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Cover image for πŸ” Private Route in React Router v6
Andrei Luca
Andrei Luca

Posted on • Updated on

πŸ” Private Route in React Router v6

#react #router #security #authentication

Things are changing fast in WEB today, and react-router v6 is in beta already and around the corner. πŸ€”

This is just for learning purposes only, react-router v6 is still in beta, use at your own risk

Private routes in v5 and below were done in a specific way using a custom component mostly named PrivateRoute that was most of the times just a wrapper and composition of basic Route and Redirect e.g.

function PrivateRoute(props) {
  let { component: Component, children, render, ...rest } = props
  let auth = useAuth();
  return (
    <Route
      {...rest}
      render={() => auth
        ? <Component />
        : <Redirect to="/login" />
      }
    />
  );
}

function App() {
  return (
    <BrowserRouter>
      <Route path="/" component={Public} />
      <PrivateRoute path="/private" component={Private} />
    </BrowserRouter>
  );
}
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But taking a look at v6 docs it seems that things changed a little bit, and we need to think a little bit different about it.

For info about all API reference see the link

Let's move on.

Some things that we used to create PrivateRoute have changed a little bit

  • Redirect is now Navigate
  • Route props changed and is just a stub component now
  • A new component Routes appearead

In v6, routes are rendered in such a manner

function App() {
  return (
    <BrowserRouter>
      <Routes>
        <Route path="/" element={<Public />} />
        <Route path="/private" element={<Private />} />
      </Routes>
    </BrowserRouter>
  );
}

const Public = () => <div>public</div>;
const Private = () => <div>private</div>;
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So as you can see, no more render props or component prop.
You need to pass a direct JSX element (don't worry about performance if you do)

Ok now let's take a look at Route component source code

/**
 * Declares an element that should be rendered at a certain URL path.
 *
 * @see https://reactrouter.com/api/Route
 */
export function Route(_props: RouteProps): React.ReactElement | null {
  invariant(
    false,
    `A <Route> is only ever to be used as the child of <Routes> element, ` +
      `never rendered directly. Please wrap your <Route> in a <Routes>.`
  );
}
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wait a minute

Wait a minute where is the code? πŸ‘€ Well actually the parent component Routes will use the Route just as a host for the props and children, and do nothing more with the Route

For more info about Routes implementation see link

So how we do implement our PrivateRoute now? πŸ€” If we do some adjustments to PrivateRoute props, it will look like this

function App() {
  return (
    <BrowserRouter>
      <Routes>
        <Route path="/" element={<Public />} />
        <PrivateRoute path="/private" element={<Private />} />
      </Routes>
    </BrowserRouter>
  );
}
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But this will not work. Routes will just take the props of PrivateRoute and ignore it's body totally. Even a console.log inside PrivateRoute will not be shown.

So what we do? πŸ€” We do some more adjustments to PrivateRoute

function PrivateRoute({ children }) {
  const auth = useAuth();
  return auth ? <>{children}</> : <Navigate to="/login" />;
}
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As you can see we changed Redirect to Navigate, and just return children if user is authenticated. And the usage of it also changes a little bit

function App() {
  return (
    <BrowserRouter>
      <Routes>
        <Route path="/" element={<Public />} />
        <Route
          path="/private"
          element={
            <PrivateRoute>
              <Private />
            </PrivateRoute>
          }
        />
      </Routes>
    </BrowserRouter>
  );
}
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As you can see PrivateRoute also moves to element prop.

The implementation of PrivateRoute can be done in multiple ways.

Here is a different implementation of PrivateRoute using Outlet

function PrivateOutlet() {
  const auth = useAuth();
  return auth ? <Outlet /> : <Navigate to="/login" />;
}

function App() {
  return (
    <BrowserRouter>
      <Routes>
        <Route path="/private-outlet" element={<PrivateOutlet />}>
          <Route element={<Private />} />
        </Route>
      </Routes>
    </BrowserRouter>
  );
}
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The pros of this is that you can put multiple private sub routes under same route.

