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Gaurav Singhal

Add a Base URL to an App Using Redux and React Router

Gaurav Singhal

  • Nov 1, 2020
  • 5 Min read
  • 51,909 Views
  • Nov 1, 2020
  • 5 Min read
  • 51,909 Views
Web Development
Client-side Frameworks
React
Front End Web Development
Introduction

Introduction

A primary ingredient in any traditional or single-page app is routing. Routing is the ability to navigate from one page to another. In a typical single-page app, you can use React Router to do the routing for you. But as the app grows and the global state gets complicated, you may need to use a state management library like Redux.

The app may also be running on a different path (https://example.com/app) and not on the root domain, adding additional complexity. In this guide, you will learn how to set up a base URL in React Router and how to combine Redux seamlessly.

React-Router Example

This section covers how to add a base URL in a simple React app using React Router.

Install React-Router

The first step is to install the react-router-dom dependency in your app.

1npm i react-router-dom

Configure the Routes

Next, add the page components as routes in the app.

1const HomePage = () => {
2  return (
3    <div>
4      <h2>Home</h2>
5    </div>
6  );
7};
8
9const ContactPage = () => {
10  return (
11    <div>
12      <h2>Contact</h2>
13    </div>
14  );
15};
16
17const ProfilePage = () => {
18  return (
19    <div>
20      <h2>Profile</h2>
21    </div>
22  );
23};
jsx

Pass the above page components as children to the Route component and wrap with the Switch component from react-router-dom.

1import { Route, Switch } from "react-router-dom";
2// ...
3
4const Main = () => {
5  return (
6    <div className="app">
7      <Navbar />
8      <div className="content">
9        <Switch>
10          <Route exact path="/">
11            <HomePage />
12          </Route>
13          <Route path="/contact">
14            <ContactPage />
15          </Route>
16          <Route path="/profile">
17            <ProfilePage />
18          </Route>
19        </Switch>
20      </div>
21    </div>
22  );
23};
jsx

Adding a Base URL

Import the BrowserRouter component from react-router-dom. The BrowserRouter component has a basename prop, which accepts a string as its value in case the React app is hosted from a sub-directory.

1import { BrowserRouter } from "react-router-dom";
2
3const App = () => {
4  return (
5    <BrowserRouter basename="/app">
6      <Main />
7    </BrowserRouter>
8  );
9};
jsx

Adding basename in the BrowserRouter component ensures that all the links in the routes are prefixed with the base URL. For example, <Link to='/contact' /> will be rendered as <a href='/app/contact'>.

Integrating Redux

In this section, you will integrate Redux with the above React Router set up.

The connected-react-router package is recommended by the maintainers of React Router for deeper Redux integration. To install connected-react-router, run the following command.

1npm i connected-react-router

Creating the history Object

The history object can be used to change the browser's history session programmatically. To create a history object, import the createBrowserHistory function from the history package and create the object as shown below.

1import { createBrowserHistory } from "history";
2
3const history = createBrowserHistory();
jsx

The history package is a dependency of react-router-dom, so you don't have to install it again.

Create Router Connected Store

Next, connect the history object to the store. To do that, import the connectRouter helper function from connected-react-router package and provide the created history object.

1import { connectRouter } from "connected-react-router";
2import { createStore } from "redux";
3
4const reducer = (initialState, action) => {
5  // ...
6};
7
8const store = createStore(connectRouter(history)(reducer));
jsx

Adding routerMiddleware to Redux

routerMiddleware will dispatch the history actions to the Redux store. Use the applyMiddleware helper function from redux to include routerMiddleware in the app.

1import { connectRouter, routerMiddleware } from "connected-react-router";
2import { createStore, applyMiddleware } from "redux";
3
4const store = createStore(
5  connectRouter(history)(reducer),
6  applyMiddleware(routerMiddleware(history))
7);
js

Using ConnectedRouter Component

You're almost done. The last step is to use the ConnectedRouter component and pass the history object as a prop. Make sure you wrap the ConnectedRouter component with the Provider component from react-redux.

1import { ConnectedRouter } from "connected-react-router";
2import { Provider } from "react-redux";
jsx
1const App = () => {
2  return (
3    <Provider store={store}>
4      <ConnectedRouter history={history}>
5        <BrowserRouter basename="/app">
6          <Main />
7        </BrowserRouter>
8      </ConnectedRouter>
9    </Provider>
10  );
11};
jsx

Conclusion

Redux is a vital component of the React ecosystem, so you need to understand how to integrate React-Router and Redux and how they work together. React Router has an excellent section on deep Redux integration that you may want to read for a better understanding of how things work under the hood.

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