The React AppRouter module is a series of components built on top of react-router-dom library.

I've written this library to easy manage routing for auth based app, enforcing route by checking the user auth state and easily manage loading state while performing actions (like loading the client, the initial user data before app start, and so on).

This library could also easily manage sidebar/navbar presence on each route, defining a global Sidebar/Navbar elements on AppRoute.

Components are written purely in TypeScript trying to be strongly typed: refer to TypeScript Usage

Core Concept

React AppRouter is based on an array of AppRoute object elements, injected by the routes props that is mandatory. Each route must contain:

• a unique name string key
• the path string (same as <Route /> element in react-router-dom, except as an array of string, because it is not supported yet)
• the component key, that is the page component used to render the page

Using the AppRoute array, the AppRouter component will create each single <Route /> and some other useful utilities.

The strength of this module is that in you page you could refer to route using its name, and not its path.

For example, if you ar writing a blog, you'll have a single article page. On traditional system you'll refer to this page using:

/**
 * Suppose you have declared somewhere into your app the BrowserRouter
 * end each single routes. One of this route points to a SingleArticle
 * component and is composed by some params
 */
<Route component={SingleArticle} path={'/blog/articles/:category/:slug'} />

/** Refer to this path in you app will be a little verbose */
// eg. looping articles array to build link
{articles.map(({ category, slug, title }) => (
  <Link to={`/blog/articles/${category}/${slug}`}>{title}</Link>
))}

// or, in a component function you could use react-router-dom hooks
const history = useHistory();
history.push(`/blog/articles/${category}/${slug}`);


/**
 * With AppRouter module you could declare your routing using an array
 * of Route, with a unique name, and you could refer to that name
 * to push new location
 */

// eg. looping articles array to build link
{articles.map(({ category, slug, title }) => (
  <AppLink to={'Article'} params={{ category, slug }}>{title}</AppLink>
))}

// or in a component function you could use 'app-router' hooks
const { routeTo } = useRouting();
routeTo('Article', { slug, category });

Getting Started

Installing

You can install React AppRouter using Yarn:

yarn add @appbuckets/app-router

or using npm

npm install --save @appbuckets/app-router

Base Examples

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

import { useParams } from 'react-router-dom';

import { AppRouter, AppLink, usePageTitle } from '@appbuckets/app-router';

// Define the Home Page Component
const Home = () => (
  <React.Fragment>
    <h1>Welcome to Home Page</h1>
    <h3>This page is visible only to User without Auth</h3>
    <hr />
    <AppLink to={'Articles'}>
      <h3>Read Some Articles</h3>
    </AppLink>
  </React.Fragment>
);

// Define the Article Page Component
const Articles = () => (
  <React.Fragment>
    <h1>Choose an Article to Read</h1>
    <h3>This is an Hybrid page, visible to both authorized and unauthorized Users</h3>
    <hr />
    <div>
      <h4>Here are some Articles to Read</h4>
      {[ 1, 2, 3 ].map(id => (
        <AppLink key={id} to={'ShowArticle'} params={{ id }}>
          <h5>Go to Article number {id}</h5>
        </AppLink>
      ))}
    </div>
    <hr />
    <AppLink to={'Home'}>
      <h3>Return to Home Page</h3>
    </AppLink>
    <AppLink to={'UserProfile'}>
      <h3>Go to your personal Profile Page, link visible to Authenticate User Only</h3>
    </AppLink>
  </React.Fragment>
);

// Define a Page to View a Single Article
const ShowArticle = () => {
  // You could use same react-router-dom hooks
  const { id } = useParams();
  // You could use extra hooks defined in app-router
  const [ currentPageTitle , setPageTitle ] = usePageTitle();
  // For example to set the page title
  setPageTitle(`Reading Article ${id}`);

  return (
    <React.Fragment>
      <h1>{id} Article Titles</h1>
      <h3>Articles Subtitles</h3>
      <hr />
      <AppLink to={'Articles'}>
        <h3>Return to Articles List</h3>
      </AppLink>
    </React.Fragment>
  );
};

// Define the Personal Profile Page
const Profile = () => (
  <React.Fragment>
    <h1>Your Profile</h1>
    <h3>This page is visible only to authenticated User</h3>
    <hr />
    <AppLink to={'Articles'}>
      <h3>Return to Articles List</h3>
    </AppLink>
  </React.Fragment>
);

// Define Routes
const routes = [
  {
    name     : 'Home',
    path     : '/',
    component: Home,
    title    : 'Home',
    isPublic : true
  },
  {
    name     : 'Articles',
    path     : '/articles',
    component: Articles,
    title    : 'Articles List',
    isPrivate: true,
    isPublic : true,
    isDefault: 'private' as 'private'
  },
  {
    name     : 'ShowArticle',
    path     : '/articles/:id',
    component: ShowArticle,
    title    : 'Single Articles',
    isPrivate: true,
    isPublic : true
  },
  {
    name     : 'UserProfile',
    path     : '/profile',
    component: Profile,
    title    : 'Profile Settings',
    isPrivate: true
  }
];

