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?

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 />?

uses the HTML5 history API to keep UI in sync with the URL

4. Why would we use <BrowserRouter /> in our apps?

makes single page app feel more like a traditional webpage. Also makes it easier to share links to a specific page in the app.

Route Matchers

5. What does the <Route /> component do? Holds paths

6. How does the <Route /> component check whether it should render something?

If <Switch> chooses it

7. What does the <Switch /> component do?

Looks through children (<Route> components) for matching url

8. How does it decide what to render?

Renders first child with path matching current url

Route Changers

9. What does the <Link /> component do? How does a user interact with it? Provides navigation around the application. It wraps around an individual DOM element and turns it into a link that a user can click.

10. What does the <NavLink /> component do? How does a user interact with it? a special type of <Link> that can style itself as “active” when its path matches the current url: user interacts just as they do a normal <Link>

11. What does the <Redirect /> component do? used to force navigation: <Redirect /> to prop overrides current location