Generouted

Generated file-based routes for Vite

Motivation

I enjoyed using file-based routing since I tried Next.js (pages directory). After applying the same concept with Vite and client-side applications, I started writing blog posts covering the implementation of client-side file-based routing with React Router which was packaged later as generouted.

Today generouted brings many features, supports multiple frameworks and routers, and inspires ideas and conventions from Next.js, Remix, Expo, Docusaurus, SvelteKit and more.

How does it work?

generouted uses Vite's glob import API to list the routes within the src/pages directory and generates the routes tree and modals based on generouted's conventions.

There are also Vite plugins available for some integrations to provide type-safe components/hooks/utils through code-generation.

Features

• 📁 Client-side file-based routing
• ⚡ Powered by Vite
• ✨ React support with react-router-dom or @tanstack/router 🧪 or @tanstack/react-location 🚨
• ✨ Solid support with @solidjs/router
• ✨ File-based MDX routes with React or Solid, requires @mdx-js/rollup installation and setup
• 🔐 Type-safe navigation
• 🚀 Type-safe global modals
• 💤 Route-based code-splitting and lazy-loading
• 📄 Route-based data loaders and actions
• 💣 Route-based error boundary
• 📂 Nested layouts
• 🫙 Pathless layout groups
• ❓ Optional static and dynamic routes
• 💭 Ignored routes per file or directory

Online explorer

• ⚡ Visit generouted's interactive playground via StackBlitz
• 🧩 Explore file-based routing patterns and conventions
• 🔎 Visualize the routes layouts and the resolved routes paths
• 📝 Update src/pages/ files and see your changes reflecting

Getting started

React Router

React Router

In case you don't have a Vite project with React and TypeScript, check Vite documentation to start a new project.

Installation

pnpm add @generouted/react-router react-router-dom

Setup

// vite.config.ts

import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import react from '@vitejs/plugin-react'
import generouted from '@generouted/react-router/plugin'

export default defineConfig({ plugins: [react(), generouted()] })

Usage

// src/main.tsx

import { createRoot } from 'react-dom/client'
import { Routes } from '@generouted/react-router'

createRoot(document.getElementById('root')!).render(<Routes />)

Adding pages

Add the home page by creating a new file src/pages/index.tsx → /, then export a default component:

export default function Home() {
  return <h1>Home</h1>
}

Check the routing conventions section below.

Docs

You can find more details about type-safe navigation and global modals at @generouted/react-router docs.

Examples

• Type-safe navigation + global modals
• Custom integration
• Custom integration with custom path
• MDX routes

Solid Router

Solid Router

In case you don't have a Vite project with Solid and TypeScript, check Vite documentation to start a new project.

Installation

pnpm add @generouted/solid-router @solidjs/router

Setup

// vite.config.ts

import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import solid from 'vite-plugin-solid'
import generouted from '@generouted/solid-router/plugin'

export default defineConfig({ plugins: [solid(), generouted()] })

Usage

// src/main.tsx

import { render } from 'solid-js/web'
import { Routes } from '@generouted/solid-router'

render(Routes, document.getElementById('root')!)

Adding pages

Add the home page by creating a new file src/pages/index.tsx → /, then export a default component:

export default function Home() {
  return <h1>Home</h1>
}

See more about generouted routing conventions below.

Docs

You can find more details about type-safe navigation and global modals at @generouted/solid-router docs.

Examples

• Type-safe navigation + global modals

TanStack React Router — In-progress experimental support 🧪

TanStack React Router — In-progress experimental support 🧪

Check out the docs here

Examples

• Basic

React Location — Deprecated 🚨

React Location — Deprecated 🚨

In case you don't have a Vite project with React and TypeScript, check Vite documentation to start a new project.

Installation

pnpm add generouted @tanstack/react-location

Usage

// src/main.tsx

import { createRoot } from 'react-dom/client'
import { Routes } from 'generouted/react-location'

createRoot(document.getElementById('root')!).render(<Routes />)

Adding pages

Add the home page by creating a new file src/pages/index.tsx → /, then export a default component:

export default function Home() {
  return <h1>Home</h1>
}

Examples

• Basic
• Data loaders
• Modals
• Nested layouts

Conventions

File and directories naming and conventions

• Routes declaration at src/pages
• Supports .tsx, .jsx and .mdx file extensions
• Optional src/pages/_app.tsx for an app level layout
• Optional src/pages/404.tsx for a custom not-found page

Index routes

• src/pages/index.tsx → /
• src/pages/posts/index.tsx → /posts

Nested routes

• src/pages/posts/2022/index.tsx → /posts/2022
• src/pages/posts/2022/resolutions.tsx → /posts/2022/resolutions

Dynamic routes

• src/pages/posts/[slug].tsx → /posts/:slug
• src/pages/posts/[slug]/tags.tsx → /posts/:slug/tags
• src/pages/posts/[...all].tsx → /posts/*

Nested layouts

• By defining _layout.tsx in any nested directory → src/pages/posts/_layout.tsx
• Requires using an <Outlet /> component to render layout children
• All the files within the src/pages/posts/ directory in this case, will be wrapped with that layout

Nested URLs without nested layouts

• Route file should be outside of the nested layout directory
• Include dots . between the segments to be converted to forward slashes
• src/pages/posts.nested.as.url.not.layout.tsx → /posts/nested/as/url/not/layout

Pathless layouts

• Similar to nested layouts for layout definition
• By wrapping the parent directory with parentheses ()
• src/pages/(auth)/_layout.tsx
• src/pages/(auth)/login.tsx → /login
• Layout parent directory name is not included in the routes paths

