Buttermilk, a React routing library

installation

Grab the buttermilk NPM module with your favorite package manager.

npm i buttermilk

migrating from v1

Upgrade all react dependencies (and buttermilk, of course):

npm i react@latest react-dom@latest react-is@latest buttermilk@latest

If you are dynamically-importing components for any routes, wrap the import in React.lazy() (note that this only works in the browser right now because React.Suspense doesn't work server-side yet.)

✅

routes: [
  {
    path: '/',
    render: () => React.lazy(() => import('./Home')),
  },
  {
    path: '*',
    render: () => NotFound,
  },
];

⛔️

routes: [
  {
    path: '/',
    render: () => import('./Home').then(mdl => mdl.default),
  },
  {
    path: '*',
    render: () => NotFound,
  },
];

??
Profit!

usage

Setting up buttermilk involves placing a <Router> component on your page and feeding it an array of route definitions. If you learn better by reverse engineering, check out the holistic example.

basic example

import { Router } from 'buttermilk';
import React from 'react';

// whatever your folder structure looks like, etc.
import FooPage from '../foo';
import NotFoundPage from '../404';

class App extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <Router
        routes={[
          {
            path: '/foo',
            render: () => FooPage,
          },
          {
            path: '*',
            render: () => NotFoundPage,
          },
        ]}
      />
    );
  }
}

With the above setup, a URL like "https://yoursite.com/foo" would trigger the FooPage component to be rendered. All other paths would trigger the NotFoundPage component.

writing route configurations

Buttermilk has a highly flexible matching system, offering the following flavors of routing:

flavor	syntax
static	`"/foo"`
dynamic fragments	`"/foo/:id"`
optional fragments	`"/foo(/bar)"`
wildcard	`"/foo*"`
splat	`"/foo/**/bar.html"`
query string	`"?foo=bar"`
fallback	`"*"`
function callback	`yourValidationFunction(url)`
regex	`/^(?=bar)\/foo/`

The only hard rule is there must be a fallback route at the end of the routing chain: path: "*". Otherwise, you are free to compose routes as it makes sense for your app.

A route configuration can take two forms:

A route that renders something:

{
  path: String | RegExp | Function,
  render: Function,
}

// example

{
  path: "/",
  render: () => "Hello world!",
}

Return whatever you'd like from the render function. A few ideas:

A React component class
```
render: () => HelloWorldPage,
```
Some JSX
```
render: () => <div>Hi!</div>,
```
A string
```
render: () => 'Howdy!',
```

A React.lazy-wrapped dynamically-imported component

render: () => React.lazy(() => import('./HelloWorld')),

If it's a component class, Buttermilk will inject the routing context as props.

A route that redirects to another path:

{
  path: String | RegExp | Function,
  redirect: String,
}

// example

{
  path: "/bar",
  redirect: "/",
}

You may also pass any other properties you'd like inside the route configuration object and they will be available to the RoutingState higher-order component, routing callbacks, etc.

components

`<Router>`

The gist of Buttermilk's router is that it acts like a controlled component when used server-side (driven by props.url) and an uncontrolled one client-side (driven by the value of window.location.href and intercepted navigation events.)

In the browser, use either a <Link> component or the route() utility method to change routes. The router will also automatically pick up popstate events caused by user-driven browser navigation (forward, back buttons, etc.)

Available props:

/**
 * Provide a spinner or something to look at while the promise
 * is in flight if using async routes.
 */
loadingComponent: PropTypes.oneOfType([
  PropTypes.func,
  PropTypes.string,
]),

/**
 * An optional app runtime component. Think of it like
 * the "shell" of your app, so perhaps the outer container,
 * nav bar, etc. You'll probably want to put any "Provider"
 * type components here that are intended to wrap your
 * whole application.
 */
outerComponent: PropTypes.oneOfType([
  PropTypes.func,
  PropTypes.string,
]),

routes: PropTypes.arrayOf(
  PropTypes.shape({

    /**
     * A RegExp, string, or function accepting the URL as
     * an argument and returning a boolean if valid.
     */
    path: PropTypes.oneOfType([
      PropTypes.instanceOf(RegExp),
      PropTypes.string,
      PropTypes.func,
    ]).isRequired,

