                            path="/about"
                            element={<About />}
                        ></Route>
                        <Route
                            exact
                            path="/contact"
                            element={<Contact />}
                        ></Route>
                    </Routes>
                </div>
            </Router>
        );
    }
}

export default App;

Javascript

// Filename - component/home.js

import React from "react";

function Home() {
    return <h1>Welcome to the world of Geeks!</h1>;
}

export default Home;

Javascript

// Filename - component/about.js

import React from "react";

function About() {
    return (
        <div>
            <h2>
                GeeksforGeeks is a computer science portal
                for geeks!
            </h2>
            Read more about us at :
            <a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/about/">
                https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/about/
            </a>
        </div>
    );
}
export default About;

Javascript

// Filename - component/contact.js

import React from "react";

function Contact() {
    return (
        <address>
            You can find us here:
            <br />
            GeeksforGeeks
            <br />
            5th & 6th Floor, Royal Kapsons, A- 118, <br />
            Sector- 136, Noida, Uttar Pradesh (201305)
        </address>
    );
}

export default Contact;

Step to run the application: Open the terminal and type the following command.  

npm start

Output: Open the browser and our project is shown in the URL http://localhost:3000/. Now, we you can click on the links and navigate to different components. React Router keeps your application UI in sync with the URL.

Finally, we have successfully implemented navigation in our React application using React Router.