Introduction to reactRouter"

In reactRouter: 'React Router' for 'shiny' Apps and 'Quarto'

knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  collapse = TRUE,
  comment = "#>"
)

Install

#remotes::install_github("lgnbhl/reactRouter") # development version

install.packages("reactRouter")

Minimal example

library(reactRouter)

You can add URL pages in Quarto document or R shiny like so:

library(reactRouter)

HashRouter(
  NavLink(to = "/", "Main"),
  NavLink(to = "/analysis", "Analysis"),
  Routes(
    Route(path = "/", element = "Main content"),
    Route(path = "/analysis", element = "Analysis content")
  )
)

Usage with Quarto

As React Router provides client routing, you can easily create multiple routes in a Quarto and R markdown documents:

# code to run in a Quarto document
# example adapted from: https://github.com/remix-run/react-router/tree/dev/examples/basic
library(reactRouter)
library(htmltools)

Layout <- div(
  # A "layout route" is a good place to put markup you want to
  # share across all the pages on your site, like navigation.
  tags$nav(
    tags$ul(
      tags$li(
        reactRouter::Link(to = "/", "Home")
      ),
      tags$li(
        reactRouter::Link(to = "/dashboard", "Dashboard")
      ),
      tags$li(
        reactRouter::Link(to = "/nothing-here", "Nothing Here")
      )
    )
  ),
  tags$hr(),
  # An <Outlet> renders whatever child route is currently active,
  # so you can think about this <Outlet> as a placeholder for
  # the child routes we defined above.
  reactRouter::Outlet()
)

reactRouter::HashRouter(
  div(
    h1("Basic Example"),
    tags$p(
      paste0('This example demonstrates some of the core features of React Router
          including nested reactRouter::Route(), reactRouter::Outlet(), 
          reactRouter::Link(), and using a "*" route (aka "splat route") 
          to render a "not found" page when someone visits an unrecognized URL.'
      )
    ),
    reactRouter::Routes(
      Route(
        path = "/",
        element = Layout,
        Route(
          index = TRUE,
          element = div(
            tags$h2("Home"),
            tags$p("Home content")
          )
        ),
        Route(
          path = "dashboard",
          element = div(
            tags$h2("Dashboard"),
            tags$p("Dashboard here")
          )
        ),
        # Using path="*"" means "match anything", so this route
        # acts like a catch-all for URLs that we don't have explicit
        # routes for.
        Route(
          path = "*",
          element = div(
            tags$h2("Nothing to see here!"),
            tags$p(
              Link(to = "/", "Go to the home page")
            )
          )
        )
      )
    )
  )
)

Usage with R Shiny

Below a simple example using R Shiny:

library(reactRouter)
library(shiny)
library(DT)

ui <- fluidPage(
  reactRouter::HashRouter(
    titlePanel("reactRouter"),
    sidebarLayout(
      sidebarPanel(
        reactRouter::NavLink(
          to = "/",
          style = JS('({isActive}) => { return isActive ? {color: "red", textDecoration:"none"} : {}; }'),
          "Home"),
        br(),
        reactRouter::NavLink(
          to = "/analysis",
          style = JS('({isActive}) => { return isActive ? {color: "red", textDecoration: "none"} : {}; }'),
          "Analysis"
        ),
        br(),
        reactRouter::NavLink(
          to = "/about",
          style = JS('({ isActive }) => { return isActive ? { color: "red", textDecoration: "none" } : {}; }'),
          "About"
        )
      ),
      mainPanel(
        reactRouter::Routes(
          reactRouter::Route(
            path = "/",
            element = div(
              tags$h1("Home page"),
              tags$h4("A basic example of reactRouter."),
              uiOutput(outputId = "contentHome")
            )
          ),
          reactRouter::Route(
            path = "/analysis",
            element = div(
              tags$h1("Analysis"),
              DT::DTOutput("table")
              )
          ),
          reactRouter::Route(
            path = "/about",
            element = div(
              uiOutput(outputId = "contentAbout")
            )
          ),
          reactRouter::Route(path = "*", element = div(tags$p("Error 404")))
        )
      )
    )
  )
)

server <- function(input, output, session) {
  output$contentHome <- renderUI({
    p("Content home")
  })
  output$table <- renderDT({
    data.frame(x = c(1, 2), y = c(3, 4))
  })
  output$contentAbout <- renderUI({
    div(
      tags$h1("About"),
      p("Content about")
    )
  })
}

shinyApp(ui, server)

