next/router

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Before moving forward, we recommend you to read Routing Introduction first.

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useRouter

If you want to access the router object inside any function component in your app, you can use the useRouter hook, take a look at the following example:

import { useRouter } from 'next/router'\n\nfunction ActiveLink({ children, href }) {\n  const router = useRouter()\n  const style = {\n    marginRight: 10,\n    color: router.pathname === href ? 'red' : 'black',\n  }\n\n  const handleClick = e => {\n    e.preventDefault()\n    router.push(href)\n  }\n\n  return (\n    <a href={href} onClick={handleClick} style={style}>\n      {children}\n    </a>\n  )\n}\n\nexport default ActiveLink\n

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useRouter is a React Hook, meaning it cannot be used with classes. You can either use withRouter or wrap your class in a function component.

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router object

The following is the definition of the router object returned by both useRouter and withRouter:

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• pathname: String - Current route. That is the path of the page in /pages
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• query: Object - The query string parsed to an object. Defaults to {}
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• asPath: String - Actual path (including the query) shown in the browser
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Additionally, the Router API is also included inside the object.

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The query object will be empty during prerendering if the page is statically optimized.

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withRouter

If useRouter is not the best fit for you, withRouter can also add the same router object to any component, here's how to use it:

import { withRouter } from 'next/router'\n\nfunction Page({ router }) {\n  return <p>{router.pathname}</p>\n}\n\nexport default withRouter(Page)\n

Router API

The API of Router, exported by next/router, is defined below.

Router.push

Handles client-side transitions, this method is useful for cases where next/link is not enough.

import Router from 'next/router'\n\nRouter.push(url, as, options)\n

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• url - The URL to navigate to. This is usually the name of a page
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• as - Optional decorator for the URL that will be shown in the browser. Defaults to url
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• options - Optional object with the following configuration options:
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  • shallow: Update the path of the current page without rerunning getStaticProps, getServerSideProps or getInitialProps. Defaults to false
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You don't need to use Router for external URLs, window.location is better suited for those cases.

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Usage

Navigating to pages/about.js, which is a predefined route:

import Router from 'next/router'\n\nfunction Page() {\n  return <span onClick={() => Router.push('/about')}>Click me</span>\n}\n

Navigating pages/post/[pid].js, which is a dynamic route:

import Router from 'next/router'\n\nfunction Page() {\n  return (\n    <span onClick={() => Router.push('/post/[pid]', '/post/abc')}>\n      Click me\n    </span>\n  )\n}\n

With URL object

You can use an URL object in the same way you can use it for next/link. Works for both the url and as parameters:

import Router from 'next/router'\n\nconst handler = () => {\n  Router.push({\n    pathname: '/about',\n    query: { name: 'Vercel' },\n  })\n}\n\nfunction ReadMore() {\n  return (\n    <div>\n      Click <span onClick={handler}>here</span> to read more\n    </div>\n  )\n}\n\nexport default ReadMore\n

Router.replace

Similar to the replace prop in next/link, Router.replace will prevent adding a new URL entry into the history stack, take a look at the following example:

import Router from 'next/router'\n\nRouter.replace('/home')\n

The API for Router.replace is exactly the same as that used for Router.push.

Router.prefetch

Prefetch pages for faster client-side transitions. This method is only useful for navigations without next/link, as next/link takes care of prefetching pages automatically.

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This is a production only feature. Next.js doesn't prefetch pages on development.