    /**
     * A string URL path to a different route. If this is given,
     * then "render" is not required.
     */
    redirect: PropTypes.string,

    /**
     * A function that returns one of the following:
     *
     * 1. JSX.
     * 2. A React component class.
     * 3. A `React.lazy`-wrapped dynamic component import.
     */
    render: PropTypes.func,
  }),
).isRequired,

/**
 * A hook for reacting to an impending route transition.
 * Accepts a promise and will pause the route transition
 * until the promise is resolved. Return false or reject
 * a given promise to abort the routing update.
 *
 * Provides currentRouting and nextRouting as arguments.
 */
routeWillChange: PropTypes.func,

/**
 * A hook for reacting to a completed route transition. It
 * might be used for synchronizing some global state if
 * desired.
 *
 * Provides currentRouting and previousRouting as arguments.
 */
routeDidChange: PropTypes.func,

/**
 * A hook for synchronizing initial routing state.
 *
 * Providers initialRouting as an argument.
 */
routerDidInitialize: PropTypes.func,

/**
 * The initial URL to be used for processing, falls back to
 * window.location.href for non-SSR. Required for
 * environments without browser navigation eventing, like Node.
 */
url: PropTypes.string,

`<RoutingState>`

A render prop higher-order component (HOC) for arbitrarily consuming routing state.

<RoutingState>
  {routingProps => {
    // routingProps.location
    // (the parsed current URL in window.location.* form)

    // routingProps.params
    // (any extracted dynamic params from the URL)

    // routingProps.route
    // (the current route)

    return /* some JSX */;
  }}
</RoutingState>

`<Link>`

A polymorphic anchor link component. On click/tap/enter if the destination matches a valid route, the routing context will be modified and the URL updated without reloading the page. Otherwise, it will act like a normal anchor link.

A polymorphic component is one that can change shape as part of its public API. In the case of <Link>, props.as allows the developer to pass in their own base link component if desired.
This might make sense if you use a library like styled-components and want to make a shared, styled anchor link component.

If something other than an anchor tag is specified via props.as, a [role="link"] attribute will be added for basic assistive technology support.

Adds [data-active] if the given href matches the active route.

<Link as="button" href="/somewhere" target="_blank">
  Somewhere over the rainbow…
</Link>

Available props:

/**
 * An HTML tag name or valid ReactComponent class to
 * be rendered. Must be compatible with React.createElement.
 *
 * Defaults to an anchor "a" tag.
 */
as: PropTypes.oneOfType([
  PropTypes.func,
  PropTypes.string,
]),

/**
 * A valid relative or absolute URL string.
 */
href: PropTypes.string.isRequired,

/**
 * Any valid value of the anchor tag "target" attribute.
 *
 * See: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/a#attr-target
 *
 * Defaults to "_self".
 */
target: PropTypes.string,

An example using a styled-components element base:

import { Link } from 'buttermilk';
import styled from 'styled-components';

const Anchor = styled.a`
  color: red;
`;

export default function StyledButtermilkLink(props) {
  return <Link {...props} as={Anchor} />;
}

utilities

`match(routes, url)`

This is an advanced API meant primarily for highly-custom server side rendering use cases. Provide your array of route defintions and the fully-resolved URL to receive the matched route, route context, and any suggested redirect.

import { match } from 'buttermilk';

const url = 'https://fizz.com/buzz';

const routes = [
  {
    path: '/foo',
    render: () => FooPage,
  },
  {
    path: '/bar',
    render: () => BarPage,
  },
  {
    path: '*',
    render: () => NotFoundPage,
  },
];

const { location, params, redirect, route } = match(routes, url);

When using this API, you'll probably want to have a more streamlined <Router> setup for the server since we're doing all the work upfront to find the correct route:

import { match, Router } from 'buttermilk';
import React from 'react';
import ReactDOMServer from 'react-dom/server';

import routes from '../routes';