Usage with MUI Material UI

Below an example using MUI Material UI components from the shinyMaterialUI R package:

# remotes::install_github("lgnbhl/shinyMaterialUI")
library(shiny)
library(shinyMaterialUI)
library(reactRouter)


ui <- reactRouter::HashRouter(
  CssBaseline(
    Typography("reactRouter with shinyMaterialUI", variant = "h5", m = 2),
    Stack(
      direction = "row", spacing = 2, p = 2,
      Paper(
        MenuList(
          reactRouter::NavLink(
            to = "/",
            style = JS('({isActive}) => { return isActive ? {color: "red", textDecoration:"none"} : { textDecoration: "none" }; }'),
            MenuItem(
              "home"
            )
          ),
          br(),
          reactRouter::NavLink(
            to = "/analysis",
            style = JS('({isActive}) => { return isActive ? {color: "red", textDecoration: "none"} : { textDecoration: "none" }; }'),
            MenuItem(
              "Analysis"
            )
          ),
          br(),
          reactRouter::NavLink(
            to = "/about",
            style = JS('({ isActive }) => { return isActive ? { color: "red", textDecoration: "none" } : { textDecoration: "none" }; }'),
            MenuItem(
              "About"
            )
          )
        )
      ),
      Box(
        reactRouter::Routes(
          reactRouter::Route(
            path = "/",
            element = div(
              tags$h1("Home page"),
              tags$h4("A basic example of reactRouter with shinyMaterialUI."),
              uiOutput(outputId = "contentHome")
            )
          ),
          reactRouter::Route(
            path = "/analysis",
            element = div(
              tags$h1("Analysis"),
              uiOutput(outputId = "contentAnalysis")
              )
          ),
          reactRouter::Route(
            path = "/about",
            element = uiOutput(outputId = "contentAbout")
          ),
          reactRouter::Route(path = "*", element = div(tags$p("Error 404")))
        )
      )
    )
  )
)

server <- function(input, output, session) {
  output$contentHome <- renderUI({
    p("Content home")
  })
  output$contentAnalysis <- renderUI({
    p("Content analysis")
  })
  output$contentAbout <- renderUI({
    p("Content about")
  })
}

shinyApp(ui, server)

Server side rendering issue

If some pages have the same HTML structure, shiny will not update the content rendered in the server when clicking on a new page.

Here an minimal example of the issue:

library(shiny)
library(reactRouter)

ui <- HashRouter(
  NavLink.shinyInput(inputId = "linkMain", to = "/", "Main"), br(),
  NavLink.shinyInput(inputId = "linkOther", to = "/other", "Other"),
  Routes(
    Route(
      path = "/", 
      element = div(uiOutput(outputId = "contentMain"))
    ),
    Route(
      path = "/other", 
      element = div(uiOutput(outputId = "contentOther"))
    )
  )
)

server <- function(input, output, session) {
  output$contentMain <- renderUI( { p("Content home") } )
  output$contentOther <- renderUI( { p("New content") })
}

if (interactive()) {
  shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)
}

A simple workaround is to have a different HTML structure for each page.

library(shiny)
library(reactRouter)

ui <- HashRouter(
  NavLink.shinyInput(inputId = "linkMain", to = "/", "Main"), br(),
  NavLink.shinyInput(inputId = "linkOther", to = "/other", "Other"),
  Routes(
    Route(
      path = "/", 
      element = div(uiOutput(outputId = "contentMain"))
    ),
    Route(
      path = "/other", 
      element = div(
        # add title to have a different HTML structure
        h1("NOW VISIBLE"),
        uiOutput(outputId = "contentOther")
      )
    )
  )
)

server <- function(input, output, session) {
  output$contentMain <- renderUI( { p("Content home") } )
  output$contentOther <- renderUI( { p("New content") })
}

if (interactive()) {
  shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)
}

Another workaround is to reload the session when clicking on a page link using NavLink.shinyInput() instead of NavLink(). This is equivalent to clicking on the refresh button of your browser.

