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React Router v6 Basics

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Installing React Router and Declaring Routes

8:53 with Laura Coronel

In this video, you'll install React Router v6 and get to know the core components that keep your UI and URL in sync.

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    React Router is an external library that you install with NPM or Yarn. 0:00
    It has separate packages available for either web or native app development. 0:06
    Since we're working on a React web app that uses the DOM and 0:13
    runs in a browser, we'll need to install React Router DOM. 0:17
    In my terminal, I'll stop running the app by pressing Ctrl+C. 0:22
    To install React Router DOM as a dependency, 0:28
    run the command npm i react-router-dom. 0:32
    React lets you create components with JSX, an extension to 0:40
    the JavaScript language that uses an expressive XML style syntax. 0:45
    Most React developers write components in JSX because it resembles writing HTML. 0:52
    React Router extends what you already know about React. 0:58
    The library itself is just a small set of React components, 1:02
    so you write your route using JSX. 1:07
    React Router DOM provides three components to get you started. 1:10
    BrowserRouter, the route routing component that keeps your UI in sync with the URL. 1:16
    Route, which is responsible for 1:22
    rendering a component in your app when the URL matches its path. 1:25
    And Routes, which manages all the route tags and 1:30
    selects which of its child route paths best match the URL. 1:35
    In React you build components that fit into other components, 1:42
    for example, index.js is rendering the App component into the DOM. 1:47
    So App is the root component of our app. 1:53
    It's going to be responsible for displaying the content rendered by 1:57
    the Home, About, Teachers, and Courses components as well as the shared elements, 2:02
    like the app's main layout container, header, and navigation. 2:08
    React Router lets you declare routes from anywhere in your component tree. 2:13
    We're going to write most of our routes inside the root app component. 2:18
    You begin declaring routes with React Router by 2:23
    rendering a router that wraps all your app components. 2:26
    Because our app will run on the web browser, 2:31
    we'll use the router BrowserRouter to wrap around our main app component. 2:34
    In the file index.js, let's first import 2:40
    the BrowserRouter component from react-router-dom. 2:44
    We'll wrap the BrowserRouter component around our App component 2:51
    by placing App component inside opening and closing BrowserRouter tags. 2:56
    To quickly fix the formatting in Visual Studio Code, 3:03
    use the shortcut Option+Shift+F or right-click and select Format Document. 3:07
    This renders the route router that listens to the URL changes and 3:15
    provides other React Router component's information about 3:20
    the current URL, and which component to render. 3:25
    That way your UI is always in sync with the URL. 3:30
    Normally in React you render a nested or child component with its tags. 3:35
    For example, you can render the home component within App by 3:42
    including the Home tag inside the container div. 3:46
    In this case, we're not just loading one unchanging component into App. 3:51
    We want our app to render a different component inside App based on the URL. 3:57
    For example, the Home component for the root path, 4:03
    the About component for the about path, and so on. 4:07
    With React Router you render components via the route component. 4:12
    Let's first import routes, and route component from react-router-dom. 4:17
    Let's nest the Routes tag inside the container div. 4:24
    And nest a self closing Route tag inside the Routes tag. 4:30
    The quickest way to create a route is by specifying a path and the component 4:36
    you want to render for that path using the path and element properties. 4:41
    Path indicates the URL to match. 4:49
    And the element prop specifies which React component to render when 4:52
    the URL matches the route path. 4:57
    For example, to render the Home component at the root path, or when the app loads, 5:00
    I'll use a forward slash for path, then set the element prop to Home. 5:06
    So when the path in the URL is a forward slash or 5:15
    the root path, this route will render the Home component. 5:18
    Let's take a look. 5:23
    I'll run the app in my terminal with npm start. 5:24
    Over in the browser, we get a compiled with problems error. 5:30
    Home is not defined. 5:35
    We're getting this error because we specified Home in the element prop, 5:38
    but we haven't yet imported the Home component in App.js. 5:44
    Let's do that now. 5:48
    I'll add a comment here saying App components. 5:51
    And below that will type import Home from "./components/Home". 5:55
    And in Visual Studio code, you can use the down arrows to get to Home. 6:04
    Let's save. 6:08
    And now in the root path, the router renders the Home component inside App, 6:09
    and we're able to see the app's welcome content. 6:14
    The best part about working with React Router is that since you're working 6:19
    with regular components, wherever you declare a route, the component 6:23
    that route renders automatically becomes a nested component in your UI. 6:28
    In other words, any route you write in the App container 6:35
    will render a child component when its path matches the URL. 6:39
    Next, let's declare a route for the About component. 6:44
    So first, we'll import About from "./components/About". 6:48
    Now let's add a new Route component. 6:57
    This time we'll specify that when the URL path is About, 7:01
    render the About component. Alright, let's save our changes. 7:06
    Back in our app, changing the URL to /about 7:16
    shows the About component being rendered inside App. 7:20
    Currently, App just displays the content rendered by the Home and About components. 7:25
    But the app's header and main navigation should be present at all times like this. 7:32
    So next, let's make the header and navigation available to our entire app. 7:39
    We'll do that by first importing the header component inside App 7:47
    with import Header from "./components/Header". 7:53
    Since the header needs to be present at all times, 7:59
    we can simply nest the Header component inside App just above our Routes. 8:03
    The navigation isn't working just yet, so 8:11
    clicking a nav link isn't going to link you to a route. 8:14
    You'll learn how to do that in a later video. 8:19
    Now that you've learned to declare routes, 8:22
    why don't you write the routes for the Teachers and Courses components? 8:24
    Your route should look like this. 8:30
    When the path in the URL is /teachers, 8:33
    the route renders the Teachers component inside App. 8:36
    And when the path is /courses, it will render the Courses component. 8:41
    In the next video you will see how I wrote the routes. 8:47

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