React Router V4 is updating URL, but not refreshin

Question

I am trying to use React-Router V4 to add routes to my app, but it is not working at all. Basically, I'm trying to programatically change the route with history.push, which is updating the browser URL, but not changing anything inside the actual app.

NOTE: I am using redux.

The only answered question on this issue is:

React history.push() is updating url but not navigating to it in browser

However, I've tried the answer to the above question, and it doesn't work for me.

Here are the important snippets:

Topmost file (index.js)

...
ReactDOM.render(
    <BrowserRouter>
        <Provider store={store}>
            <App/>
        </Provider>
    </BrowserRouter>
    , document.getElementById('root'));
...

Component containing routes

...
export default function ContentRouter() {
    return <div className="content">
        <Route exact path="/dashboard" component={TmpDashboard}/>
        <Route exact path="/" component={() => {
            return <h1>Home</h1>
        }}/>
    </div>
}

Component pushing routes

...
this.handleGroupClick = (group) => {
    this.props.history.push(`/groups/${group}`);
    this.props.onOpenChange(false);
};
...
export default withRouter(connect(mapStateToProps, mapDispatchToProps(DrawerConnector))

Answer 1

After a lot of searching in the completely wrong place, I figured out what was wrong. The lack of updating was being caused by Redux

Whenever a component is wrapped in connect it causes updates to be blocked, and the view doesn't update.

The solution is mentioned here:

https://github.com/ReactTraining/react-router/issues/4671#issuecomment-285320076

Basically, every component with a Route or a React-Router thing inside it must be wrapped with withRouter

EDIT: Only the top level component that uses connect should be wrapped in withRouter. Note that this may cause performance issues

EDIT: The way I got around the increased coupling was to have a component just to deal with routes. That way, I only need to wrap that component, and the component with a Router.

Answer 2

You could use Redirect component + state, for redirecting in react-router V4.

Answer 3

Here's a setup that works:

The main App:

class App extends React.Component {

    render() {
        return (
            <BrowserRouter>
                <div>
                   /* this is a common component and happens to need to redirect */
                   <Route component={CommonComponentThatPushesToHistory} />
                   <div id="body">
                       /* I usually place this switch in a separate Routes file */
                       <Switch>
                           <Route exact path="FooRoute" component={FooPage}/>
                           <Route exact path="BarRoute" component={BarPage}/>
                        </Switch>
                   </div>
                   /* another common component which does not push to history */
                   <Footer />
                </div>
            </BrowserRouter>
        );
    }
}

export default withRouter(App);

CommonComponentThatPushesToHistory

class CommonComponentThatPushesToHistory extends React.Component{
    render(){
        return(
            <button type="button" 
                onClick={() => {this.props.history.push('some-page');}}>
                Click to get redirected</button>
        );
    }
}

FooPage may have a child component that pushes to history:

class FooPage extends React.Component{
    render(){
        return(
            <MyChild history={this.props.history} />
        );
    }
}

Then MyChild component can push to history the same way CommonComponentThatPushesToHistory does.