This workaround has multiple downsides, in particular loose all current session objects when reloading the session.

library(shiny)
library(reactRouter)

ui <- HashRouter(
  NavLink.shinyInput(inputId = "linkMain", to = "/", "Main"), br(),
  NavLink.shinyInput(inputId = "linkOther", to = "/other", "Other"),
  Routes(
    Route(
      path = "/", 
      element = div(uiOutput(outputId = "contentMain"))
    ),
    Route(
      path = "/other", 
      element = div(
        uiOutput(outputId = "contentOther")
      )
    )
  )
)

server <- function(input, output, session) {
  # Reload session when user clicks on new page to refresh output content.
  # It is equivalent to click on the refresh button in the browser.
  observeEvent(c(input$linkMain, input$linkOther), {
    session$reload()
  })
  output$contentMain <- renderUI( { p("Content home") } )
  output$contentOther <- renderUI( { p("New content") })
}

if (interactive()) {
  shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)
}

A third workaround is to render all the UI from the server.

library(shiny)
library(reactRouter)

ui <- uiOutput(outputId = "main")

server <- function(input, output, session) {
  output$main <- renderUI({
    HashRouter(
      NavLink.shinyInput(inputId = "linkMain", to = "/", "Main"), br(),
      NavLink.shinyInput(inputId = "linkOther", to = "/other", "Other"),
      Routes(
        Route(
          path = "/", 
          element = p("Content home")
        ),
        Route(
          path = "/other", 
          element = div(
            p("New content"),
            p(print(JS("location.reload()")))
          )
        )
      )
    )
  })
}

if (interactive()) {
  shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)
}

More examples of this issue are given here. Please contact me if you have a solution to this issue.

Usage with Shiny modules

# adapted from example of shiny.router
# https://github.com/Appsilon/shiny.router/tree/main/examples/shiny_modules
library(shiny)
library(reactRouter)

# This creates UI for each page.
page <- function(title, content, id) {
  ns <- NS(id)
  div(
    titlePanel(title),
    p(content),
    textOutput(ns("click_me"))
  )
}

# Both sample pages.
root_page <- page("Home page", "Home page clicks", "root")
second_page <- page("Second page", "2nd page clicks", "second")

server_module <- function(id, clicks, power = 1) {
  moduleServer(id, function(input, output, session) {
    output$click_me <- renderText({
      as.numeric(clicks())^power
    })
  })
}

# Create output for our router in main UI of Shiny app.
ui <- reactRouter::HashRouter(
  NavLink.shinyInput(inputId = "linkMain", to = "/", "Main"), br(),
  NavLink.shinyInput(inputId = "linkOther", to = "/other", "Other"),
  actionButton("clicks", "Click me!"),
  Routes(
    Route(
      path = "/", 
      element = div(
        root_page
      )
    ),
    Route(
      path = "/other", 
      element = div(
        second_page
      )
    )
  )
)

# Plug router into Shiny server.
server <- function(input, output, session) {
  # reload the session to make the modules work
  # Not desired behavior as clicks object lost
  observeEvent(c(input$linkMain, input$linkOther), {
    session$reload()
  })
  clicks <- reactive({
    input$clicks
  })

  server_module("root", clicks = clicks, power = 1)
  server_module("second", clicks = clicks, power = 2)
}

# Run server in a standard way.
shinyApp(ui, server)

Alternatives

• shiny.router implements a custom hash routing for shiny.
• brochure provide a mechanism for creating natively multi-page shiny applications (but is still WIP).

More information

reactRouter implements React Router v.6.30.0.

More info about how to use React Router can be found in the official website.

reactRouter documentation built on June 8, 2025, 11:47 a.m.