@bravissimolabs/react-router-config
v1.0.0-beta.5
Published
Static route config matching for React Router
Downloads
160
Maintainers
Readme
React Router Config
Forked version of react-router-config
Static route configuration helpers for React Router.
This is alpha software, it needs:
- Realistic server rendering example with data preloading
- Pending navigation example
Installation
Using npm:
$ npm install --save @bravissimolabs/react-router-config
Then with a module bundler like webpack, use as you would anything else:
// using an ES6 transpiler, like babel
import { matchRoutes, renderRoutes } from 'react-router-config'
// not using an ES6 transpiler
var matchRoutes = require('react-router-config').matchRoutes
The UMD build is also available on unpkg:
<script src="https://unpkg.com/react-router-config/umd/react-router-config.min.js"></script>
You can find the library on window.ReactRouterConfig
Motivation
With the introduction of React Router v4, there is no longer a centralized route configuration. There are some use-cases where it is valuable to know about all the app's potential routes such as:
- Loading data on the server or in the lifecycle before rendering the next screen
- Linking to routes by name
- Static analysis
This project seeks to define a shared format for others to build patterns on top of.
Route Configuration Shape
Routes are objects with the same properties as a <Route>
with a couple differences:
- the only render prop it accepts is
component
(norender
orchildren
) - introduces the
routes
key for sub routes - Consumers are free to add any additional props they'd like to a route, you can access
props.route
inside thecomponent
, this object is a reference to the object used to render and match. - accepts
key
prop to prevent remounting component when transition was made from route with the same component and samekey
prop
const routes = [
{ component: Root,
routes: [
{ path: '/',
exact: true,
component: Home
},
{ path: '/child/:id',
component: Child,
routes: [
{ path: '/child/:id/grand-child',
component: GrandChild
}
]
}
]
}
]
Note: Just like <Route>
, relative paths are not (yet) supported. When it is supported there, it will be supported here.
API
matchRoutes(routes, pathname)
Returns an array of matched routes.
Parameters
- routes - the route configuration
- pathname - the pathname component of the url. This must be a decoded string representing the path.
import { matchRoutes } from 'react-router-config'
const branch = matchRoutes(routes, '/child/23')
// using the routes shown earlier, this returns
// [
// routes[0],
// routes[0].routes[1]
// ]
Each item in the array contains two properties: routes
and match
.
routes
: A reference to the routes array used to matchmatch
: The match object that also gets passed to<Route>
render methods.
branch[0].match.url
branch[0].match.isExact
// etc.
You can use this branch of routes to figure out what is going to be rendered before it actually is rendered. You could do something like this on the server before rendering, or in a lifecycle hook of a component that wraps your entire app
const loadBranchData = (location) => {
const branch = matchRoutes(routes, location.pathname)
const promises = branch.map(({ route, match }) => {
return route.loadData
? route.loadData(match)
: Promise.resolve(null)
})
return Promise.all(promises)
}
// useful on the server for preloading data
loadBranchData(req.url).then(data => {
putTheDataSomewhereTheClientCanFindIt(data)
})
// also useful on the client for "pending navigation" where you
// load up all the data before rendering the next page when
// the url changes
// THIS IS JUST SOME THEORETICAL PSEUDO CODE :)
class PendingNavDataLoader extends Component {
state = {
previousLocation: null
}
componentWillReceiveProps(nextProps) {
const navigated = nextProps.location !== this.props.location
const { routes } = this.props
if (navigated) {
// save the location so we can render the old screen
this.setState({
previousLocation: this.props.location
})
// load data while the old screen remains
loadNextData(routes, nextProps.location).then((data) => {
putTheDataSomewhereRoutesCanFindIt(data)
// clear previousLocation so the next screen renders
this.setState({
previousLocation: null
})
})
}
}
render() {
const { children, location } = this.props
const { previousLocation } = this.state
// use a controlled <Route> to trick all descendants into
// rendering the old location
return (
<Route
location={previousLocation || location}
render={() => children}
/>
)
}
}
// wrap in withRouter
export default withRouter(PendingNavDataLoader)
/////////////
// somewhere at the top of your app
import routes from './routes'
<BrowserRouter>
<PendingNavDataLoader routes={routes}>
{renderRoutes(routes)}
</PendingNavDataLoader>
</BrowserRouter>
Again, that's all pseudo-code. There are a lot of ways to do server rendering with data and pending navigation and we haven't settled on one. The point here is that matchRoutes
gives you a chance to match statically outside of the render lifecycle. We'd like to make a demo app of this approach eventually.
renderRoutes(routes, extraProps = {}, switchProps = {})
In order to ensure that matching outside of render with matchRoutes
and inside of render result in the same branch, you must use renderRoutes
instead of <Route>
inside your components. You can render a <Route>
still, but know that it will not be accounted for in matchRoutes
outside of render.
import { renderRoutes } from 'react-router-config'
const routes = [
{ component: Root,
routes: [
{ path: '/',
exact: true,
component: Home
},
{ path: '/child/:id',
component: Child,
routes: [
{ path: '/child/:id/grand-child',
component: GrandChild
}
]
}
]
}
]
const Root = ({ route }) => (
<div>
<h1>Root</h1>
{/* child routes won't render without this */}
{renderRoutes(route.routes)}
</div>
)
const Home = ({ route }) => (
<div>
<h2>Home</h2>
</div>
)
const Child = ({ route }) => (
<div>
<h2>Child</h2>
{/* child routes won't render without this */}
{renderRoutes(route.routes, { someProp: 'these extra props are optional' })}
</div>
)
const GrandChild = ({ someProp }) => (
<div>
<h3>Grand Child</h3>
<div>{someProp}</div>
</div>
)
ReactDOM.render((
<BrowserRouter>
{/* kick it all off with the root route */}
{renderRoutes(routes)}
</BrowserRouter>
), document.getElementById('root'))