When building web applications, we often need to access and manage the current browser location. This allows us to update the UI based on the current URL and navigate to different pages or sections within the application.

In React applications, we can use the useLocation hook from the react-router-dom library to get access to the current location. However, sometimes we may need more control and flexibility when dealing with location-related functionalities. In such cases, creating a custom useLocation hook can be a useful approach.

Why Use a Custom Hook?

By creating a custom useLocation hook, we can abstract away the complexities of dealing with the browser’s location and provide a simpler, reusable interface for accessing and manipulating the location data. This makes our code cleaner, more modular, and easier to maintain.

Implementing the useLocation Hook

To create our custom useLocation hook, we’ll need to use the built-in window.location object to get the current URL and provide functions to handle navigation and URL manipulation.

Here’s an example implementation of a custom useLocation hook:

import { useEffect, useState } from 'react';

const useLocation = () => {
  const [location, setLocation] = useState(window.location);

  const navigate = (path) => {
    window.history.pushState(null, '', path);
    setLocation(window.location);
  };

  const updateLocation = () => {
    setLocation(window.location);
  };

  useEffect(() => {
    window.addEventListener('popstate', updateLocation);
    return () => {
      window.removeEventListener('popstate', updateLocation);
    };
  }, []);

  return {
    location,
    navigate,
  };
};

export default useLocation;

In this example, we use the useState hook to keep track of the current location. The navigate function allows us to change the URL and update the location state accordingly.

We also use the useEffect hook to subscribe to the popstate event, which is triggered when the user navigates using the browser’s back or forward buttons. This ensures that our location state stays in sync with the actual URL.

Using the Custom useLocation Hook

To use the custom useLocation hook in a component, we simply import it and call it within the component’s body. Here’s an example of how we can leverage the useLocation hook in a React functional component:

import React from 'react';
import useLocation from './useLocation';

const App = () => {
  const { location, navigate } = useLocation();

  const handleButtonClick = () => {
    navigate('/about');
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Current Location: {location.pathname}</h1>
      <button onClick={handleButtonClick}>Go to About</button>
    </div>
  );
};

export default App;

In this example, we extract the location object and the navigate function from the custom hook and use them to display the current path and navigate to the /about URL when a button is clicked.

Conclusion

Creating a custom useLocation hook allows us to encapsulate location-related functionality and provides a cleaner and more reusable way of handling browser location in our React applications. With this approach, we have better control over navigation and URL manipulation, making our code more maintainable and easier to understand.

By abstracting away the complexities of managing browser location, we can focus more on building the core functionalities of our web applications.