React router 4 nesting routes alternative technique

Viewed 1272

On my attempt to do nested routes, I've failed to have the child components to mount when the route changes through Link or history.push; but if declaring the routes directly in the root.js file, it works. So, ideally I'd like to keep as much routes configuration as possible in the root/routes.js file and not all over the App (I'm iterating over the root/routes.js object instead to do this automatically; I mean... trying)

To break it down logically (it's a bit abstract, but check the code below afterwards please):
- There's a `root/routes.js` that has all the routes configuration (parents, nested components, etc)
- The `root.js` defines the `<Route...>` where the attribute `component` is the return value of a function that passes the `routes` configuration to its `routes` component prop
- the main wrapper iterates over the component prop `routes` and defines `child` routes automatically...I mean...I'm trying...

Why would I want to do this? The way my brain works and why not? Was possible before react router 4

<MyAppWrapper>
 <CommonNavigationBar />
 <Main>
  ----- dynamic / changes by route etc -----
 </Main>
 <Footer />
</MyAppWrapper>

I wonder where my attempt is failing?

// Working version
import React from 'react'
import { Route } from 'react-router'
import { BrowserRouter } from 'react-router-dom'
import { Provider } from 'react-redux'
import rootRoutes from './routes'
import App from '../app/containers/app'

const Root = ({store, history}) => {
  return (
    <Provider store={store}>
      <BrowserRouter history={history}>
        <Route path='/' component={App} />
      </BrowserRouter>
    </Provider>
  )
}

export default Root

For the previous example, the App component as nested , bellow I'm trying to do that dynamically..and it fails for some reason! It should be exactly the same though...there must be a typoe somewhere...

like,

import React, { Component } from 'react'
import { isBrowser } from 'reactatouille'
import { connect } from 'react-redux'
import { bindActionCreators } from 'redux'
import { withRouter, Route } from 'react-router'
import Navbar from '../navbar'
import JourneySelector from '../journeySelector'
import reservationFinder from '../../../reservationFinder'

// include the stylesheet entry-point
isBrowser() && require('../../../../sass/app.scss')

class App extends Component {
  constructor (props) {
    super(props)
    this.state = {
      init: true
    }
  }

  render () {
    return (
      <div className={'app' + ' ' + (!this.state.init && 'uninitialised')}>
        <Navbar />
        <main>
          <Route exact path='/' component={JourneySelector} />
          <Route exact path='/reservation-finder' component={reservationFinder.containers.App} />
        </main>
      </div>
    )
  }
}

// export default App
function mapStateToProps (state, ownProps) {
  return {
    // example: state.example
  }
}

function matchDispatchToProps (dispatch) {
  return bindActionCreators({
    // replay: replay
  }, dispatch)
}

export default connect(mapStateToProps, matchDispatchToProps)(withRouter(App))

While my technique fails (all I'm trying to do is iterate the root/routes children routes to generate these ):

// root/routes.js
import app from '../app'
import reservationFinder from '../reservationFinder'

const rootRoutes = [
  {
    path: '/',
    component: app.containers.App,
    exact: true,
    routes: [{
      path: '/',
      exact: true,
      component: app.containers.JourneySelector
    }, {
      path: '/reservation-finder',
      component: reservationFinder.containers.App
    }]
  }
]

export default rootRoutes

The root js file. You see the setRoute fn returns a new component, where the children routes is passed as a props? I believed this would work:

// root.js
import React from 'react'
import { Route, Switch } from 'react-router'
import { BrowserRouter } from 'react-router-dom'
import { Provider } from 'react-redux'
import rootRoutes from './routes'

const setRoute = (route) => {
  const MyComponent = route.component
  return <Route key={route.path} exact={route.exact || false} component={() => (<MyComponent routes={route.routes} />)} />
}

const Root = ({store, history}) => {
  return (
    <Provider store={store}>
      <BrowserRouter history={history}>
        { rootRoutes.map(route => setRoute(route)) }
      </BrowserRouter>
    </Provider>
  )
}

export default Root

the main app that I want to use as a wrapper:

// main app 
import React, { Component } from 'react'
import { isBrowser } from 'reactatouille'
import { connect } from 'react-redux'
import { bindActionCreators } from 'redux'
import { withRouter, Route } from 'react-router'
import Navbar from '../navbar'

// include the stylesheet entry-point
isBrowser() && require('../../../../sass/app.scss')

class App extends Component {
  constructor (props) {
    super(props)
    this.state = {
      init: true
    }
  }

  render () {
    return (
      <div className={'app' + ' ' + (!this.state.init && 'uninitialised')}>
        <Navbar />
        <main>
          { Array.isArray(this.props.routes) && this.props.routes.map(route => <Route key={route.path} {...route} />) }
        </main>
      </div>
    )
  }
}

// export default App
function mapStateToProps (state, ownProps) {
  return {
    // example: state.example
  }
}

function matchDispatchToProps (dispatch) {
  return bindActionCreators({
    // replay: replay
  }, dispatch)
}

export default connect(mapStateToProps, matchDispatchToProps)(withRouter(App))

I understand I MIGHT be able to achieve something similar, like?!

// root
import React from 'react'
import { Route, Switch } from 'react-router'
import { BrowserRouter } from 'react-router-dom'
import { Provider } from 'react-redux'
import rootRoutes from './routes'
import MyAppWrapper from 'xxx/MyAppWrapper'    

const setRoute = (route) => {
  const MyComponent = route.component
  return <Route key={route.path} exact={route.exact || false} component={() => (<MyComponent routes={route.routes} />)} />
}

const Root = ({store, history}) => {
  return (
    <Provider store={store}>
      <BrowserRouter history={history}>
        <MyAppWrapper>
          <Route path='x' component={x} />
          <Route path='y' component={y} />
        </MyAppWrapper>
      </BrowserRouter>
    </Provider>
  )
}

export default Root

Notes: During testing, I've noticed that it worked server-side? I mean, I may have missed something, and I didn't save my work. Also, when it fails, the previous component (the default) is still mounted and does not unmount

I even tried (without sucess...I wonder if this is a bug):

import React from 'react'
import { Route } from 'react-router'
import { BrowserRouter } from 'react-router-dom'
import { Provider } from 'react-redux'
import App from '../app/containers/app'
import rootRoutes from './routes'

const Root = ({store, history}) => {
  return (
    <Provider store={store}>
      <BrowserRouter history={history}>
        <Route path='/' render={() => (
          <App />
        )} />
      </BrowserRouter>
    </Provider>
  )
}

export default Root

Ok, I think this is a bug so reported ( https://github.com/ReactTraining/react-router/issues/5190 ), you can find the live example here ( https://codepen.io/helderoliveira/pen/rmXdgd ), click topic. Maybe what I'm trying to do is not supported, but instead of blank we should get an error message.

1 Answers
Related