Understanding Routing in React, Angular, and Next.js

Sangwin Gawande
3 min readOct 11, 2024

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Understanding Routing in React, Angular, and Next.js

Feeling Confused by Different Routing Systems in Frameworks? You’re Not Alone!

Routing is an important part of web development. It helps users navigate between different pages and sections of an application without reloading the entire page. In this blog, we’ll look at how routing works in the latest versions of React, Angular, and Next.js. We’ll cover what routing is, what libraries to use, the methods for setting it up, file structures, and some code examples.

Routing in React

What is Routing?

In React, routing allows users to move between different components based on the URL. This is useful in single-page applications (SPAs), where you don’t want the page to reload every time the user clicks a link.

Libraries to Use

The main library for routing in React is React Router. The latest version, React Router v6, is easy to use and helps you manage your routes smoothly.

How It Works

With React Router, you define your routes using JSX (the syntax used in React). This makes it easy to see how users will navigate through your app.

File Structure

Here’s a simple way to organize your files when using React Router:

src/
|-- components/
| |-- Home.js
| |-- About.js
|-- App.js
|-- index.js

Code Example

Here’s a basic example of setting up routing in a React app:

import React from 'react';
import { BrowserRouter as Router, Routes, Route } from 'react-router-dom';
import Home from './components/Home';
import About from './components/About';

function App() {
return (
<Router>
<Routes>
<Route path="/" element={<Home />} />
<Route path="/about" element={<About />} />
</Routes>
</Router>
);
}

export default App;

Routing in Angular

What is Routing?

In Angular, routing helps users navigate from one view to another within a single-page application. It’s important for building dynamic applications where different URLs show different content.

Libraries to Use

Angular has a built-in routing library called @angular/router. This library is powerful and provides many features for managing routes.

How It Works

Angular uses a method called hierarchical routing, which means you can have routes within routes. This is useful for complex applications.

File Structure

Here’s a simple way to organize your Angular project with routing:

src/
|-- app/
| |-- app.module.ts
| |-- app-routing.module.ts
| |-- components/
| | |-- home.component.ts
| | |-- about.component.ts

Code Example

Here’s how to set up routing in an Angular application:

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { RouterModule, Routes } from '@angular/router';
import { HomeComponent } from './components/home.component';
import { AboutComponent } from './components/about.component';

const routes: Routes = [
{ path: '', component: HomeComponent },
{ path: 'about', component: AboutComponent },
];

@NgModule({
imports: [RouterModule.forRoot(routes)],
exports: [RouterModule],
})
export class AppRoutingModule {}

Routing in Next.js

What is Routing?

Next.js uses a special way of handling routing. It automatically maps the files in the pages folder to routes in the application. This makes it easy to set up routes without extra configuration.

Libraries to Use

Next.js has built-in routing features, so you don’t need to use any extra libraries.

How It Works

In Next.js, the structure of your files defines the routes. Each file in the pages directory corresponds to a route in your application.

File Structure

Here’s how you can organize your files in a Next.js application:

pages/
|-- index.js // This is the home page ('/')
|-- about.js // This is the about page ('/about')
|-- blog/
| |-- [id].js // This creates a dynamic route for blog posts (e.g., '/blog/1')

Code Example

Here’s a simple example of routing in a Next.js application:

/* File path : pages/index.js */
export default function Home() {
return <h1>Home Page</h1>;
}

/* File path : pages/about.js */
export default function About() {
return <h1>About Page</h1>;
}

/* File path : pages/blog/[id].js */
import { useRouter } from 'next/router';

export default function BlogPost() {
const router = useRouter();
const { id } = router.query;
return <h1>Blog Post: {id}</h1>;
}

Conclusion

Routing is essential for web applications, allowing users to navigate easily between different pages and components.

  • In React, use React Router for flexible routing.
  • In Angular, use the built-in @angular/router for powerful route management.
  • In Next.js, enjoy file-based routing that simplifies the setup process.

By understanding how routing works in these frameworks, you can create better user experiences in your web applications.

Happy coding!!

Cheers!!

Sangwin Gawande

About me : https://sangw.in

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