React router nav bar example

KarthikJ picture KarthikJ · Jan 5, 2016 · Viewed 108.1k times · Source

I am a beginner in React JS and would like to develop a react router based navigation for my Dashboard. The mockup is as follows:

Mockup

My app.js code which I created to try routing is as follows:

import React from 'react'
import { render } from 'react-dom'
import { Router, Route, Link } from 'react-router'
import Login from './components/Login.js';

const App = React.createClass({
  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <h1>App</h1>
        <ul>
          <li><Link to="/login">Login</Link></li>
          <li><Link to="/inbox">Inbox</Link></li>
        </ul>
        {this.props.children}
      </div>
    )
  }
})


render((
  <li>
  <Router>
    <Route path="/" component={App}>
      <Route path="login" component={Login} />
    </Route>
  </Router>
  </li>
), document.getElementById('placeholder'))

How do I create the navigation as shown in the mockup ?

Answer

Chris picture Chris · Jan 19, 2017

Note The accepted is perfectly fine - but wanted to add a version4 example because they are different enough.

Nav.js

  import React from 'react';
  import { Link } from 'react-router';

  export default class Nav extends React.Component {
    render() {    
      return (
        <nav className="Nav">
          <div className="Nav__container">
            <Link to="/" className="Nav__brand">
              <img src="logo.svg" className="Nav__logo" />
            </Link>

            <div className="Nav__right">
              <ul className="Nav__item-wrapper">
                <li className="Nav__item">
                  <Link className="Nav__link" to="/path1">Link 1</Link>
                </li>
                <li className="Nav__item">
                  <Link className="Nav__link" to="/path2">Link 2</Link>
                </li>
                <li className="Nav__item">
                  <Link className="Nav__link" to="/path3">Link 3</Link>
                </li>
              </ul>
            </div>
          </div>
        </nav>
      );
    }
  }

App.js

  import React from 'react';
  import { Link, Switch, Route } from 'react-router';
  import Nav from './nav';
  import Page1 from './page1';
  import Page2 from './page2';
  import Page3 from './page3';

  export default class App extends React.Component {
    render() {    
      return (
        <div className="App">
          <Router>
            <div>
              <Nav />
              <Switch>
                <Route exactly component={Landing} pattern="/" />
                <Route exactly component={Page1} pattern="/path1" />
                <Route exactly component={Page2} pattern="/path2" />
                <Route exactly component={Page3} pattern="/path3" />
                <Route component={Page404} />
              </Switch>
            </div>
          </Router>
        </div>
      );
    }
  }

Alternatively, if you want a more dynamic nav, you can look at the excellent v4 docs: https://reacttraining.com/react-router/web/example/sidebar

Edit

A few people have asked about a page without the Nav, such as a login page. I typically approach it with a wrapper Route component

  import React from 'react';
  import { Link, Switch, Route } from 'react-router';
  import Nav from './nav';
  import Page1 from './page1';
  import Page2 from './page2';
  import Page3 from './page3';

  const NavRoute = ({exact, path, component: Component}) => (
    <Route exact={exact} path={path} render={(props) => (
      <div>
        <Header/>
        <Component {...props}/>
      </div>
    )}/>
  )

  export default class App extends React.Component {
    render() {    
      return (
        <div className="App">
          <Router>
              <Switch>
                <NavRoute exactly component={Landing} pattern="/" />
                <Route exactly component={Login} pattern="/login" />
                <NavRoute exactly component={Page1} pattern="/path1" />
                <NavRoute exactly component={Page2} pattern="/path2" />
                <NavRoute component={Page404} />
              </Switch>
          </Router>
        </div>
      );
    }
  }