// Create the App
const App = () => {

  const [ hasAuth, setHasAuth ] = React.useState(false);

  const handleToggleAuth = () => {
    setHasAuth(!hasAuth);
  };

  return (
    <AppRouter
      defaultAppName={'Routing Example'}
      userHasAuth={hasAuth}
      routes={routes}
      components={{
        Footer: () => (
          <React.Fragment>
            <hr />
            <p>I am a Static Footer Component, showed on Each Page</p>
            <button onClick={handleToggleAuth}>
              {hasAuth ? 'Remove User Authorization' : 'Authorize User'}
            </button>
          </React.Fragment>
        )
      }}
    />
  );
};

// Render
ReactDOM.render(
  <App />,
  document.getElementById('root-app')
);

Usage

Components

React AppRouter consists in 1 core components (the <AppRouter />), and some side useful components (like <AppLink />).

<AppRouter />

The AppRouter is the mandatory component to let the React AppRouter module work. It wraps, under the hoods the original <BrowserRouter /> component from react-router-dom.

Complete props description are defined in AppRouterProps interface.

Some principal AppRouter props are:

routes : AppRoute[]

Define each single route. Check the AppRoute interface to get documentation on each prop to build your routing system.

defaultAppName? : string

Page title will be defined every time user route to a new page.

Each route has is own title, but if you want you can provide a default AppTitle that will be prepended to single page title.

isInitiallyLoading? : boolean

App State could be set to isInitiallyLoading to prevent page render while the App is starting.

This is intended to show for example a full page loader on App Initialization.

isLoading? : boolean

App State could be set to isLoading any time, to show a loader component while performing some long/system functions.

This is intended to show for example a different loader while performing Login/Logout Operation.

userHasAuth? : boolean

Tell the AppRouter if current user has authorization to show a private page.

Changing userHasAuth on private/public only page will automatically perform a mandatory redirect to default private/public page based on user auth.

<AppLink />

AppLink component is a wrapper for Link or NavLink elements of react-router-dom library.

Additionally, the Link elements will be rendered only if current user could reach that route, based on userHasAuth state of parent AppRouter.

AppLink extends all props defined in Link or NavLink element, except for the to props that must refer to valid AppRoute.

Refer to AppLinkProps interface.

Hooks

Hooks are used to manage routing, or get route state on function components.

useAppState() : AppState

Get current app state

useLayout() : AppRouterLayout

Get the layout state for current route. This hook is used internally by PageWrapper, but exposed anyway for further usage.

useAppName() : [string, changeName: ((newName?: string) => void), restoreDefault: () => void]

Return a set of three elements:

• The current name of the App
• A function to set a new name
• A function to restore the name declared in defaultAppName props of component

useCurrentRoute() : CurrentRoute

Returns an object that describe the current routes, composed by:

• route : AppRoute The current route object
• params : {} Current params of route
• search : URLSearchParams Search query string converted to URLSearchParams

useRouting() : UseRoutingTools

Returns an object that contains useful route methods and properties:

• routeTo : (route: string | AppRoute, params?: {}, state?: LocationState) => void Route to a path
• couldRouteTo : (route: string | AppRoute) => boolean Check if a routing to route could be performed based on userHasAuth
• getRoute : (name: string) => AppRoute | undefined Get a Route Object by name
• routeToDefaultPrivate : (params?: {}, state?: LocationState) => void Route to the default private route
• routeToDefaultPublic : (params?: {}, state?: LocationState) => void Route to the default public route
• defaultPrivateRoute : AppRoute The default private route object
• defaultPublicRoute : AppRoute The default public route object

usePageTitle() : [string, changeTitle: ((newTitle?: string) => void)]

Return a set of two elements:

• The current page title
• A function to set a new page title

HOC

An only High Order Component is provided

withAppRouter

Wrapping a component with this HOC will produce a new component with appRouter props. Refer to AppRouterTools to check how its composed.

Interfaces

Interface describe below use the TypeScript syntax. A props or an option marked by ? char is considered as optional.

AppRouterProps

appendRouteClassNameTo? : HTMLElement

Set manually the HTML Node where route classname are appended, falling back to <body> element.

When a location changed event, current route will be splitted into route tree and appended as className to the element defined into appendRouteClassNameTo. For example, if your current route is '/blog/article/tech', 'blog', 'article' and 'tech' string will be used as className.

This option will be considered only with useRouteClassName

ClassName will be transformed using slugify module

Additionally, also the current hash will be used as className

browserRouterProps? : BrowserRouterProps

Props passed to the wrapped <BrowserRouter /> component.

components? : SideRouteComponents

A set of component rendered outside the wrapped page, like Sidebar, Navbar, Loader, ecc..

