React Router Prework.md

React Router Prework

This gist contains a short assignment I'd like everyone to complete before our formal lesson. The prework involves reading some of the React Router documentation, and will allow us to keep the lesson more hands on.

Instructions

1. Fork this gist
2. On your own copy, go through the listed readings and answer associated questions
3. Comment a link to your forked copy on the original gist

Questions / Readings

Router Overview

React Router is a library that allows us to make our single page React applications mimic the behavior of multipage apps. It provides the ability to use browser history, allowing users to navigate with forward / back buttons and bookmark links to specific views of the app. Most modern sites use some form of routing. React Router exposes this functionality through a series of components. Let's start by looking at the overall structure of an app using router:

1. Take a look at the quick start page of the React Router docs. Take note of the syntax and organization of the page. No worries if this looks unclear right now! (nothing to answer here)

2. What package do we need to install to use React Router?
   npm install react-router-dom

Router Components

React Router provides a series of helpful components that allow our apps to use routing. These can be split into roughly 3 categories:

• Routers
• Route Matcher
• Route Changers

Routers

Any code that uses a React-Router-provided component must be wrapped in a router component. There are lots of router components we can use, but we'll focus on one in particular. Let's look into the docs to learn more.

3. What is a <BrowserRouter />? A Router that serves as the base URL for an app

4. Why would we use <BrowserRouter /> in our apps? Keeps our UI in sync with URL and serves as a base URL

Route Matchers

5. What does the <Route /> component do? Used as a check to render some UI when the URL path matches it
6. How does the <Route /> component check whether it should render something? Route sets a path check; when the path (URL) matches this, the content is displayed.
7. What does the <Switch /> component do? Renders the first child Route/Redirect to match its set location; allows for only a single Route to be rendered
8. How does it decide what to render? When Switch finds a matching Route it will stop search and immediately render that Route

Route Changers

9. What does the <Link /> component do? How does a user interact with it? Lets one navigate around an app (hyperlink adjacent). Upon creation a user can click on the text to trigger the Link add go to a new URL

10. What does the <NavLink /> component do? How does a user interact with it? A type of link that adds styling to a rendered element when that element matches the URL. This is triggered when a new URL is selected and a navlink matches that URL, from there a user will see the changes on screen.

11. What does the <Redirect /> component do? Redirect navigates to a new location, which will override the current location in the history stack (meaning it won't necessarily be return-able?)