Illustration of a small boat navigating calm waters, symbolizing redux-tiny-router's simplicity in Redux navigation

Navigating Redux Waters with redux-tiny-router: A Lightweight Routing Solution

The Gray Cat
The Gray Cat

Charting a Course with redux-tiny-router

In the world of Redux applications, managing routes can often feel like navigating treacherous waters. Enter redux-tiny-router, a lightweight yet powerful routing solution that seamlessly integrates with your Redux setup. This tiny library offers a state-based approach to routing, making it easier to manage navigation in your single-page applications.

Setting Sail: Installation and Setup

Before we embark on our journey with redux-tiny-router, let’s get everything set up. You can install the library using npm or yarn:

npm install redux-tiny-router
// or
yarn add redux-tiny-router

Once installed, you have two options for integrating redux-tiny-router into your project. Let’s explore the simpler approach using the store enhancer:

import { createStore } from 'redux';
import { applyMiddleware } from 'redux-tiny-router';
import * as yourReducers from './reducers';
import yourMiddleware from './middleware';

const middleware = [yourMiddleware];
const finalCreateStore = applyMiddleware(...middleware)(createStore);
const store = finalCreateStore(yourReducers, {});

With this setup, redux-tiny-router takes care of combining your reducers and adding its own routing reducer to the mix.

Now that we’re all set up, let’s explore how to navigate through your application using redux-tiny-router.

Changing Routes

To change routes in your application, you simply dispatch an action using the provided action creators:

import { tinyActions } from 'redux-tiny-router';

// Navigate to a new route
dispatch(tinyActions.navigateTo('/some-path', { query: 'param' }));

This action will update the URL to /some-path?query=param and update the router state in your Redux store.

Preventing Navigation

Sometimes, you might want to prevent the user from navigating away from a page, perhaps due to unsaved changes. redux-tiny-router makes this easy:

dispatch(tinyActions.preventNavigation('You have unsaved changes!'));

This will block navigation and fire a PREVENTED_NAVIGATION_ATTEMPTED action if the user tries to navigate away.

Allowing Navigation

When you’re ready to allow navigation again:

dispatch(tinyActions.allowNavigation());

Charting Your Course: Route Configuration

While redux-tiny-router doesn’t require route configuration, it does provide utilities to extract additional information from your URLs:

import { utils } from 'redux-tiny-router';

utils.setRoutes([
  '/foo/:test/',
  '/foo/:test/*'
]);

This configuration allows you to extract parameters and splat values from your URLs, providing more detailed information in your router state.

Reading the Redux Compass

With redux-tiny-router, your routing information becomes just another piece of state in your Redux store. Here’s what you might find in your router object:

{
  "url": "/some/cool/path?name=gui",
  "src": null,
  "splat": null,
  "params": {},
  "path": "/some/cool/path",
  "paths": [
    "/",
    "some",
    "cool",
    "path"
  ],
  "query": {
    "name": "gui"
  }
}

You can use this information to render the appropriate components in your React application.

Universal Apps: Navigating Both Seas

One of the standout features of redux-tiny-router is its support for universal (isomorphic) applications. The library provides an initUniversal function that handles server-side rendering with ease:

import { reduxTinyRouter } from 'redux-tiny-router';
import createStore from '../path/to/create-store';
import Component from '../shared/components/Layout';

reduxTinyRouter.initUniversal(url, createStore, Component).then((data) => {
  res.render('index', {
    html: data.html,
    payload: JSON.stringify(data.state),
  });
});

This function takes care of rendering your app on the server, handling async operations, and providing the initial state and HTML to send to the client.

Conclusion: Smooth Sailing with redux-tiny-router

redux-tiny-router offers a simple yet powerful approach to routing in Redux applications. By treating routes as just another piece of state, it seamlessly integrates with your existing Redux workflow. Whether you’re building a client-side single-page application or a universal app with server-side rendering, redux-tiny-router provides the tools you need to navigate your application’s state with ease.

With its small footprint, flexible configuration options, and support for universal apps, redux-tiny-router is an excellent choice for developers looking to simplify their routing logic without sacrificing power or flexibility. So set sail with redux-tiny-router, and enjoy smooth navigation through the Redux waters!

Comments