Global modals

• By prefixing the file name with a plus sign + (thinking the modal is an extra route overlaying the current route)
• Modals navigation available via the useModals() hook
• src/pages/+info.tsx → /info
• src/pages/+checkout/+details.tsx → /checkout/details
• src/pages/+checkout/+payment.tsx → /checkout/payment

Optional segments

• By prefixing a route segment with a minus sign - (thinking the segment can be subtracted or removed from the route path)
• src/pages/-en/about.tsx → /en?/about → /en/about, /about
• src/pages/-[lang]/about.tsx → /:lang?/about → /en/about, /fr/about, /about

Ignored routes

• Any directory or file starts with an underscore _ will be ignored
• src/pages/_ignored.tsx
• src/pages/posts/_components/button.tsx
• src/pages/posts/_components/link.tsx

Page exports

• Required page component export default Component() {...}
• Optional page loader function export const Loader = () => {...}
• Optional page action function export const Action = () => {...}
• Optional suspense-based pending component export const Pending = () => {...}
• Optional error boundary component export const Catch = () => {...}

Example

Directory structure

src/pages
├── (auth)
│   ├── _layout.tsx
│   ├── login.tsx
│   └── register.tsx
├── blog
│   ├── _components
│   │   ├── button.tsx
│   │   └── comments.tsx
│   ├── [...all].tsx
│   ├── [slug].tsx
│   ├── _layout.tsx
│   ├── index.tsx
│   └── tags.tsx
├── docs
│   ├── -[lang]
│   │   ├── index.tsx
│   │   └── resources.tsx
│   └── -en
│       └── contributors.tsx
├── +info.tsx
├── 404.tsx
├── _app.tsx
├── _ignored.tsx
├── about.tsx
├── blog.w.o.layout.tsx
└── index.tsx

Overview

File	Path	Convention
(auth)/_layout.tsx		Pathless Layout group
(auth)/login.tsx	/login	Regular route
(auth)/register.tsx	/register	Regular route
blog/_components/button.tsx		Ignored route by an ignored directory
blog/_components/comments.tsx		Ignored route by an ignored directory
blog/[...all].tsx	/blog/*	Dynamic catch-all route
blog/[slug].tsx	/blog/:slug	Dynamic route
blog/_layout.tsx		Layout for /blog routes
blog/index.tsx	/blog	Index route
blog/tags.tsx	/blog/tags	Regular route
docs/-[lang]/index.tsx	/docs/:lang?/index	Optional dynamic route segment
docs/-[lang]/resources.tsx	/docs/:lang?/resources	Optional dynamic route segment
docs/-en/contributors.tsx	/docs/en?/contributors	Optional static route segment
+info.tsx	/info	Modal route
404.tsx	*	Custom 404 (optional)
_app.tsx		Custom app layout (optional)
_ignored.tsx		Ignored route
about.tsx	/about	Regular route
blog.w.o.layout.tsx	/blog/w/o/layout	Route without /blog layout
index.tsx	/	Index route

API

Routing

Via @generouted/react-router or @generouted/solid-router

• <Routes /> — file-based routing component to be render in the app entry
• routes — file-based routes tree/object used by default at <Routes /> component

Routing + code-splitting and lazy-loading

Via @generouted/react-router/lazy or @generouted/solid-router/lazy

• Used instead of @generouted/react-router or @generouted/solid-router to enable lazy-loading
• Make sure to replace all imports to lazy imports — namely at app entry and src/pages/_app.tsx
• Provides the same <Routes /> and routes exports

Plugins

Via @generouted/react-router/plugin or @generouted/solid-router/plugin

• Vite plugin for type generation and initializing type-safe components/hooks/utils
• Generates src/router.ts file
• Exports type-safe <Link>, <Navigate>, useModals(), useNavigate(), useParams(), redirect(), etc.
• Check out @generouted/react-router docs or @generouted/solid-router docs for more details

Core

Via @generouted/react-router/core or @generouted/solid-router/core

• Available for customization, however it's recommended to use the available integrations directory via the <Routes/> component
• Check out the custom integration example

FAQ

How to implement protected or guarded routes?

There are multiple approaches to achieve that. If you prefer handling the logic in one place, you can define the protected routes with redirection handling within a component:

// src/config/redirects.tsx

import { Navigate, useLocation } from 'react-router-dom'

import { useAuth } from '../context/auth'
import { Path } from '../router'

const PRIVATE: Path[] = ['/logout']
const PUBLIC: Path[] = ['/login']

export const Redirects = ({ children }: { children: React.ReactNode }) => {
  const auth = useAuth()
  const location = useLocation()

  const authenticatedOnPublicPath = auth.active && PUBLIC.includes(location.pathname as Path)
  const unAuthenticatedOnPrivatePath = !auth.active && PRIVATE.includes(location.pathname as Path)

  if (authenticatedOnPublicPath) return <Navigate to="/" replace />
  if (unAuthenticatedOnPrivatePath) return <Navigate to="/login" replace />

  return children
}

Then use that component (<Redirects> ) at the root-level layout src/pages/_app.tsx to wrap the <Outlet> component:

// src/pages/_app.tsx

import { Outlet } from 'react-router-dom'

import { Redirects } from '../config/redirects'

export default function App() {
  return (
    <section>
      <header>
        <nav>...</nav>
      </header>

      <main>
        <Redirects>
          <Outlet />
        </Redirects>
      </main>
    </section>
  )
}

You can find a full example of this approach at Render template

How to use with Hash or Memory Routers?

You can use the exported routes object to customize the router or to use hash/memory routers:

import { createRoot } from 'react-dom/client'
import { RouterProvider, createHashRouter } from 'react-router-dom'
import { routes } from '@generouted/react-router'

const router = createHashRouter(routes)
const Routes = () => <RouterProvider router={router} />

createRoot(document.getElementById('root')!).render(<Routes />)

License

MIT