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Routing Integration

How to wire bestax-bulma components to a client-side router — React Router, Next.js, TanStack Router, or any library whose navigation primitive is a component you render as. This page covers the three first-hour questions: making Navbar.Item/Menu.Item navigate, making a Button navigate, and styling the active route.

All examples use React Router v6/v7 (react-router-dom); the Next.js differences are at the end.

Menu.Item supports routers out of the box — pass the router's link component via as, and to (or any other router prop) is forwarded to it, fully type-checked:

import { Link } from 'react-router-dom';
import { Menu } from '@allxsmith/bestax-bulma';

<Menu>
  <Menu.Label>General</Menu.Label>
  <Menu.List>
    <Menu.Item as={Link} to="/dashboard" active>
      Dashboard
    </Menu.Item>
    <Menu.Item as={Link} to="/customers">
      Customers
    </Menu.Item>
  </Menu.List>
</Menu>;

Navbar.Item accepts as={Link} the same way, and at runtime every extra prop (including to) is forwarded to your link component. In TypeScript, however, to isn't part of Navbar.Item's prop type (it extends anchor attributes), so <Navbar.Item as={Link} to="…"> is a type error today. The recommended pattern is a one-line typed alias, declared once:

import { Link, LinkProps } from 'react-router-dom';
import { Navbar } from '@allxsmith/bestax-bulma';

// One cast, reused everywhere — runtime behavior is unchanged.
const NavbarLink = Navbar.Item as React.FC<
  React.ComponentProps<typeof Navbar.Item> & LinkProps
>;

<Navbar color="dark">
  <Navbar.Menu active={open}>
    <Navbar.Start>
      <NavbarLink as={Link} to="/">
        Home
      </NavbarLink>
      <NavbarLink as={Link} to="/pricing">
        Pricing
      </NavbarLink>
    </Navbar.Start>
  </Navbar.Menu>
</Navbar>;

(Plain-JavaScript apps can skip the alias — <Navbar.Item as={Link} to="/pricing"> just works.)

Buttons that navigate​

Button's as prop is polymorphic (any React.ElementType), so the same two options apply:

import { Link, LinkProps, useNavigate } from 'react-router-dom';
import { Button, ButtonProps } from '@allxsmith/bestax-bulma';

// Option 1 — render the Button AS the router link (typed alias, once):
const ButtonLink = Button as React.FC<ButtonProps & LinkProps>;

<ButtonLink as={Link} to="/signup" color="primary" size="large">
  Get started
</ButtonLink>;

// Option 2 — keep a real <button> and navigate imperatively:
function DemoButton() {
  const navigate = useNavigate();
  return (
    <Button color="primary" onClick={() => navigate('/demo')}>
      Live demo
    </Button>
  );
}

Prefer Option 1 for real navigation (it renders an anchor — right-click, middle-click, and crawlers work); use Option 2 when navigation is a side effect of app logic (after a form submit, a confirmation). For plain external URLs, no router is needed: <Button as="a" href="https://example.com">Docs</Button>.

Active-route styling​

Navbar.Item and Menu.Item both take an active boolean — drive it from the router:

import { Link, useLocation } from 'react-router-dom';

function SideNav() {
  const { pathname } = useLocation();
  return (
    <Menu>
      <Menu.List>
        <Menu.Item as={Link} to="/dashboard" active={pathname === '/dashboard'}>
          Dashboard
        </Menu.Item>
        <Menu.Item
          as={Link}
          to="/customers"
          active={pathname.startsWith('/customers')}
        >
          Customers
        </Menu.Item>
      </Menu.List>
    </Menu>
  );
}

React Router's NavLink also works via as — but its function-style className/children props bypass the components' own class handling, so the explicit active prop with useLocation is the pattern that keeps Bulma's is-active styling.

Next.js​

Modern Next.js <Link> (13+) renders the anchor itself and uses href — which is already in Navbar.Item's prop type, so no alias is needed:

import NextLink from 'next/link';

<Navbar.Item as={NextLink} href="/pricing">
  Pricing
</Navbar.Item>;

On Next.js versions before 13, <Link> required an <a> child (legacyBehavior + passHref) — upgrade or wrap accordingly.

  • Navbar · Menu · Button
  • Button/Link polymorphism landed in #238; first-class to typing on Navbar.Item (dropping the cast alias above) is tracked in #306.