HTML5

History

Object

Objectives

  • Modify the address bar with history.pushState

  • Describe how bookmarking a single page application works

History

HTML5 introduced the history object

history.back();

history.forward();

history.pushState({}, 'title', '/newpage');

Allows javascript to manipulate the browser history

Changes To History

Changes the url address bar

 

Changes the browser's local navigation history

 

DOES NOT cause the browser to make a GET request

History

More Info

What Will We Use History For?

To create a good single page application, we want to have it feel like a normal website

Browser back button, internal links, etc should all seem to behave like a page with server rendering

Server Side Rendering

GET /

index.html (fully rendered)

GET /signin

/signin (fully rendered)

Node.js

HTML

Client Side Rendering (React)

GET /

index.html (only div id="root")

Node.js

React

Render react app

Change address to /signin

Render /signin component

Handling A Bookmark

GET /user/55

index.html (only div id="root")

Node.js

React

Render react app with

correct user component

Bookmarked /user/55

Server side support is required

React Router

Objectives

  • Describe React Router v4

  • Differentiate BrowserRouter vs HashRouter

  • Use Link, Switch, and Route components

React Router v4

A library to manage routing in your single page application

Version 4 was launch in March 2017 and has some big changes compared to v3

Version 4 is a declarative api that uses components to make rendering decisions

BrowserRouter vs HashRouter

BrowserRouter uses the history object and makes changes to the URL, the hash router adds hashes to the url instead

BrowserRouter

HashRouter

/

/users

/users/57492/messages

/#

/#users

/#users/57492/messages

BrowserRouter vs HashRouter

BrowserRouter requires server support

HashRouter does not require server support

Always choose BrowserRouter if you are able

React Router Install

npm install --save react-router-dom

React Router Setup

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import {
  BrowserRouter as Router
} from 'react-router-dom';
import App from './App';

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

Switch And Route

import React, {Component} from 'react';
import {
 Switch, Route
} from 'react-router-dom';

const Homepage = () => (<div>HOMEPAGE</div>);
const About = () => (<div>ABOUT</div>);

const SwitchDemo = () => (
  <Switch>
    <Route path="/about" component={About}/>
    <Route path="/" component={Homepage}/>
  </Switch>
);

Link

import React from 'react';
import {Link} from 'react-router-dom';
import SwitchDemo from './SwitchDemo';

const App = () => (
  <div>
    <Link to="/">HOME</Link>
    <Link to="/about">ABOUT</Link>
    <div style={{fontSize: '3em',
                 margin: '25px'}}>
      <SwitchDemo/>
    </div>
  </div>
);

NavLink

import React from 'react';
import {NavLink} from 'react-router-dom';
import SwitchDemo from './SwitchDemo';

const s={color: "red"}; //active style
const App = () => (
  <div>
    <NavLink exact activeStyle={s} to="/">
     HOME
    </NavLink>
    <NavLink exact activeStyle={s} to="/about">
      ABOUT
    </NavLink>
    <div style={{fontSize: '3em',margin: '25px'}}>
      <SwitchDemo/>
    </div>
  </div>
);

React Router

(Continued)

Objectives

  • Use URL parameters for a Route

  • Define Route props

  • Define withRouter

  • Passing your own props to a component in Route (render vs component)

URL Parameters

import React from 'react';
import {
 Switch, Route
} from 'react-router-dom';

const Homepage = () => (<div>HOMEPAGE</div>);
const Name = ({match}) => (
  <div>Hello, {match.params.name}</div>
);
const SwitchDemo = () => (
  <Switch>
    <Route path="/:name" component={Name}/>
    <Route path="/" component={Homepage}/>
  </Switch>
);

Route Props

A component inside of a Route gets 3 props

match - info about how the url matches the route component

location - where you are now, similar to window.location

history - similar to html5 history object, allows explicit changes to the url

withRouter

If a component is not rendered inside of a Route component, you can use withRouter to get route props

withRouter Example

import {
 withRouter, Switch, Route
} from 'react-router-dom';

const SwitchDemo = ({history}) => (
  <div>
    <Switch>
      <Route path="/:name" component={Name}/>
      <Route path="/" component={Homepage}/>
    </Switch>
    <button onClick={() => history.push('/')}>
      Go Home
    </button>
  </div>
);
export default withRouter(SwitchDemo);

Route:

Render vs Component

The route component can either use render or component (never both)

Use render to pass custom props to your component

Route Render Example

import {Route} from 'react-router-dom';
const teachers = ['Tim', 'Colt', 'Matt', 'Elie'];
const Teachers = ({teachers}) => (
  <ul>
    {teachers.map((teach, ind) => (
      <li key={i}>{teach}</li>
     ))}
  </ul>
);

const App = () => (
  <Route path="/teachers" render={props => (
    <Teachers {...props} teachers={teachers} />
  )}/>
);

React Router Docs

React Router Exercise