For a full example see this Codesandbox

That's all for today. Happy coding! πŸŽ‰ 🎊 ✨

Keep your users secure!

secure

Cover Photo by Maxim Zhgulev on Unsplash

Top comments (61)

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thatgriffith profile image
Kevin H Griffith •

Awesome man! Huge thanks πŸ™

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ficazzo profile image
Femi Obadimu •

thanks

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aspyryan profile image
Aspyryan •

I was using a module to route users to I only need to render the header once etc.. so in I have outlet to render the nested routes. How can I now use the with the nested routes. This was my homeModule

return (<>
<Header selectedPage={0} />
<main className="w-main flex-1 shadow-md m-auto p-5 my-5 rounded-sm flex">
  <Outlet/>
</main>
</>);
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And this is how I would want to have it work:

<Route path="/" element={<PrivateOutlet />}>
  <Route exact path="/requests" element={<RequestsPage />} />
  ...
</Route>
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aspyryan profile image
Aspyryan •

Whoops, I already figured it out, this was the code for my privateoutlet:

export default function PrivateOutlet() {
    const { account } = useContext(AccountContext);

    return account ? (
        <HomeModule>
            <Outlet />
        </HomeModule>
    ) : (
        <Navigate to="/login" replace />
    );
}
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iamandrewluca profile image
Andrei Luca •

Yes 😊 I was about to write that you need to change PrivateOutlet

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tonnov profile image
Antonio Nogueda • • Edited

is it necesary write Outlet twice?

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lukrisum profile image
Yeee •

Awesome !

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dhenyson profile image
Dhenyson Jhean •

Perfeito, muito obrigado (thank you)! But just aesthetic issues I recommend I created the component that manages private routes receiving props and your code is more reduced and clean.

Example

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timbogdanov profile image
Tim Bogdanov • • Edited

component={Page} should be capital C component or should at lease be defined:

const PrivateRoute = ({component: Component}) => {
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dongloo profile image
Minh KΓ¬ Đông •

Great

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vineyrawat profile image
Viney Rawat •

ΰ€Άΰ€Ύΰ€¨ΰ€¦ΰ€Ύΰ€° ΰ€²ΰ₯‡ΰ€– ΰ€­ΰ€Ύΰ€ˆ

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mahedi5061 profile image
Mahedi Hassan Sharif •

Awesome very Good Brother! Many Many Thanks.

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nichitaa profile image
Pasecinic Nichita •

You could use auth-react-router package npmjs.com/package/auth-react-router

It provides a really simple API to define your routes and few more configurations (like redirect routes for authorized and unauthorized routes, fallback component for each of the routes)

Just define your routes path and pages component and it will work

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pabloalmonte profile image
Pablo Junior Almonte Avila •

Amazing tutorial, thank you ❀️

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obriankevin11 profile image
obriankevin11 • • Edited

How do you protect a set of routes using PrivateRoute?
Repeating ...

<Route path="/private1" element={
            <PrivateRoute>
              <Private1 />
            </PrivateRoute>
          }
        />

<Route path="/private2" element={
            <PrivateRoute>
              <Private2 />
            </PrivateRoute>
          }
        />
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... is not very elegant.
Thank you!

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ronakptl996 profile image
Patel Ronak •

Nice πŸš€πŸš€πŸš€

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masudur10 profile image
Masudur Rahman •

In this react-router version 6 implementation,how i can show alert or popup message for unlogged user when i trying to navigate private route? if user not logged-in it will show the message "please login first" with login button to navigate login page.

if user not logged-in, user always navigate/redirected to home page or other public route.

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iamandrewluca profile image
Andrei Luca •

See this example, when you do the redirect, you can pass some state
in the login component use that state to show the message

dev.to/iamandrewluca/comment/1jjm9

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masudur10 profile image
Masudur Rahman •

In this react-router version 6 implementation,how i can show alert or popup message for unlogged user when i trying to navigate private route? if user not logged-in it will show the message "please login first" with login button.

"< L i n k to='/login' > login< L i n k >"

if user not logged-in, user always navigate/redirected to home page or other public route.

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masudur10 profile image
Masudur Rahman • • Edited

In this react-router version 6 implementation,how i can show alert or popup message for unlogged user when i trying to navigate private route? if user not logged-in it will show the message "please login first" with login button.

"< L i n k to='/login' > login< L i n k >"

if user not logged-in, user always navigate/redirected to home page or other public route.

View full discussion (61 comments)

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