React-Router External link

Question

Since I'm using React Router to handle my routes in a React app, I'm curious if there is a way to redirect to an external resource.

Say someone hits:

example.com/privacy-policy

I would like it to redirect to:

example.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/123456789-Privacy-Policies

I'm finding exactly zero help in avoiding writing it in plain JavaScript at my index.html loading with something like:

if (window.location.path === "privacy-policy"){
  window.location = "example.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/123456789-Privacy-Policies"
}

Answer 1

Here's a one-liner for using React Router to redirect to an external link:

<Route path='/privacy-policy' component={() => {
    window.location.href = 'https://example.com/1234';
    return null;
}}/>

It uses the React pure component concept to reduce the component's code to a single function that, instead of rendering anything, redirects browser to an external URL.

It works both on React Router 3 and 4.

Answer 2

With Link component of react-router you can do that. In the "to" prop you can specify 3 types of data:

• a string: A string representation of the Link location, created by concatenating the location’s pathname, search, and hash properties.
• an object: An object that can have any of the following properties:
  • pathname: A string representing the path to link to.
  • search: A string representation of query parameters.
  • hash: A hash to put in the URL, e.g. #a-hash.
  • state: State to persist to the location.
• a function: A function to which current location is passed as an argument and which should return location representation as a string or as an object

For your example (external link):

https://example.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/123456789-Privacy-Policies

You can do the following:

<Link to={{ pathname: "https://example.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/123456789-Privacy-Policies" }} target="_blank" />

You can also pass props you’d like to be on the such as a title, id, className, etc.

Answer 3

There isn’t any need to use the <Link /> component from React Router.

If you want to go to external link use an anchor tag.

<a target='_blank'
            rel='noopener noreferrer' href="https://meetflo.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/230425728-Privacy-Policies">Policies</a>

Use the rel=”noopener” or rel=”noreferrer” link attributes for every link. The rel=”noreferrer” link attribute also functions the same as the “noopener” link attribute in that it prevents the linked site from taking control of the linking site.

Answer 4

It doesn't need to request React Router. This action can be done natively and it is provided by the browser.

Just use window.location.

With React Hooks

const RedirectPage = () => {
  React.useEffect(() => {
    window.location.replace('https://www.google.com')
  }, [])
}

With React Class Component

class RedirectPage extends React.Component {
  componentDidMount(){
    window.location.replace('https://www.google.com')
  }
}

Also, if you want to open it in a new tab:

window.open('https://www.google.com', '_blank');

Answer 5

I actually ended up building my own Component, <Redirect>. It takes information from the react-router element, so I can keep it in my routes. Such as:

<Route
  path="/privacy-policy"
  component={ Redirect }
  loc="https://meetflo.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/230425728-Privacy-Policies"
  />

Here is my component in case anyone is curious:

import React, { Component } from "react";

export class Redirect extends Component {
  constructor( props ){
    super();
    this.state = { ...props };
  }
  componentWillMount(){
    window.location = this.state.route.loc;
  }
  render(){
    return (<section>Redirecting...</section>);
  }
}

export default Redirect;

Note: This is with react-router: 3.0.5, it is not so simple in 4.x

Answer 6

Using some of the information here, I came up with the following component which you can use within your route declarations. It's compatible with React Router v4.

It's using TypeScript, but it should be fairly straightforward to convert to native JavaScript:

interface Props {
  exact?: boolean;
  link: string;
  path: string;
  sensitive?: boolean;
  strict?: boolean;
}

const ExternalRedirect: React.FC<Props> = (props: Props) => {
  const { link, ...routeProps } = props;

  return (
    <Route
      {...routeProps}
      render={() => {
        window.location.replace(props.link);
        return null;
      }}
    />
  );
};

And use with:

<ExternalRedirect
  exact={true}
  path={'/privacy-policy'}
  link={'https://example.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/123456789-Privacy-Policies'}
/>

Answer 7

I went through the same issue. I want my portfolio to redirect to social media handles. Earlier I used {Link} from "react-router-dom". That was redirecting to the sub directory as here,

Link can be used for routing web pages within a website. If we want to redirect to an external link then we should use an anchor tag. Like this,

Answer 8

The simplest solution is to use a render function and change the window.location.

<Route path="/goToGoogle"
       render={() => window.location = "https://www.google.com"} />

If you want a small reusable component, you can just extract it like this:

const ExternalRedirect = ({ to, ...routeProps }) => {
   return <Route {...routeProps} render={() => window.location = to} />;
};

and then use it (e.g. in your router switch) like this:

<Switch>
    ...
    <ExternalRedirect exact path="/goToGoogle" to="https://www.google.com" />
</Switch>

Answer 9

I had luck with this:

<Route
    path="/example"
    component={() => {
        global.window && (global.window.location.href = 'https://example.com');
        return null;
    }}
/>

Answer 10

Complementing Víctor Daniel's answer here: Link's pathname will actually take you to an external link only when there's the 'https://' or 'http://' before the link.

