react-router getting this.props.location in child components

Question

As I understand <Route path="/" component={App} /> will gives App routing-related props like location and params. If my App component has many nested child components, how do I get the child component to have access to these props without:

• passing props from App
• using window object
• creating routes for nested child components

I thought this.context.router would have some information related to the routes, but this.context.router seems to only have some functions to manipulate the routes.

Answer 1

(Update) V5.1 & Hooks (Requires React >= 16.8)

You can use useHistory, useLocation and useRouteMatch in your component to get match, history and location .

const Child = () => {
  const location = useLocation();
  const history = useHistory();
  const match = useRouteMatch("write-the-url-you-want-to-match-here");

  return (
    <div>{location.pathname}</div>
  )
}

export default Child

(Update) V4 & V5

You can use withRouter HOC in order to inject match, history and location in your component props.

class Child extends React.Component {
  static propTypes = {
    match: PropTypes.object.isRequired,
    location: PropTypes.object.isRequired,
    history: PropTypes.object.isRequired
  }

  render() {
    const { match, location, history } = this.props

    return (
      <div>{location.pathname}</div>
    )
  }
}

export default withRouter(Child)

(Update) V3

You can use withRouter HOC in order to inject router, params, location, routes in your component props.

class Child extends React.Component {

  render() {
    const { router, params, location, routes } = this.props

    return (
      <div>{location.pathname}</div>
    )
  }
}

export default withRouter(Child)

Original answer

If you don't want to use the props, you can use the context as described in React Router documentation

First, you have to set up your childContextTypes and getChildContext

class App extends React.Component{

  getChildContext() {
    return {
      location: this.props.location
    }
  }

  render() {
    return <Child/>;
  }
}

App.childContextTypes = {
    location: React.PropTypes.object
}

Then, you will be able to access to the location object in your child components using the context like this

class Child extends React.Component{

   render() {
     return (
       <div>{this.context.location.pathname}</div>
     )
   }

}

Child.contextTypes = {
    location: React.PropTypes.object
 }