route-conventions.md

New File System Route Conventions

Our current route conventions grew organically and then Jamie hit us with some solid ideas as a catalyst for this. We feel like we have a better idea of what folks need out of the convention especially as React Router apps are being migrated to Remix.

Goals

There are several goals with these changes:

• Make it easier to see the routes your app has defined
• Allow co-location of code with routes
• Decrease refactor/redesign friction
• Help apps migrate to Remix

Example

routes/
  _auth.forgot-password.tsx
  _auth.login.tsx
  _auth.reset-password.tsx
  _auth.signup.tsx
  _auth.tsx
  _landing.about.tsx
  _landing.index.tsx
  _landing.tsx
  app.calendar.$day.tsx
  app.calendar.index.tsx
  app.calendar.tsx
  app.projects.$id.tsx
  app.projects.tsx
  app.tsx
  app_.projects.$id.roadmap.tsx
  app_.projects.$id.roadmap[.pdf].tsx

As React Router routes:

<Routes>
  <Route element={<Auth />}>
    <Route path="forgot-password" element={<Forgot />} />
    <Route path="login" element={<Login />} />
    <Route path="reset-password" element={<Reset />} />
    <Route path="signup" element={<Signup />} />
  </Route>
  <Route element={<Landing />}>
    <Route path="about" element={<About />} />
    <Route index element={<Index />} />
  </Route>
  <Route path="app" element={<App />}>
    <Route path="calendar" element={<Calendar />}>
      <Route path=":day" element={<Day />} />
      <Route index element={<CalendarIndex />} />
    </Route>
    <Route path="projects" element={<Projects />}>
      <Route path=":id" element={<Project />} />
    </Route>
  </Route>
  <Route path="app/projects/:id/roadmap" element={<Roadmap />} />
  <Route path="app/projects/:id/roadmap.pdf" />
</Routes>

Individual explanations:

filename	url	nests inside of...
_auth.forgot-password.tsx	/forgot-password	_auth.tsx
_auth.login.tsx	/login	_auth.tsx
_auth.reset-password.tsx	/reset-password	_auth.tsx
_auth.signup.tsx	/signup	_auth.tsx
_auth.tsx	n/a	root.tsx
_landing.about.tsx	/about	_landing.tsx
_landing.index.tsx	/	_landing.tsx
_landing.tsx	n/a	root.tsx
app.calendar.$day.tsx	/app/calendar/:day	app.calendar.tsx
app.calendar.index.tsx	/app/calendar	app.calendar.tsx
app.projects.$id.tsx	/app/projects/:id	app.projects.tsx
app.projects.tsx	/app/projects	app.tsx
app.tsx	/app	root.tsx
app_.projects.$id.roadmap.tsx	/app/projects/:id/roadmap	root.tsx
app_.projects.$id.roadmap[.pdf].tsx	/app/projects/:id/roadmap.pdf	n/a (resource route)

Conventions

filename	convention	behavior
privacy.jsx	filename	normal route
pages.tos.jsx	dot with no layout	normal route, "." -> "/"
about.jsx	filename with children	parent layout route
about.contact.jsx	dot	child route of layout
about.index.jsx	index filename	index route of layout
about_.company.jsx	trailing underscore	url segment, no layout
_auth.jsx	leading underscore	layout nesting, no url segment
_auth.login.jsx	leading underscore	child of pathless layout route
users.$userId.jsx	leading $	URL param
docs.$.jsx	bare $	splat route
dashboard.route.jsx	route suffix	optional, ignored completely
investors/[index].jsx	brackets	escapes conventional characters

Justification

• Make it easier to see the routes your app has defined - just pop open "routes/" and they are all right there. Since file systems typically sort folders first, when you have dozens of routes it's hard to see which folders have layouts and which don't today. Now all related routes are sorted together.

• Decrease refactor/redesign friction - while code editors are pretty good at fixing up imports when you move files around, and Remix has the "~" import alias, it's just generally easier to refactor a code base that doesn't have a bunch of nested folders. Remix will no longer force this.

