mobx-react-router

Keep your MobX state in sync with react-router via a RouterStore.

Usage no npm install needed!

<script type="module">
  import mobxReactRouter from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/mobx-react-router';
</script>

README

mobx-react-router

Keep your MobX state in sync with react-router via a RouterStore.

Router location state is observable, so any references to it in MobX components will cause the component to re-render when the location changes.

Very much inspired by (and copied from) react-router-redux.

This branch (master) is for use with react-router v4.

If you're looking for the bindings for use with react-router v3 go to the v3 branch.

Installation

npm install --save mobx-react-router

And if you haven't installed all the peer dependencies, you should probably do that now:

npm install --save mobx mobx-react react-router

Usage

index.js

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import createBrowserHistory from 'history/createBrowserHistory';
import { Provider } from 'mobx-react';
import { RouterStore, syncHistoryWithStore } from 'mobx-react-router';
import { Router } from 'react-router';
import App from './App';

const browserHistory = createBrowserHistory();
const routingStore = new RouterStore();

const stores = {
  // Key can be whatever you want
  routing: routingStore,
  // ...other stores
};

const history = syncHistoryWithStore(browserHistory, routingStore);

ReactDOM.render(
  <Provider {...stores}>
    <Router history={history}>
      <App />
    </Router>
  </Provider>,
  document.getElementById('root')
);

App.js

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import { inject, observer } from 'mobx-react';

@inject('routing')
@observer
export default class App extends Component {
  render() {
    const { location, push, goBack } = this.props.routing;

    return (
      <div>
        <span>Current pathname: {location.pathname}</span>
        <button onClick={() => push('/test')}>Change url</button>
        <button onClick={() => goBack()}>Go Back</button>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

Typescript

If you are using typescript - the built in typings for this project depend on @types/history, so make sure you have them installed too.

Troubleshooting

Routes not updating correctly when URL changes

There is a known issue with React Router 4 and MobX (and Redux) where "blocker" components like those created by @observer (and @connect in Redux) block react router updates from propagating down the component tree.

There is a React Router 4 documentation page for information on this issue:

https://github.com/ReactTraining/react-router/blob/master/packages/react-router/docs/guides/blocked-updates.md

To fix problems like this, try wrapping components which are being "blocked" with React Router's withRouter higher order component should help, depending on the case.

Refer to the link above for more information on this solution, and some alternatives.

API

RouterStore

const store = new RouterStore();

A router store instance has the following properties:

And the following history methods:

  • push(path)
  • replace(path)
  • go(n)
  • goBack()
  • goForward()

syncHistoryWithStore(history, store)

  • history - A variant of a history object, usually browserHistory
  • store - An instance of RouterStore

returns an enhanced history object with the following additional methods:

  • subscribe(listener)
    Subscribes to any changes in the store's location observable
    Returns an unsubscribe function which destroys the listener
const unsubscribeFromStore = history.subscribe((location, action) => console.log(location.pathname));

history.push('/test1');
unsubscribeFromStore();
history.push('/test2');

// Logs
// 'test1'
  • unsubscribe()
    Un-syncs the store from the history. The store will no longer update when the history changes
history.unsubscribe();
// Store no longer updates