React Router issue: Navigation not working as expected in multi-component layout

Question

I'm building a React application with React-Router, and I'm encountering a problem with route navigation. I have a multi-component layout where I've organized my components into different files. Here's a simplified structure of my code:

• App.js: Contains top-level routes.
• Layout.js: Represents the layout structure with a sidebar, top bar, content area, and footer.
• MainArea.js: Contains additional nested routes specific to the main content area.

The issue I'm facing is that when I navigate to certain routes, the navigation doesn't work as expected. For example, clicking a link to "/profile" in the main content area should display the user profile, but it doesn't.

Here's an example of my code structure:

App.js

import { Routes, Route } from "react-router-dom";
import { LoginPage, SignUp, LayOut } from "../src/Shared/export";
import Layout from "./Layout";
import MainArea from "./MainArea";

function App() {
  return (
    <>
      <Routes>
        <Route path="/" element={<SignUp />} />
        <Route path="/login" element={<LoginPage />} />
        <Route path="/home" element={<LayOut />} />
      </Routes>
    </>
  );
}

export default App;

Layout.js

import Sidebar from "./Sidebar";
import Topbar from "./TopBar";
import Main from "./Main";
import Footer from "./Footer";

function Layout() {
  return (
    <div>
      <div className="layout">
        <div className="tob-bar">
          <Topbar />
        </div>

        <div className="content">
          <Main />
        </div>

        <div className="side-bar">
          <Sidebar />
        </div>

        <div className="footer">
          <Footer />
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

export default Layout;

MainArea.js

import { Routes, Route } from "react-router-dom";
import Content from "./Content";
import Profile from "./profile/userProfile";

function MainArea() {
  return (
    <div>
      <Routes>
        <Route path="/profile" element={<Profile />} />
        <Route path="/content" element={<Content />} />
      </Routes>
    </div>
  );
}

export default MainArea;

What could be causing this issue, and how can I fix it to ensure that route navigation works correctly within my multi-component layout?

The App renders a blank page with no errors.

Answer 1

If Layout is ultimately rendering content that results in rendering descendent routes then the parent route necessarily should append the wildcard "*" matcher, or splat, to its path. This is so descendent routes can also be matched and render their element content.

Example:

function App() {
  return (
    <Routes>
      <Route path="/" element={<SignUp />} />
      <Route path="/login" element={<LoginPage />} />
      <Route path="/home/*" element={<Layout />} />
    </Routes>
  );
}

You should note, however, that all descendent routes build their paths relative to their parent route, so MainArea's routes will resolve to "/home/profile" and "/home/content". You need to ensure that links to these routes resolve to the complete path.

<Route path="/home/*" element={<Layout />} />

function MainArea() {
  return (
    <div>
      <Routes>
        <Route
          path="/profile" // <-- "/home/profile"
          element={<Profile />}
        />
        <Route
          path="/content" // <-- "/home/content"
          element={<Content />}
        />
      </Routes>
    </div>
  );
}

If the intent is for the routes MainArea is rendering to be "root-level" routes then I'd recommend converting Layout into an actual layout route component. It will render an Outlet component instead of MainArea, and the routes that MainArea was rendering as descendent routes should now be rendered as nested routes directly.

Example:

Layout.jsx

import { Outlet } from 'react-router-dom';
import Sidebar from "./Sidebar";
import Topbar from "./TopBar";
import Main from "./Main";
import Footer from "./Footer";

function Layout() {
  return (
    <div>
      <div className="layout">
        <div className="tob-bar">
          <Topbar />
        </div>

        <div className="content">
          <Outlet /> // <-- render Outlet for nested routes
        </div>

        <div className="side-bar">
          <Sidebar />
        </div>

        <div className="footer">
          <Footer />
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

App.jsx

function App() {
  return (
    <Routes>
      <Route path="/" element={<SignUp />} />
      <Route path="/login" element={<LoginPage />} />
      <Route element={<Layout />}>                     // <-- pathless
        <Route path="profile" element={<Profile />} /> // <-- "/profile"
        <Route path="content" element={<Content />} /> // <-- "/content"
      </Route>
    </Routes>
  );
}