Nested routes with react router v4 / v5

Question

I am currently struggling with nesting routes using react router v4.

The closest example was the route config in the React-Router v4 Documentation.

I want t

Answer 1

In react-router-v4 you don't nest <Routes />. Instead, you put them inside another <Component />.

---

For instance

<Route path='/topics' component={Topics}>
  <Route path='/topics/:topicId' component={Topic} />
</Route>

should become

<Route path='/topics' component={Topics} />

with

const Topics = ({ match }) => (
  <div>
    <h2>Topics</h2>
    <Link to={`${match.url}/exampleTopicId`}>
      Example topic
    </Link>
    <Route path={`${match.path}/:topicId`} component={Topic}/>
  </div>
) 

---

Here is a basic example straight from the react-router documentation.

Answer 2

I succeeded in defining nested routes by wrapping with Switch and define nested route before than root route.

<BrowserRouter>
  <Switch>
    <Route path="/staffs/:id/edit" component={StaffEdit} />
    <Route path="/staffs/:id" component={StaffShow} />
    <Route path="/staffs" component={StaffIndex} />
  </Switch>
</BrowserRouter>

Reference: https://github.com/ReactTraining/react-router/blob/master/packages/react-router/docs/api/Switch.md

Answer 3

Using Hooks

The latest update with hooks is to use useRouteMatch.

Main routing component

export default function NestingExample() {
  return (
    <Router>
      <Switch>
       <Route path="/topics">
         <Topics />
       </Route>
     </Switch>
    </Router>
  );
}

Child component

function Topics() {
  // The `path` lets us build <Route> paths 
  // while the `url` lets us build relative links.

  let { path, url } = useRouteMatch();

  return (
    <div>
      <h2>Topics</h2>
      <h5>
        <Link to={`${url}/otherpath`}>/topics/otherpath/</Link>
      </h5>
      <ul>
        <li>
          <Link to={`${url}/topic1`}>/topics/topic1/</Link>
        </li>
        <li>
          <Link to={`${url}/topic2`}>/topics/topic2</Link>
        </li>
      </ul>

      // You can then use nested routing inside the child itself
      <Switch>
        <Route exact path={path}>
          <h3>Please select a topic.</h3>
        </Route>
        <Route path={`${path}/:topicId`}>
          <Topic />
        </Route>
        <Route path={`${path}/otherpath`>
          <OtherPath/>
        </Route>
      </Switch>
    </div>
  );
}

Answer 4

A complete answer for React Router v6 or version 6 just in case needed.

import Dashboard from "./dashboard/Dashboard";
import DashboardDefaultContent from "./dashboard/dashboard-default-content";
import { Route, Routes } from "react-router";
import { useRoutes } from "react-router-dom";

/*Routes is used to be Switch*/
const Router = () => {

  return (
    <Routes>
      <Route path="/" element={<LandingPage />} />
      <Route path="games" element={<Games />} />
      <Route path="game-details/:id" element={<GameDetails />} />
      <Route path="dashboard" element={<Dashboard />}>
        <Route path="/" element={<DashboardDefaultContent />} />
        <Route path="inbox" element={<Inbox />} />
        <Route path="settings-and-privacy" element={<SettingsAndPrivacy />} />
        <Route path="*" element={<NotFound />} />
      </Route>
      <Route path="*" element={<NotFound />} />
    </Routes>
  );
};
export default Router;

import DashboardSidebarNavigation from "./dashboard-sidebar-navigation";
import { Grid } from "@material-ui/core";
import { Outlet } from "react-router";

const Dashboard = () => {
  return (
    <Grid
      container
      direction="row"
      justify="flex-start"
      alignItems="flex-start"
    >
      <DashboardSidebarNavigation />
      <Outlet />
    </Grid>
  );
};

export default Dashboard;

Github repo is here. https://github.com/webmasterdevlin/react-router-6-demo

Answer 5

React Router v6

allows to use both nested routes (like in v3) and separate, splitted routes (v4, v5).

Nested Routes

Keep all routes in one place for small/medium size apps:

<Routes>
  <Route path="/" element={<Home />} >
    <Route path="user" element={<User />} /> 
    <Route path="dash" element={<Dashboard />} /> 
  </Route>
</Routes>

const App = () => {
  return (
    <BrowserRouter>
      <Routes>
        // /js is start path of stack snippet
        <Route path="/js" element={<Home />} >
          <Route path="user" element={<User />} />
          <Route path="dash" element={<Dashboard />} />
        </Route>
      </Routes>
    </BrowserRouter>
  );
}

const Home = () => {
  const location = useLocation()
  return (
    <div>
      <p>URL path: {location.pathname}</p>
      <Outlet />
      <p>
        <Link to="user" style={{paddingRight: "10px"}}>user</Link>
        <Link to="dash">dashboard</Link>
      </p>
    </div>
  )
}

const User = () => <div>User profile</div>
const Dashboard = () => <div>Dashboard</div>

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById("root"));

<div id="root"></div>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/react@16.13.1/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/react-dom@16.13.1/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/history@5.0.0/umd/history.production.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/react-router@6.0.0-alpha.5/umd/react-router.production.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/react-router-dom@6.0.0-alpha.5/umd/react-router-dom.production.min.js"></script>
    <script>var { BrowserRouter, Routes, Route, Link, Outlet, useNavigate, useLocation } = window.ReactRouterDOM;</script>

Alternative: Define your routes as plain JavaScript objects via useRoutes.

Separate Routes

You can use separates routes to meet requirements of larger apps like code splitting:

// inside App.jsx:
<Routes>
  <Route path="/*" element={<Home />} />
</Routes>

// inside Home.jsx:
<Routes>
  <Route path="user" element={<User />} />
  <Route path="dash" element={<Dashboard />} />
</Routes>

const App = () => {
  return (
    <BrowserRouter>
      <Routes>
        // /js is start path of stack snippet
        <Route path="/js/*" element={<Home />} />
      </Routes>
    </BrowserRouter>
  );
}

const Home = () => {
  const location = useLocation()
  return (
    <div>
      <p>URL path: {location.pathname}</p>
      <Routes>
        <Route path="user" element={<User />} />
        <Route path="dash" element={<Dashboard />} />
      </Routes>
      <p>
        <Link to="user" style={{paddingRight: "5px"}}>user</Link>
        <Link to="dash">dashboard</Link>
      </p>
    </div>
  )
}

const User = () => <div>User profile</div>
const Dashboard = () => <div>Dashboard</div>

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById("root"));

<div id="root"></div>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/react@16.13.1/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/react-dom@16.13.1/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/history@5.0.0/umd/history.production.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/react-router@6.0.0-alpha.5/umd/react-router.production.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/react-router-dom@6.0.0-alpha.5/umd/react-router-dom.production.min.js"></script>
    <script>var { BrowserRouter, Routes, Route, Link, Outlet, useNavigate, useLocation } = window.ReactRouterDOM;</script>