Wrapping a react-router Link in an html button

Wrapping a react-router Link in an html button

When working with React and react-router, you might come across a situation where you need to wrap a react-router Link component inside an HTML button. This can be useful when you want to create a button that triggers a navigation event using the react-router routing system.

There are a couple of ways to achieve this, let’s explore them:

Solution 1: Using the as prop

React Router v6 introduced a new as prop that allows you to render a component other than an anchor tag (a) for the Link component. You can take advantage of this prop to render the Link component inside an HTML button.

{`import { Link } from 'react-router-dom';

function MyComponent() {
  return (
    Click me
  );
}`}

In the above example, we import the Link component from ‘react-router-dom’ and use it inside a functional component called MyComponent. We set the to prop to the desired path and the as prop to “button” to render the Link component as an HTML button.

Solution 2: Using a custom wrapper component

If you are using an older version of React Router or prefer a different approach, you can create a custom wrapper component that wraps the Link component inside an HTML button.

{`import { Link } from 'react-router-dom';

function LinkButton({ to, children }) {
  return (
     window.location.href = to}>
      {children}
    
  );
}

function MyComponent() {
  return (
    Click me
  );
}`}

In the above example, we define a custom component called LinkButton that takes the to prop for the desired path and the children prop for the button’s label. Inside the LinkButton component, we use an HTML button and set its onClick event to navigate to the desired path using window.location.href.

Both solutions achieve the same result of wrapping a Link component in an HTML button. Choose the solution that best fits your project requirements and React Router version.