Forcing a React-Router <Link> to load a page, even if we're already on that page

Question

Is there a way to force a React-Router <Link> to load a page from path, even when the current location is already that page? I can't seem to find any mention of this in the react-router documentations.

We have a page on a route for "apply" that loads up a landing page with a hero image, some explanatory text, etc., and an "apply for this program" button that swaps in content that acts as an application form. This all happens on the same "apply" route, because users should not be able to directly navigate to this form without first hitting the landing page.

However, when they have this form open, and they click on the apply link in the nav menu again, the entire page should reload as it would on first mount, getting them "back" (but really, forward) to the landing page again.

Instead, clicking the <Link> does nothing, because react-router sees we're already on the "apply" page, and so does not unmount the current page to then mount a different one.

Is there a way to force it to unmount the current page before then mounting the requested page, even if it's for the page users are supposedly already on? (via a <Link> property for instance?)

---

Note: this question was posted when React-Router meant v5, and while the problem in this post is independent of a specific React-Router versions, but the solutions are not. As such, the accepted answer is the solution for React-Router v6, so if you're still using v5, first and foremost upgrade your version of React-Router, but if you absolutely can't, the accepted answer won't work for you and you'll want this answer instead.

Answer 1

For the record with react-router v6.

• The key does not seem to work for me to force a remount, and I find it quite inelegant.

• The reloadDocument is really a full application reload, not a simple and light page remount.

• I resorted to create a Redir component which links back to the page, thus forcing a remount:

  The Redir component navigates to any path:

  import { Navigate } from 'react-router'
  import { useParams } from 'react-router-dom'
  export default function Redir()
  {
    const { "*": path } = useParams()
    return <Navigate to={'/'.concat(path)} />
  }
  

  Then a catch-all route is added to invoke the Redir component:

  <Route path="/r/*" element={<Redir />} />
  

  Then simply link to this route to redirect to /some-path:

  <Link to="/r/some-path">...</Link>
  

This works well and quickly, especially if you use some kind of cache such as SWR or the like.

Answer 2

React router (v6) will always give you a unique 'key' property in useLocation, even when you try to navigate to the same page.

I made a custom hook called useSamePageRefreshCount. That way you can use it in the exact components you'd like to update after navigating to the same route.

Side note: Using a count means we don't have to keep setting a boolean to true/false when the page is refreshed (ultimately reducing the number of renders).

function useSamePageRefreshCount() {
    const location = useLocation();
    const prevLocationRef = useRef();
    const [samePageRefreshCount, setSamePageRefreshCount] = useState(0);

    useEffect(() => {
        const { pathname: prevPathname, search: prevSearch, key: prevKey } = prevLocationRef.current || {};
        const sameRoute = prevPathname === location.pathname && prevSearch === location.search;
        const diffKey = prevKey !== location.key;

        // Check if we're navigating to the page we're already on.
        if (sameRoute && diffKey) {
            setSamePageRefreshCount(samePageRefreshCount + 1);
        } else {
            setSamePageRefreshCount(0);
        }

        // Update the ref to the current location for the next render.
        prevLocationRef.current = location;
    }, [location]);


    return samePageRefreshCount;
}

Then in any component you can use:

const samePageRefreshCount = useSamePageRefreshCount();

useEffect(() => {
    if (samePageRefreshCount > 0) {
        console.log('Same page refresh!');
        // Do other things here.
    }
}, [samePageRefreshCount]);

Answer 3

From React-Router-v6 onwards, there is a much easier way to achieve this, with the reloadDocument Link prop:

<Link to={linkTarget} reloadDocument={true}>Page</Link>

Answer 4

Here's my solution for v4 (yes, it's old...)

I'm not a fan of other solutions that dip into the history api. I see react-router as providing an abstraction on top of regular browser links/history, so I'd rather change how I'm using that library.

I'm also not a fan of using a randomly generated key, since React is using that to determine what has changed (and that will fire in every render, I think).

We have a regular Link component:

<Link to='/products/new'/>

and this ^ doesn't need to change. Instead, we changed our Route from this

 <Route path="/products/new" component={Whatever} />

to this:

 <Route path="/products/new" component={Whatever} key={history.location.key} />

and that made it just work. I believe this works because history.location.key is changing whenever the user clicks on a Link component, and that forces the Route to be recreated. So now the component is getting a fresh state like we want.

Answer 5

you can use BrowserRouter forceRefresh={true}

I use react-router-dom 5

Example :

            <BrowserRouter forceRefresh={true}>
              <Link 
                to={{pathname: '/otherPage', state: {data: data}}}>
              </Link>
            </BrowserRouter>

Answer 6

Based on official documentation for 'react-router' v6 for Link component

A is an element that lets the user navigate to another page by clicking or tapping on it. In react-router-dom, a renders an accessible element with a real href that points to the resource it's linking to. This means that things like right-clicking a work as you'd expect. You can use to skip client side routing and let the browser handle the transition normally (as if it were an ).

So you can pass reloadDocument to your <Link/> component and it will always refresh the page.

Example

<Link reloadDocument to={linkTo}> myapp.com </Link>

At least works for me!

Answer 7

I found a simple solution.

<BrowserRouter forceRefresh />

This forces a refresh when any links are clicked on. Unfortunately, it is global, so you can't specify which links/pages to refresh only.

From the documentation:

If true the router will use full page refreshes on page navigation. You may want to use this to imitate the way a traditional server-rendered app would work with full page refreshes between page navigation.

Answer 8

Here's a hacky solution that doesn't require updating any downstream components or updating a lot of routes. I really dislike it as I feel like there should be something in react-router that handles this for me.

Basically, if the link is for the current page then on click...