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import Router from 'next/router'\n\nRouter.prefetch(url, as)\n

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• url - The path to a page inside the pages directory
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• as - Optional decorator for url, used to prefetch dynamic routes. Defaults to url
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Usage

Let's say you have a login page, and after a login, you redirect the user to the dashboard. For that case, we can prefetch the dashboard to make a faster transition, like in the following example:

import { useCallback, useEffect } from 'react'\nimport Router from 'next/router'\n\nexport default function Login() {\n  const handleSubmit = useCallback(e => {\n    e.preventDefault()\n\n    fetch('/api/login', {\n      method: 'POST',\n      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },\n      body: JSON.stringify({\n        /* Form data */\n      }),\n    }).then(res => {\n      // Do a fast client-side transition to the already prefetched dashboard page\n      if (res.ok) Router.push('/dashboard')\n    })\n  }, [])\n\n  useEffect(() => {\n    // Prefetch the dashboard page as the user will go there after the login\n    Router.prefetch('/dashboard')\n  }, [])\n\n  return (\n    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>\n      {/* Form fields */}\n      <button type=\"submit\">Login</button>\n    </form>\n  )\n}\n

Router.beforePopState

In some cases (for example, if using a Custom Server), you may wish to listen to popstate and do something before the router acts on it.

You could use this to manipulate the request, or force a SSR refresh, as in the following example:

import Router from 'next/router'\n\nRouter.beforePopState(({ url, as, options }) => {\n  // I only want to allow these two routes!\n  if (as !== '/' && as !== '/other') {\n    // Have SSR render bad routes as a 404.\n    window.location.href = as\n    return false\n  }\n\n  return true\n})\n

Router.beforePopState(cb: () => boolean)

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• cb - The function to run on incoming popstate events. The function receives the state of the event as an object with the following props:
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  • url: String - the route for the new state. This is usually the name of a page
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  • as: String - the url that will be shown in the browser
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  • options: Object - Additional options sent by Router.push
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If the function you pass into beforePopState returns false, Router will not handle popstate and you'll be responsible for handling it, in that case. See Disabling file-system routing.

Router.back

Navigate back in history. Equivalent to clicking the browser’s back button. It executes window.history.back().

import Router from 'next/router'\n\nRouter.back()\n

Router.reload

Reload the current URL. Equivalent to clicking the browser’s refresh button. It executes window.location.reload().

import Router from 'next/router'\n\nRouter.reload()\n

Router.events

You can listen to different events happening inside the Router. Here's a list of supported events:

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• routeChangeStart(url) - Fires when a route starts to change
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• routeChangeComplete(url) - Fires when a route changed completely
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• routeChangeError(err, url) - Fires when there's an error when changing routes, or a route load is cancelled
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  • err.cancelled - Indicates if the navigation was cancelled
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• beforeHistoryChange(url) - Fires just before changing the browser's history
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• hashChangeStart(url) - Fires when the hash will change but not the page
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• hashChangeComplete(url) - Fires when the hash has changed but not the page
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Here url is the URL shown in the browser. If you call Router.push(url, as) (or similar), then the value of url will be as.

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For example, to listen to the router event routeChangeStart, do the following:

import Router from 'next/router'\n\nconst handleRouteChange = url => {\n  console.log('App is changing to: ', url)\n}\n\nRouter.events.on('routeChangeStart', handleRouteChange)\n

If you no longer want to listen to the event, unsubscribe with the off method:

import Router from 'next/router'\n\nRouter.events.off('routeChangeStart', handleRouteChange)\n

If a route load is cancelled (for example, by clicking two links rapidly in succession), routeChangeError will fire. And the passed err will contain a cancelled property set to true, as in the following example:

import Router from 'next/router'\n\nRouter.events.on('routeChangeError', (err, url) => {\n  if (err.cancelled) {\n    console.log(`Route to ${url} was cancelled!`)\n  }\n})\n

Router events should be registered when a component mounts (useEffect or componentDidMount / componentWillUnmount) or imperatively when an event happens, as in the following example:

import Router from 'next/router'\n\nuseEffect(() => {\n  const handleRouteChange = url => {\n    console.log('App is changing to: ', url)\n  }\n\n  Router.events.on('routeChangeStart', handleRouteChange)\n  return () => {\n    Router.events.off('routeChangeStart', handleRouteChange)\n  }\n}, [])\n