Refer to linked interface to get each props.

defaultAppName? : string

Set the current AppName. This text will be used to create the App Title on each Page.

fireOnRouteChangeEventOnMount? : boolean

Choose if must fire the onRouteChange event handler on AppRouter mount.

By default, this props is true

hashClassNamePrefix? : string

This string will pe prepended to current hash while setting the hash className.

This option will be considered only with useRouteClassName

By default, this props is hash-

hidePageWhileInitiallyLoading? : boolean

Set if the Page Component must be hide while app state has isInitiallyLoading equal to true

By default, this props is true

hidePageWhileLoading? : boolean

Set if the Page Component must be hide while app state has isLoading equal to true

By default, this props is false

isInitiallyLoading? : boolean

App State could be set to isInitiallyLoading to prevent page render while the App is starting.

This is intended to show for example a full page loader on App Initialization.

isLoading? : boolean

App State could be set to isLoading any time, to show a loader component while performing some long/system functions.

This is intended to show for example a different loader while performing Login/Logout Operation.

innerClassNames? : { pageClassNames?: ClassValue | ClassValue[], viewClassNames?: ClassValue | ClassValue[] }

Page Component will be wrapped by an outer , that contain all route elements (sidebar, header ...), and an inner that wrap your page.

If you want you can add any class to wrappers. Additional ClassName are merged together using clsx library. Refer to clsx documentation to know what ClassValue is.

getNextRoute? : (props: AppRoute, appState: AppState, routeProps: RouteComponentProps) => string | null | MandatoryRedirect

This function will be called after a location event occurred, but before the page rendering function.

Use this function if you want to mandatory redirect a user to another page. You could return a string to refer directly to a defined route, or an object (described on MandatoryRedirect), with route, params and state.

hasNavbar? : boolean

Set if AppRouter must render the Navbar component on page where Navbar has been enabled

hasSidebar? : boolean

Set if AppRouter must render the Sidebar component on page where Sidebar has been enabled

onHashChange? : (current: string, location: Location, history: History) => void

A handler callback invoked each time hash changed.

onRouteChange? : (current: AppRoute, location: Location, history: History) => void

A handler callback invoked each time location changed.

routes : AppRoute[]

Define each single route. Check the AppRoute interface to get documentation on each prop to build your routing system.

pageTitleWhileInitiallyLoading? : string

Set the Page Title used while app is in Initially Loading State

pageTitleWhileLoading? : string

Set the Page Title used while app is in Loading State

pageTitleSeparator? : string

Set the Page Title separator.

When the title inside will change, computing function will use the current appName string, and the current page title string: set this props to choose how the two names will be joined together.

userHasAuth? : boolean

Tell the AppRouter if current user has authorization to show a private page.

Changing userHasAuth on private/public only page will automatically perform a mandatory redirect to default private/public page based on user auth.

useRouteClassName? : boolean

Tell the AppRouter must append current route className to HTMLElement defined in appendRouteClassNameTo

AppRoute

AppRoute interface is used to describe each single Route.

component : React.ComponentType<RouteComponentProps>

Is the component used to render the page at current route

exact? : boolean

Set if this route must be reached only if exact path has been typed by user.

By default, value is true

hasNavbar? : boolean

Set the page has the Navbar component visible

By default, value is true if route has isPrivate set to true

hasSidebar? : boolean

Set the page has the Sidebar component visible

By default, value is true if route has isPrivate set to true

isDefault? : boolean | 'private' | 'public'

When the App start, or when userHasAuth prop changed, if current page could not be reached by user, routing will fallback to default page based on current userHasAuth prop.

For a hybrid page (when a page is both public and private) you could manually set if current route is default for private or public routing

isPrivate? : boolean

Set if the page is Private. A Private page could be reached only when userHasAuth is true. You could declare a page both private and public: the result is a Hybrid page, visible by user with and without auth

Default is false

isPublic? : boolean

Set if the page is Public. A Public page could be reached only when userHasAuth is false. You could declare a page both private and public: the result is a Hybrid page, visible by user with and without auth

Default is false

name : string

The unique page name

path : string

The page path

Alert: react-router-dom will accept also an array of string. At the moment this is not accepted by AppRouter.

sensitive? : boolean

When true, will match if the path is case sensitive.

strict? : boolean

When true, a path that has a trailing slash will only match a location.pathname with a trailing slash. This has no effect when there are additional URL segments in the location.pathname.

title? : string

The page title, appended to current AppName

CurrentRoute

route : Readonly<AppRoute>

The current Route object

params : { [key: string]: string | number | boolean | undefined }

Params used to reach current rout

search : URLSearchParams

Converted search query string to URLSearchParams object

AppState

The current state of App, represented by

• isInitiallyLoading : boolean

Get if app is in Initially Loading State

• isLoading : boolean

Get if app is in Loading State

• userHasAuth : boolean

Get if current user has auth

SideRouteComponents

A set of components used to render the whole app page.

