Showing a submenu for some menu items to load content via routes in ReactJs

Question

I am learning React JavaScript library. I want to create a simple web-app with the following layout: menu + submenu + content. I use react 15.0.2, react-router 2.4.0, babel 6.5.2 and webpack 1.13.0.

I am able to create menu + content layout but I do not know what is the best practice to add a sub-menu section.

My app looks like this:

Home ~ About ~ Contact ~ Profile

content...

I want to add a sub-menu under the Profile menu item, but the first 3 menu items do not have sub-menu. So if I click on the About and Contact link then I want to see the proper content under the main menu bar. If I click on the Profile link then a submenu needs to be shown. Click on the submenu items the content needs to be displayed under the menu+submenu pairs:

Home ~ About ~ Contact ~ Profile

Profile-Submenu 1 ~ Profile-Submenu 2 ~ ...

content...

App.js

ReactDom.render(
    <Router>
        <Route component={MainLayout}>
            <Route path="/" component={Home} />
            <Route path="home" component={Home} />
            <Route path="about" component={About} />
            <Route path="contact" component={Contact} />
            <Route path="profile" component={Profile} />
        </Route>
    </Router>,  
    document.getElementById('root')
);

MainLajout.js

export default class MainLayout extends React.Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <div>
                <MainMenu />
                <main>{this.props.children}</main>
            </div>
        );
    }
}

MainMenu.js

export default class MainMenu extends React.Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <div style={style.container}>
                <Link to='/'>Home</Link>
                {'\u00a0'}~{'\u00a0'}
                <Link to='/about'>About</Link>
                {'\u00a0'}~{'\u00a0'}
                <Link to='/contact'>Contact</Link>
                {'\u00a0'}~{'\u00a0'}
                <Link to='/profile'>Profile</Link>
            </div>
        );
    }
}

Could you please guide me to the right direction?

Answer 1

You could probably pass the current path as a prop to MainMenu

export default class MainLayout extends React.Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <div>
                <MainMenu path={this.props.location.pathname} />
                <main>{this.props.children}</main>
            </div>
        );
    }
}

Then in your main menu

export default class MainMenu extends React.Component {
    render() {
        let submenu = null;
        if (/^\/profile/.test(this.props.path)) {
            submenu = <div style={style.submenu}>
                <Link to='/profile/submenu-1'>Submenu 1</Link>
                <Link to='/profile/submenu-2'>Submenu 2</Link>
            </div>
        }
        return (<div>
            <div style={style.container}>
                <Link to='/'>Home</Link>
                {'\u00a0'}~{'\u00a0'}
                <Link to='/about'>About</Link>
                {'\u00a0'}~{'\u00a0'}
                <Link to='/contact'>Contact</Link>
                {'\u00a0'}~{'\u00a0'}
                <Link to='/profile'>Profile</Link>
            </div>
            {submenu}
        </div>);
    }
}