Navigating Between Pages in React
Explore how to implement client-side navigation in React applications using React Router's Link and NavLink components. Understand the differences from traditional navigation, maintain app state, and apply dynamic styles to active links. This lesson helps you build seamless single-page application navigation with practical exercises.
Now that we have learned to define multiple routes in React applications, it’s time to learn to navigate between them. Without navigation, users are stuck on the default route, unable to explore other parts of applications.
Traditional approach for navigation
In traditional HTML, navigation is handled using <a> tags. For example:
<a href="/about">About</a>
However, <a> tags cause the browser to perform a full-page reload, which:
Slows down navigation.
Breaks the seamless user experience expected from SPAs.
Clears the application state.
React’s way of navigation
React Router provides components like Link and NavLink to enable smooth, ...