Redirect on form submit using React Router

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Borislav Hadzhiev

Last updated: Apr 7, 2024
3 min

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# Redirect on form submit using React Router

To redirect on form submit using React Router:

  1. Use the useNavigate() hook, e.g. const navigate = useNavigate();.
  2. Call the navigate() function passing it the path - navigate('/contacts').
  3. The navigate() function lets us navigate programmatically.
App.js
import {Link, Routes, Route, useNavigate} from 'react-router-dom'; function Home() { const navigate = useNavigate(); const handleSubmit = event => { event.preventDefault(); // ๐Ÿ‘‡๏ธ Redirect to /contacts navigate('/contacts'); }; return ( <form onSubmit={handleSubmit}> <input /> <button type="submit">Submit</button> </form> ); } export default function App() { return ( <div> <div> <nav> <ul> <li> <Link to="/">Home</Link> </li> <li> <Link to="/contacts">Contacts</Link> </li> </ul> </nav> <Routes> <Route path="/contacts" element={<Contacts />} /> <Route path="/" element={<Home />} /> </Routes> </div> </div> ); } function Contacts() { return <h2>Contacts</h2>; }

react redirect on form submit

The code for this article is available on GitHub

The useNavigate hook returns a function that lets us navigate programmatically, e.g. after a form is submitted or a button is clicked.

The navigate function can be passed a delta, e.g. -1 to go one page back, 1 to go one page forward or a path, e.g. navigate('/about').

The function also takes an options object.

App.js
const handleSubmit = event => { event.preventDefault(); // ๐Ÿ‘‡๏ธ Redirect navigate('/contacts', {replace: true}); };

When the replace property is set to true on the options object, the current entry in the history stack gets replaced with the new one.

In other words, navigating to the new route won't push a new entry into the history stack, so if the user clicks the back button, they won't be able to navigate to the previous page.

This is useful, for example, when a user logs in - you don't want them to be able to click the back button and get back to the login page.

Or if you have a route that redirects users to a different page - you don't want users to click the back button and get redirected again.

I've also written an article on how to redirect to another page on button click.

# Wrap your application with a Router component

To use the useNavigate hook in your application, make sure the App component in your index.js file is wrapped in a Router.

index.js
import {createRoot} from 'react-dom/client'; import App from './App'; import {BrowserRouter as Router} from 'react-router-dom'; const rootElement = document.getElementById('root'); const root = createRoot(rootElement); // ๐Ÿ‘‡๏ธ Wrap your App in a Router root.render( <Router> <App /> </Router> );

wrapping your application with a router component

The code for this article is available on GitHub
The best place to wrap your React app with a Router component is in your index.js file because that's the entry point of your React application.

Once your entire app is wrapped with a Router component, you can use any of the hooks from the React router package anywhere in your components.

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

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Copyright ยฉ 2024 Borislav Hadzhiev