Manipulating the browser's history in react
Tags: usehistory, reacthooks, react, route
Published: 2023-03-05 03:09:53

Manipulating the browser's history stack can be a powerful tool for building more interactive and seamless web applications. The history object provided by the browser's DOM API allows you to add, remove, and modify entries in the history stack, enabling you to create custom navigation flows and advanced features like back/forward functionality. In this article, we'll explore how to use the `history` object to manipulate the browser's history stack and build more powerful web applications.

React Router provides several hooks to manipulate the browser's history, including `useHistory`, `useLocation`, and `useNavigate`. These hooks allow you to programmatically navigate to different routes, go back and forth in the history stack, and even modify the history stack to achieve a custom user experience. In this article we will be focusing on manipulating the browser's history using `useHistory` 

`useHistory` is available in **react-router v5** and for you to use `useHistory` you need to properly setup your application in other to use React router -https://v5.reactrouter.com/web/api/Hooks/usehistory

_**Wrapping the entire application with `<BrowserRouter>` is indeed a necessary step to access the history object. This provides a global history object that can be accessed using the useHistory hook.**_

_**Additionally, it is important to note that when using the history.push method, you need to provide a valid route instead of a relative file path. This can be set up using the <Route> component provided by React Router.**_

Here are some **common scenarios** where you might want to manipulate the browser's history:

- Programmatic navigation: You might want to navigate to a different route in response to a user action or a component state change.

- Conditional navigation: You might want to conditionally navigate to a different route based on some logic, such as whether the user is authenticated or the user input is valid.

- Redirects: You might want to redirect the user to a different route or an external URL.

- Modifying the history stack: You might want to add, remove, or replace entries in the history stack to achieve a custom navigation experience.

React Router provides the following methods to manipulate the browser's history:

`push`: Adds a new entry to the history stack and navigates to the specified route.

`replace`: Replaces the current entry in the history stack with a new one and navigates to the specified route.

`go`: Moves back or forward in the history stack by the specified number of entries.

`goBack`: Moves back one entry in the history stack.

`goForward`: Moves forward one entry in the history stack.

Let's take a look at an example of how to use useHistory hook to push a new entry to the history stack:

```
import { useHistory } from "react-router-dom";

const MyComponent = () => {
  const history = useHistory();

  const handleClick = () => {
    history.push("/new-route");
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={handleClick}>Go to new route</button>
    </div>
  );
};

```

You can use similar code with the replace method to replace the current entry in the history stack with a new one. The go, goBack, and goForward methods allow you to move back and forth in the history stack.

**Conclusion**
we have successfully explore how to use the history object to manipulate the browser's history stack so as to build more powerful web applications.


- useHistory is a hook in React Router v5 for navigating pages in your react application
- we explore the different methods we can use to manipulate browser' history