ReactJS How do you switch between pages in React?

Question

So coming from an Angular/AngularJS background, you have states, and each state is a separate page. E.g. in a social network you can have a state with your feed, a state with a list of your friends, or a state to see a profile etc. Pretty straightforward. Not so much in React for me.

So let's say I have an application with 2 pages: a list of products and a single product view. What would be the best way to switch between them?

The simplest solution is to have an object which has a stateName and is a boolean

constructor() {
  super();

  this.state = {
    productList: true,
    productView: false
  }
}

And then have something like that in your render() function

return() {
  <div className="App">
    // Or you could use an if statement
    { this.state.productList && <ProductList /> }
    { this.state.productView && <ProductView product={this.state.product} /> }
  </div>
}

Pretty straightforward, right? Sure, for a 2 page application that is.

But what if you have a large app with 10, 20, 100 pages? The return() part of the render would be a mess, and it would be madness to track the status of every state.

I believe there should be a better way to organize your app. I tried googling around but I couldn't find anything useful (except for using if else or conditional operators).

Answer 1

I'd recommend you to check react-router to solve this situation

It easily allows you to create custom routes like this:

import React from "react";
import { BrowserRouter as Router, Route, Link } from "react-router-dom";

const BasicExample = () => (
  <Router>
    <div>
      <ul>
        <li>
          <Link to="/">Home</Link>
        </li>
        <li>
          <Link to="/about">About</Link>
        </li>
        <li>
          <Link to="/topics">Topics</Link>
        </li>
      </ul>

      <hr />

      <Route exact path="/" component={Home} />
      <Route path="/about" component={About} />
      <Route path="/topics" component={Topics} />
    </div>
  </Router>
);

const Home = () => (
  <div>
    <h2>Home</h2>
  </div>
);

const About = () => (
  <div>
    <h2>About</h2>
  </div>
);

const Topics = ({ match }) => (
  <div>
    <h2>Topics</h2>
    <ul>
      <li>
        <Link to={`${match.url}/rendering`}>Rendering with React</Link>
      </li>
      <li>
        <Link to={`${match.url}/components`}>Components</Link>
      </li>
      <li>
        <Link to={`${match.url}/props-v-state`}>Props v. State</Link>
      </li>
    </ul>

    <Route path={`${match.url}/:topicId`} component={Topic} />
    <Route
      exact
      path={match.url}
      render={() => <h3>Please select a topic.</h3>}
    />
  </div>
);

const Topic = ({ match }) => (
  <div>
    <h3>{match.params.topicId}</h3>
  </div>
);

export default BasicExample;

For the documentation and other examples, like nested Routing, checkout this page.