Each declared component receive as props the appState key, an object containing the current state of the app. Refer to AppState interface to props description.

Footer? : React.ComponentType<{ appState: AppState }>

A content rendered under the Page

Header? : React.ComponentType<{ appState: AppState }>

A content rendered above the Page, but under the Navbar (if present)

InitialLoader? : React.ComponentType<{ appState: AppState }>

The component to render while app state has isInitiallyLoading equal to true

Loader? : React.ComponentType<{ appState: AppState }>

The component to render while app state has isLoading equal to true

Navbar? : React.ComponentType<{ appState: AppState }>

The Navbar element, rendered on top of page. Setting the Navbar component will not automatically show the Navbar element until hasNavbar of AppRouter component is true.

NotFound? : React.ComponentType<{ appState: AppState }>

Custom component page to show on NotFound page

Sidebar? : React.ComponentType<{ appState: AppState }>

The Sidebar element, rendered on left side of page. Setting the Sidebar component will not automatically show the Sidebar element until hasSidebar of AppRouter component is true.

MandatoryRedirect

This is an Object that could be returned by getNextRout() method to force routing to another page.

route : string | AppRoute

The new route

params? : { [key: string]: string | number | boolean | undefined }

Params used to build the route

state? : LocationState

Location state passed to route

AppLinkProps

AppLink element extends each props of Link or NavLink element plus:

asNavLink? : boolean

Render the element as a <NavLink /> instead as a <Link />

params? : { [key: string]: string | number | boolean | undefined }

Params passed to build the complete route

renderAnyway? : boolean

By default, a AppLink will be rendered only if current user could reach the requested route. Eg. If a user has no auth, a link to a private route will not be rendered.

Set this props to true if link must be rendered anyway

to : string

The Route Name to point

AppRouterTools

appName? : string

Get the current AppName

appState : Readonly<AppState>

Get the current AppState

currentRoute : Readonly<CurrentRoute>

Get the current Route and its params and search string

defaultPrivateRoute : Readonly<AppRoute>

Get the default private defined route

defaultPublicRoute : Readonly<AppRoute>

Get the default public defined route

layout : Readonly<AppRouterLayout>

Get current layout settings

restoreAppName : () => void

Restore the default app name defined in

couldRouteTo : (route?: AppRoute) => void

Check if a route could be performed to a page

routeTo : (route: string | AppRoute, params?: {}, state?: LocationState) => void

Route to a page by name

routeToDefaultPrivate : (params?: {}, state?: LocationState) => void

Route to default private page

routeToDefaultPublic : (params?: {}, state?: LocationState) => void

Route to default public page

setAppName : (nextAppName?: string | ((currentAppName?: string)) => string | undefined) => void

Set a new App Name

setPageTitle : (pageTitle?: string) => void

Set a new page Title

AppRouterLayout

hasNavbar? : boolean

Check if current route has navbar visible

hasSidebar? : boolean

Check if current route has sidebar visible

hidePageWhileInitiallyLoading? : boolean

Check if current page must be hide if app is in initially loading state

hidePageWhileLoading? : boolean

Check if current page must be hide if app is in loading state

pageTitleWhileInitiallyLoading? : string

Get the page title to set while app is in initially loading state

pageTitleWhileLoading? : string

Get the page title to set while app is in loading state

TypeScript Usage

• [ ] : TODO

Roadmap

See the open issues for a list of proposed features (and known issues).

ToDo

• [ ] SubRouting
• [ ] Define Route in a more declarative way
• [ ] TypeScript extended functionality
• [ ] Style base example
• [ ] More Examples

Contributing

Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for details on our code of conduct, and the process for submitting pull requests to us.

Fork Example

To fix or add new features feel free to fork this repo by:

1. Fork it ([https://github.com/marcocavanna/react-app-router/fork])
2. Clone the project on your workspace (git clone https://github.com/marcocavanna/react-app-router.git)
3. Inside the clone repository, add the upstream to this repo (git remote add upstream https://github.com/marcocavanna/react-app-router.git)
4. Create your feature / fix branch (git checkout -b feature/my-new-route-component)
5. Do some cool stuff
6. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'feat(component): added a wonderful component')
7. Push your work (git push -u origin feature/my-new-route-component)
8. Create the pull request, from your forked github repository page

Authors

• Marco Cavanna - Initial Work

Built With

• React A library to create UI
• react-router-dom Declarative routing for React
• clsx ClassName Utility
• slugify Create slug from string
• tiny-invariant A tiny invariant alternative

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License