/**
 * An example express middleware.
 */
export default function renderingMiddleware(req, res, next) {
  const url = req.protocol + '//' + req.get('host') + req.originalUrl;

  const { location, params, redirect, route } = match(routes, url);

  if (redirect) return res.redirect(redirect);

  const html = ReactDOMServer.renderToString(
    <Router
      url={url}
      routes={[
        {
          ...route,
          path: '*',
        },
      ]}
    />
  );

  /**
   * route.title below is an example arbitrary prop
   * you could add to the route configuration if desired
   */
  res.send(`
    <!doctype html>
    <html>
      <head><title>${route.title}</title></head>
      <body>${html}</body>
    </html>
  `);
}

`route()`

Use this API to programmatically change the route browser-side. It uses pushState or replaceState under the hood, depending on if you pass the second argument. Defaults to creating a new browser history entry.

// signature: route(url: String, addNewHistoryEntry: Boolean = true)

route('/some/other/url');

misc

`RoutingContext`

Used with the useContext react hook to get access to routingState in your functional components. Just an alternative to the RoutingState render prop component.

import { RoutingContext } from 'buttermilk';
import React, { useContext } from 'react';

function MyComponent(props) {
  const routing = useContext(RoutingContext);

  return <div {...props}>The current path is: {routing.location.pathname}</div>;
}

holistic example

See it live: https://codesandbox.io/s/2xrr26y2lp

/* Home.js */
export default () => 'Home';

/* index.js */
import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

import { Router, RoutingState, Link } from 'buttermilk';

const App = props => (
  <div>
    <header>
      <h1>My sweet website</h1>
    </header>

    <nav>
      <Link href="/">Home</Link>
      <Link href="/blep/kitter">Kitter Blep!</Link>
      <Link href="/blep/corg">Corg Blep!</Link>
    </nav>

    <main>{props.children}</main>
  </div>
);

const NotFound = () => (
  <div>
    <h2>Oh noes, a 404 page!</h2>
    <RoutingState>
      {routing => (
        <p>
          No page was found with the path:
          <code>{routing.location.pathname}</code>
        </p>
      )}
    </RoutingState>

    <p>
      <Link href="/">Let's go back home.</Link>
    </p>
  </div>
);

const routes = [
  {
    path: '/',
    render: () => React.lazy(() => import('./Home')),
  },
  {
    path: '/blep/:animal',
    render: routing => (
      <img
        alt="Bleppin'"
        src={
          routing.params.animal === 'corg'
            ? 'http://static.damnlol.com/media/bc42fc943ada24176298871de477e0c6.jpg'
            : 'https://i.imgur.com/OvbGwwI.jpg'
        }
      />
    ),
  },
  {
    path: '*',
    render: () => NotFound,
  },
];

const root = document.body.appendChild(document.createElement('div'));

ReactDOM.render(<Router routes={routes} outerComponent={App} />, root);

without a bundler

You can also use consume Buttermilk from a CDN like unpkg:

https://unpkg.com/buttermilk@2.0.0/dist/standalone.js
https://unpkg.com/buttermilk@2.0.0/dist/standalone.min.js

The exports will be accessible at window.Buttermilk. Note that this requires react >= 16.8 (window.React),react-is >= 16.8 (window.ReactIs), and prop-types (window.PropTypes) to also be accessible in the window scope.

Both the minified and development versions ship with source maps for ease of debugging.

more examples

holistic example + animated route transitions: https://codesandbox.io/s/vvr16kyqy7
using Buttermilk, React, etc from CDN: https://codesandbox.io/s/n3lq32ppxp

goals

centrally-managed routing
fast
first-class async support
HMR-friendly
obvious API
small
SSR

browser compatibility

internet explorer

Internet Explorer requires a polyfill to support the Event constructor.

Note that Babel does not transpile/polyfill this for you, so bootstrapped setups such as those based on Create React App will still need to manually include a polyfill.

Suggested: events-polyfill