What is the best way to redirect a page using React Router?

Question

I am new to React Router and learn that there are so many ways to redirect a page:

1. Using browserHistory.push("/path")

   import { browserHistory } from 'react-router';
   //do something...
   browserHistory.push("/path");
   

2. Using this.context.router.push("/path")

   class Foo extends React.Component {
       constructor(props, context) {
           super(props, context);
           //do something...
       }
       redirect() {
           this.context.router.push("/path")
       }
   }
   
   Foo.contextTypes = {
       router: React.PropTypes.object
   }
   

3. In React Router v4, there's this.context.history.push("/path") and this.props.history.push("/path"). Details: How to push to History in React Router v4?

I'm so confused by all these options, is there a best way to redirect a page?

Answer 1

Actually it depends on your use case.

1) You want to protect your route from unauthorized users

If that is the case you can use the component called <Redirect /> and can implement the following logic:

import React from 'react'
import  { Redirect } from 'react-router-dom'

const ProtectedComponent = () => {
  if (authFails)
    return <Redirect to='/login'  />
  }
  return <div> My Protected Component </div>
}

Keep in mind that if you want <Redirect /> to work the way you expect, you should place it inside of your component's render method so that it should eventually be considered as a DOM element, otherwise it won't work.

2) You want to redirect after a certain action (let's say after creating an item)

In that case you can use history:

myFunction() {
  addSomeStuff(data).then(() => {
      this.props.history.push('/path')
    }).catch((error) => {
      console.log(error)
    })

or

myFunction() {
  addSomeStuff()
  this.props.history.push('/path')
}

In order to have access to history, you can wrap your component with an HOC called withRouter. When you wrap your component with it, it passes match location and history props. For more detail please have a look at the official documentation for withRouter.

If your component is a child of a <Route /> component, i.e. if it is something like <Route path='/path' component={myComponent} />, you don't have to wrap your component with withRouter, because <Route /> passes match, location, and history to its child.

3) Redirect after clicking some element

There are two options here. You can use history.push() by passing it to an onClick event:

<div onClick={this.props.history.push('/path')}> some stuff </div>

or you can use a <Link /> component:

 <Link to='/path' > some stuff </Link>

I think the rule of thumb with this case is to try to use <Link /> first, I suppose especially because of performance.