  Additionally, when redesigning the user interface, it's simpler to adjust the names of files rather than creating/deleting folders and moving routes around to change the way they nest.

• Help apps migrate to Remix - Existing apps typically don't have a nested route folder structure like today's conventions. Moving to Remix is arduous because you have to deal with all of the imports.

• Colocation - while the example is exclusively files, they are really just "import paths". So you could make a folder for a route instead and the index file will be imported, allowing all of a route's modules to live along side each other.

For example, these routes:

routes/
  _landing.about.tsx
  _landing.index.tsx
  _landing.tsx
  app.projects.tsx
  app.tsx
  app_.projects.$id.roadmap.tsx

Could be folders holding their own modules inside:

routes/
  _landing.about/
    index.tsx
    employee-profile-card.tsx
    get-employee-data.server.tsx
    team-photo.jpg
  _landing.index/
    index.tsx
    scroll-experience.tsx
  _landing/
    index.tsx
    header.tsx
    footer.tsx
  app.projects/
    project-card.tsx
    get-projects.server.tsx
    project-buttons.tsx
  app/
    index.tsx
    primary-nav.tsx
    footer.tsx
  app_.projects.$id.roadmap/
    index.tsx
    chart.tsx
    update-timeline.server.tsx

This is a bit more opinionated, but I think it's ultimately what most developers would prefer. Each route becomes its own "mini app" with all of it's dependencies together. With the routeIgnorePatterns option it's completely unclear which files are routes and which aren't.

Migration Path

You can actually just use remix.config.js right now if somebody writes the code:

const flatRoutes = require("remix-flat-routes");
exports.routes = defineRoutes => {
  // can't use `routes` folder right now, so point to a different folder
  flatRoutes("screens", defineRoutes);
}

I've got a working version of the flatRoutes convention, although still WIP 🚧.

<Routes>
  <Route file="root.tsx">
    <Route file="screens/_auth.tsx">
      <Route path="forgot-password" file="screens/_auth.forgot-password.tsx" />
      <Route path="login" file="screens/_auth.login.tsx" />
      <Route path="reset-password" file="screens/_auth.reset-password.tsx" />
      <Route path="signup" file="screens/_auth.signup.tsx" />
    </Route>
    <Route file="screens/_landing.tsx">
      <Route path="about" file="screens/_landing.about.tsx" />
      <Route index file="screens/_landing.index.tsx" />
    </Route>
    <Route path="app" file="screens/app.tsx">
      <Route path="calendar" file="screens/app.calendar.tsx">
        <Route path=":day" file="screens/app.calendar.$day.tsx" />
        <Route index file="screens/app.calendar.index.tsx" />
      </Route>
      <Route path="projects" file="screens/app.projects.tsx">
        <Route path=":id" file="screens/app.projects.$id.tsx" />
      </Route>
    </Route>
    <Route path="app/projects/:id/roadmap" file="screens/app_.projects.$id.roadmap.tsx" />
    <Route path="app/projects/:id/roadmap.pdf" file="screens/app_.projects.$id.roadmap[.pdf].tsx" />
  </Route>
</Routes>

I even support the nested routes convention where it only processes index.tsx files, so you can nest components, client/server modules, and css/images without them being treated as routes. Although I need to work on the layout files for this convention.

<Routes>
  <Route file="root.tsx">
    <Route file="nestedroutes/_landing.tsx">
      <Route path="about" index file="nestedroutes/_landing.about/index.tsx" />
      <Route index file="nestedroutes/_landing.index/index.tsx" />
    </Route>
    <Route path="app" file="nestedroutes/app.tsx">
      <Route path="projects" file="nestedroutes/app.projects.tsx" />
    </Route>
    <Route path="app/projects/:id/roadmap" index file="nestedroutes/app_.projects.$id.roadmap/index.tsx" />
  </Route>
</Routes>