React_Router_prework.md

React Router Prework

This gist contains a short assignment we'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

You will not be turning this in; it's for your own understanding/learning/benefit 😁

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:

Read through this guide.

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.

1. What is a <BrowserRouter />? A common Router that uses the HTML5 history API to keep UI in sync with URL

Route Matchers

2. What does the <Route /> component do? Renders some UI when its path property matches the current URL.

3. What does the <Routes /> component do? Nests individual elements? And cycles through children to check for a match when the URL changes?

4. What does the <Outlet /> component do? Outlets are used in parent route elements to render their child route elements. They allow nested UI to show up when child routes are rendered.

Route Changers

9. What does the <Link /> component do? How does a user interact with it? Links are elements that let the user navigate to another page by clicking or tapping on it. In react-router-dom, a Link renders an accessible element with a real href that points to the resource it's linking to.

10. What does the <NavLink /> component do? How does a user interact with it? A NavLink is a special kind of Link that knows whether or not it is "active". Useful when building a nav menu that includes a set of tabs and you'd like to show which of them is currently selected. It also provides useful context for assistive technology like screen readers.