Accessing Redux Store from routes set up via React

Question

I would like to make use of react-router's onEnter handler in order to prompt users to authenticate when entering a restricted route.

So far my routes.js file looks something like this:

import React from 'react';
import { Route, IndexRoute } from 'react-router';

export default (
    <Route   path="/"         component={App}>
      <IndexRoute             component={Landing} />
      <Route path="learn"     component={Learn} />
      <Route path="about"     component={About} />
      <Route path="downloads" component={Downloads} onEnter={requireAuth} />
    </Route>
)

Ideally, I'd like my requireAuth function to be a redux action that has access to the store and current state, that works like this: store.dispatch(requireAuth()).

Unfortunately I don't have access to the store in this file. I don't think I can use really use connect in this case to access the relevant actions that I want. I also can't just import store from the file where the store is created, as this is undefined when the app first loads.

Answer 1

If you want that you could write route.js like this:

var requireAuth = (store, nextState, replace) => {
  console.log("store: ", store);
  //now you have access to the store in the onEnter hook!
}

export default (store) => {
  return (
      <Route path="/"           component={App}>
        <IndexRoute             component={Landing} />
        <Route path="learn"     component={Learn} />
        <Route path="about"     component={About} />
        <Route path="downloads" component={Downloads} onEnter={requireAuth.bind(this, store)} />
      </Route>
    );
);

I've setup an example which you could play with in this codepen.

Not sure if triggering an action in order to handle the auth is a good idea. Personally I prefer handling auth in a different way:

Instead of using an onEnter hook, I use a wrapping function. I want the admin section of my blog protected, therefore I wrapped the AdminContainer component in the routes with a function, requireAuthentication, see below.

export default (store, history) => {
        return (
            <Router history={history}>
                <Route path="/" component={App}>
                    { /* Home (main) route */ }
                    <IndexRoute component={HomeContainer}/>
                    <Route path="post/:slug" component={PostPage}/>
                    { /* <Route path="*" component={NotFound} status={404} /> */ }
                </Route>

                <Route path="/admin" component={requireAuthentication(AdminContainer)}>
                    <IndexRoute component={PostList}/>
                    <Route path=":slug/edit" component={PostEditor}/>
                    <Route path="add" component={PostEditor}/>
                </Route>
                <Route path="/login" component={Login}/>
            </Router>
        );
    };

requireAuthentication is a function that

• if the user is authenticated, renders the wrapped component,
• otherwise redirects to Login

You can see it below:

export default function requireAuthentication(Component) {
    class AuthenticatedComponent extends React.Component {

        componentWillMount () {
            this.checkAuth();
        }

        componentWillReceiveProps (nextProps) {
            this.checkAuth();
        }

        checkAuth () {
            if (!this.props.isAuthenticated) {
                let redirectAfterLogin = this.props.location.pathname;
                this.context.router.replace({pathname: '/login', state: {redirectAfterLogin: redirectAfterLogin}});
            }
        }

        render () {
            return (
                <div>
                    {this.props.isAuthenticated === true
                        ? <Component {...this.props}/>
                        : null
                    }
                </div>
            )

        }
    }

    const mapStateToProps = (state) => ({
        isAuthenticated: state.blog.get('isAuthenticated')
    });

    AuthenticatedComponent.contextTypes = {
        router: React.PropTypes.object.isRequired
    };

    return connect(mapStateToProps)(AuthenticatedComponent);
}

Also, requireAuthentication will protect all routes under /admin. And you can reuse it wherever you like.

Answer 2

Lots have changed over the time. onEnter no longer exists on react-router-4

The following is from my real project for your reference

export const getRoutes = (store) => {
  const PrivateRoute = ({ component: Component, ...rest }) => (
    <Route {...rest} render={props => (
      checkIfAuthed(store) ? (
        <Component {...props}/>
      ) : (
        <Redirect to={{
          pathname: '/login'
        }}/>
      )
    )}/>
  )

  return (
    <Router>
      <div>
        <PrivateRoute exact path="/" component={Home}/>
        <Route path="/login" component={Login} />
      </div>
    </Router>
  )
}

Answer 3

The easiest way to accomplish this is to pass your store to a function that returns your routes (rather than return your routes directly). This way you can access the store in onEnter and other react router methods.

So for your routes:

import React from 'react';
import { Route, IndexRoute } from 'react-router';

export const getRoutes = (store) => (
  const authRequired = (nextState, replaceState) => {
    // Now you can access the store object here.
    const state = store.getState();

    if (!state.user.isAuthenticated) {
      // Not authenticated, redirect to login.
      replaceState({ nextPathname: nextState.location.pathname }, '/login');
    }
  };

  return (
    <Route   path="/"         component={App}>
      <IndexRoute             component={Landing} />
      <Route path="learn"     component={Learn} />
      <Route path="about"     component={About} />
      <Route path="downloads" component={Downloads} onEnter={authRequired} />
    </Route>
  );
)

Then update your main component to call the getRoutes function, passing in the store:

<Provider store={ store }>
  <Router history={ history }>
    { getRoutes(store) }
  </Router>
</Provider>

As for dispatching an action from requireAuth, you could write your function like this:

const authRequired = (nextState, replaceState, callback) => {
  store.dispatch(requireAuth())  // Assume this action returns a promise
    .then(() => {
      const state = store.getState();

      if (!state.user.isAuthenticated) {
        // Not authenticated, redirect to login.
        replaceState({ nextPathname: nextState.location.pathname }, '/login');
      }

      // All ok
      callback();
    });
};

Hope this helps.