You can do the following:

<Link to={{ pathname:
> "https://example.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/123456789-Privacy-Policies"
> }} target="_blank" />

Or if your URL doesn't come with 'https://', I'd do something like:

<Link to={{pathname:`https://${link}`}} target="_blank" />

Otherwise it will prepend the current base path, as Lorenzo Demattécommented.

Answer 11

I solved this on my own (in my web application) by adding an anchor tag and not using anything from React Router, just a plain anchor tag with a link as you can see in the picture screenshot of using anchor tag in a React app without using React Router

Basically, you are not routing your user to another page inside your app, so you must not use the internal router, but use a normal anchor.

Although this is for a non-react-native solution, but you can try.

Answer 12

In React Route V6 render props were removed. It should be a redirect component.

RedirectUrl:

const RedirectUrl = ({ url }) => {
  useEffect(() => {
    window.location.href = url;
  }, [url]);

  return <h5>Redirecting...</h5>;
};

Route:

<Routes>
   <Route path="/redirect" element={<RedirectUrl url="https://google.com" />} />
</Routes>

Answer 13

In React Router v6, component is unavailable. Instead, now it supports element. Make a component redirecting to the external site and add it as shown.

import * as React from 'react';
import { Routes, Route } from "react-router-dom";

function App() {
  return(
    <Routes>
      // Redirect
      <Route path="/external-link" element={<External />} />
    </Routes>
  );
}

function External() {
  window.location.href = 'https://google.com';
  return null;
}

export default App;

Answer 14

I think the best solution is to just use a plain old <a> tag. Everything else seems convoluted. React Router is designed for navigation within single page applications, so using it for anything else doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Making an entire component for something that is already built into the <a> tag seems... silly?

Answer 15

To expand on Alan's answer, you can create a <Route/> that redirects all <Link/>'s with "to" attributes containing 'http:' or 'https:' to the correct external resource.

Below is a working example of this which can be placed directly into your <Router>.

<Route path={['/http:', '/https:']} component={props => {
  window.location.replace(props.location.pathname.substr(1)) // substr(1) removes the preceding '/'
  return null
}}/>

Answer 16

I don't think React Router provides this support. The documentation mentions

A < Redirect > sets up a redirect to another route in your application to maintain old URLs.

You could try using something like React-Redirect instead.

Answer 17

I was facing the same issue and solved it using by http:// or https:// in React.

Like as: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.example.com/" title="example">See detail</a>

Answer 18

For V3, although it may work for V4. Going off of Eric's answer, I needed to do a little more, like handle local development where 'http' is not present on the URL. I'm also redirecting to another application on the same server.

Added to the router file:

import RedirectOnServer from './components/RedirectOnServer';

<Route path="/somelocalpath"
       component={RedirectOnServer}
       target="/someexternaltargetstring like cnn.com"
/>

And the Component:

import React, { Component } from "react";

export class RedirectOnServer extends Component {

  constructor(props) {
    super();
    // If the prefix is http or https, we add nothing
    let prefix = window.location.host.startsWith("http") ? "" : "http://";
    // Using host here, as I'm redirecting to another location on the same host
    this.target = prefix + window.location.host + props.route.target;
  }
  componentDidMount() {
    window.location.replace(this.target);
  }
  render(){
    return (
      <div>
        <br />
        <span>Redirecting to {this.target}</span>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

export default RedirectOnServer;

Answer 19

I am offering an answer relevant to React Router v6 to handle dynamic routing.

I created a generic component called redirect:

export default function Redirect(params) {
  window.location.replace('<Destination URL>' + "/." params.destination);

  return (
    <div />

  )
}

I then called it in my router file:

<Route path='/wheretogo' element={<Redirect destination="wheretogo"/>}/>

Answer 20

You can use for your dynamic URL:

<Link to={{pathname:`${link}`}}>View</Link>

Answer 21

Save this html page on your disk with the name ExampleLinkReact.html,

and open it with your browser, say chromium 115.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset='UTF-8'>
    <title>ExampleLinkReact</title>
    <script crossorigin src="https://unpkg.com/react@18/umd/react.development.js"></script>
    <script crossorigin src="https://unpkg.com/react-dom@18/umd/react-dom.development.js"></script>
    <script src='https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/umd/react-router-dom.min.js'></script>
    <script src='https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/babel.js'></script>
    

  </head>
  <body>
    <div id='root'></div>
    <script type='text/babel'>
      const Link = ReactRouterDOM.Link;
      const Route = ReactRouterDOM.Route;

      const ExampleLinkReact = () => (
      
<div style={removeallstyles}> {/*1*/}
 <div style={container100postlist}>         
    
    <p style={style_label}> ExampleLinkReact </p>
    <div style={hspace3}> </div>
    <p> Open every link in new tab</p>