1. Wait until after the current execution.
2. Replace the history with /refresh?url=<your url to refresh>.
3. Have your switch listen for a /refresh route, then have it redirect back to the url specified in the url query parameter.

Code

First in my link component:

function MenuLink({ to, children }) {
    const location = useLocation();
    const history = useHistory();
    const isCurrentPage = () => location.pathname === to;
    const handler = isCurrentPage() ? () => {
        setTimeout(() => {
            if (isCurrentPage()) {
                history.replace("/refresh?url=" + encodeURIComponent(to))
            }
        }, 0);
    } : undefined;

    return <Link to={to} onClick={handler}>{children}</Link>;
}

Then in my switch:

<Switch>
        <Route path="/refresh" render={() => <Redirect to={parseQueryString().url ?? "/"} />} />
        {/* ...rest of routes go here... */}
<Switch>

...where parseQueryString() is a function I wrote for getting the query parameters.

Answer 9

Simple as:

<Route path="/my/path" render={(props) => <MyComp {...props} key={Date.now()}/>} />

Works fine for me. When targeting to the same path:

this.props.history.push("/my/path");

The page gets reloaded, even if I'm already at /my/path.

Answer 10

I got this working in a slightly different way that @peiti-li's answer, in react-router-dom v5.1.2, because in my case, my page got stuck in an infinite render loop after attempting their solution.

Following is what I did.

<Route
  path="/mypath"
  render={(props) => <MyComponent key={props.location.key} />}
/>

Every time a route change happens, the location.key prop changes even if the user is on the same route already. According to react-router-dom docs:

Instead of having a new React element created for you using the component prop, you can pass in a function to be called when the location matches. The render prop function has access to all the same route props (match, location and history) as the component render prop.

This means that we can use the props.location.key to obtain the changing key when a route change happens. Passing this to the component will make the component re-render every time the key changes.

Answer 11

To be honest, none of these are really "thinking React". For those that land on this question, a better alternative that accomplishes the same task is to use component state.

Set the state on the routed component to a boolean or something that you can track:

this.state = {
    isLandingPage: true // or some other tracking value
};

When you want to go to the next route, just update the state and have your render method load in the desired component.

Answer 12

A fix I used to solve my little need around this was to change the location that React-Router looks at. If it sees a location that we're already on (as in your example) it won't do anything, but by using a location object and changing that, rather than using a plain string path, React-Router will "navigate" to the new location, even if the path looks the same.

You can do this by setting a key that's different from the current key (similar to how React's render relies on key) with a state property that allows you to write clear code around what you wanted to do:

render() {
  const linkTarget = {
    pathname: "/page",
    key: uuid(), // we could use Math.random, but that's not guaranteed unique.
    state: {
      applied: true
    }
  };

  return (
    ...
    <Link to={linkTarget}>Page</Link>
    ...
  );
}

Note that (confusingly) you tell the Link which values you need pass as a state object, but the link will pass those values on into the component as props. So don't make the mistake of trying to access this.state in the target component!

We can then check for this in the target component's componentDidUpdate like so:

componentDidUpdate(prevProps, prevState, snapshot) {
  // Check to see if the "applied" flag got changed (NOT just "set")
  if (this.props.location.state.applied && !prevProps.location.state.applied) {
    // Do stuff here 
  }
}

Answer 13

Solved using the Rachita Bansal answer but with the componentDidUpdate instead componentWillReceiveProps

componentDidUpdate(prevProps) {
    if (prevProps.location.pathname !== this.props.location.pathname) { window.location.reload();
    }
}

Answer 14

You can use the lifecycle method - componentWillReceiveProps When you click on the link, the key of the location props is updated. So, you can do a workaround, something like below,

/**
 * @param {object} nextProps new properties
 */
    componentWillReceiveProps = (nextProps)=> {
        if (nextProps.location.pathname !== this.props.location.pathname) {
            window.location.reload();
        }
    };

Answer 15

This might be a common problem and I was looking for a decent solution to have in my toolbet for next time. React-Router provides some mechanisms to know when an user tries to visit any page even the one they are already.

Reading the location.key hash, it's the perfect approach as it changes every-time the user try to navigate between any page.

componentDidUpdate (prevProps) {
    if (prevProps.location.key !== this.props.location.key) {
        this.setState({
            isFormSubmitted: false,
        })
    }
}

After setting a new state, the render method is called. In the example, I set the state to default values.

Reference: A location object is never mutated so you can use it in the lifecycle hooks to determine when navigation happens

Answer 16

Try just using an anchor tag a href link. Use target="_self" in the tag to force the page to rerender fully.

Answer 17

I solved this by pushing a new route into history, then replacing that route with the current route (or the route you want to refresh). This will trigger react-router to "reload" the route without refreshing the entire page.

<Link onClick={this.reloadRoute()} to={'/route-to-refresh'}>
    Click Me
</Link>

let reloadRoute = () => {
    router.push({ pathname: '/empty' });
    router.replace({ pathname: '/route-to-refresh' });
}

React router works by using your browser history to navigate without reloading the entire page. If you force a route into the history react router will detect this and reload the route. It is important to replace the empty route so that your back button does not take you to the empty route after you push it in.

According to react-router it looks like the react router library does not support this functionality and probably never will, so you have to force the refresh in a hacky way.

Answer 18

In the Route component, specify a random key.

<Route path={YOURPATH} render={(props) => <YourComp {...props} keyProp={someValue} key={randomGen()}/>} />

when react see a different key, they will trigger rerender.

Answer 19

Not a good solution because it forces a full page refresh and throws an error, but you can call forceUpdate() using an onClick handler like:

<Link onClick={this.forceUpdate} to={'/the-page'}>
    Click Me
</Link>

All I can say is it works. I'm stuck in a similar issue myself and hope someone else has a better answer!

React router Link not causing component to update within nested routes