2001 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 />?
   It is a Router component.

4. Why would we use <BrowserRouter /> in our apps?
   To allow us to switch views using Switch and Route components.

Route Matchers

5. What does the <Route /> component do?
   It is a route matching component. It searches through its children elements to find the right path using the current url.

6. How does the <Route /> component check whether it should render something?
   It matches the path with the current url.

7. What does the <Switch /> component do?
   It renders the first child Route or Redirect that matches the location. It renders a Route exclusively so it's a more exact method of navigating than just many Routes put together.

8. How does it decide what to render?
   It looks through its children to match the right path using the url.

Route Changers

9. What does the <Link /> component do? How does a user interact with it?
   It gives you links that allow you to navigate across an app.
10. What does the <NavLink /> component do? How does a user interact with it?
    This is a special link that allows you to set activeClassName.
11. What does the <Redirect /> component do?
    Redirect navigates to a new location that overrides the current one.