    
  <div style={block1}>  
  <ReactRouterDOM.HashRouter>
     <ul style={ulist_style}>
      <li><Link to="/InnerComponent">InnerComponent</Link></li>
      <li><Link to='/LocalHTMLPage'>LocalHTMLPage</Link></li>
      <li><Link to='/LinkExternalUrl'>LinkExternalUrl</Link></li>
    </ul>


    
    <Route path="/InnerComponent" exact component={InnerComponent} />
    <Route exact path="/LocalHTMLPage" render={() => {window.location.href="LocalHTMLPage.html"}} />
    <Route exact path="/LinkExternalUrl" render={() => {window.location.href="https://example.com/1234"}} />
  </ReactRouterDOM.HashRouter>
    
    
    
    <div style={hspace3}> </div>
  </div> {/*block1 end*/}

  {/*/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////*/}
  {/*/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////*/}
    

    
    </div> {/*container100postlist*/}
</div> /*removeallstyles*/
      )

      
      //define InnerComponent
      const InnerComponent = () => <h1>InnerComponent</h1>

      
      
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 
 {/*CSS CODE START. */}
 //This is only elementary css, you can ignore it;

 const removeallstyles = { all: 'revert',}
 const hspace3={height: 0.05*window.innerHeight, backgroundColor: 'transparent', position: 'relative'}; 
 const vhspace1={width: 0.05*window.innerWidth, backgroundColor: 'transparent', position: 'inline-block'};  
 
 
 
    
 
 
 //container100postlist     
 const container100postlist_width =94;
 const container100postlist_border=1;   
 const container100postlist  =
 {
    //margin:'0 auto',    
    //textAlign: 'center',
    position: 'absolute',
    width: container100postlist_width+'vw',
    backgroundColor:'transparent',  
    display: 'block',
    clear: 'both',
 };

 
 
 
 const style_label =
 {
    backgroundColor:'transparent',  
    marginTop: '1vh',
    marginBottom: '1vh',
    textAlign: 'left',
    display: 'block',
    clear: 'both',
    position: 'relative',
    fontWeight: 'bold',   
 };
 
 
    

 var block1 =
  {
    textAlign: 'left',
    float: 'left',
    display: 'block',
    clear: 'both',
    padding: '0.5vw',
    //height: '40%',
    width: '97vw',
    //backgroundColor:'red',    
    border: '0.1vh solid red',    
  };



  
 const ulist_style =
 {
    //listStyle: 'none',
    listStylePosition: 'inside',
    paddingLeft: '1vw',
 }



 {/*CSS CODE END. */}


/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 
      
      
      
      ReactDOM.render(<ExampleLinkReact />, document.querySelector('#root'));
    </script>
  </body>
</html> 

Answer 22

import React from "react";
import { BrowserRouter as Router, Route } from "react-router-dom";

function App() {
  return (
    <Router>
      <Route path="/" exact>
        {window.location.replace("http://agrosys.in")}
      </Route>
    </Router>
  );
}

export default App;

Answer 23

Using React with TypeScript, you get an error as the function must return a React element, not void. So I did it this way using the Route render method (and using React router v4):

redirectToHomePage = (): null => {
    window.location.reload();
    return null;
};

<Route exact path={'/'} render={this.redirectToHomePage} />

Where you could instead also use window.location.assign(), window.location.replace(), etc.

Answer 24

If you are using server-side rending, you can use StaticRouter. With your context as props and then adding <Redirect path="/somewhere" /> component in your app. The idea is every time React Router matches a redirect component it will add something into the context you passed into the static router to let you know your path matches a redirect component.

Now that you know you hit a redirect you just need to check if that’s the redirect you are looking for. then just redirect through the server. ctx.redirect('https://example/com').

Answer 25

You can now link to an external site using React Link by providing an object to to with the pathname key:

<Link to={ { pathname: '//example.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/123456789-Privacy-Policies' } } >

If you find that you need to use JavaScript to generate the link in a callback, you can use window.location.replace() or window.location.assign().

Over using window.location.replace(), as other good answers suggest, try using window.location.assign().

window.location.replace() will replace the location history without preserving the current page.

window.location.assign() will transition to the URL specified, but will save the previous page in the browser history, allowing proper back-button functionality.

location.replace()

location.assign()

Also, if you are using a window.location = url method as mentioned in other answers, I highly suggest switching to window.location.href = url.

There is a heavy argument about it, where many users seem to adamantly want to revert the newer object type window.location to its original implementation as string merely because they can (and they egregiously attack anyone who says otherwise), but you could theoretically interrupt other library functionality accessing the window.location object.

Check out this conversation. It's terrible. JavaScript: Setting location.href versus location

Answer 26

I was able to achieve a redirect in react-router-dom using the following

<Route exact path="/" component={() => <Redirect to={{ pathname: '/YourRoute' }} />} />

For my case, I was looking for a way to redirect users whenever they visit the root URL http://myapp.com to somewhere else within the app http://myapp.com/newplace. so the above helped.