Viewing docs for dev branch, not the latest release. View latest
useBlocker
On this page

useBlocker

The useBlocker hook allows you to prevent the user from navigating away from the current location, and present them with a custom UI to allow them to confirm the navigation.

This only works for client-side navigations within your React Router application and will not block document requests. To prevent document navigations you will need to add your own `beforeunload` event handler. Blocking a user from navigating is a bit of an anti-pattern, so please carefully consider any usage of this hook and use it sparingly. In the de-facto use case of preventing a user navigating away from a half-filled form, you might consider persisting unsaved state to `sessionStorage` and automatically re-filling it if they return instead of blocking them from navigating away.
function ImportantForm() {
  const [value, setValue] = React.useState("");

  // Block navigating elsewhere when data has been entered into the input
  const blocker = useBlocker(
    ({ currentLocation, nextLocation }) =>
      value !== "" &&
      currentLocation.pathname !== nextLocation.pathname
  );

  return (
    <Form method="post">
      <label>
        Enter some important data:
        <input
          name="data"
          value={value}
          onChange={(e) => setValue(e.target.value)}
        />
      </label>
      <button type="submit">Save</button>

      {blocker.state === "blocked" ? (
        <div>
          <p>Are you sure you want to leave?</p>
          <button onClick={() => blocker.proceed()}>
            Proceed
          </button>
          <button onClick={() => blocker.reset()}>
            Cancel
          </button>
        </div>
      ) : null}
    </Form>
  );
}

For a more complete example, please refer to the example in the repository.

Properties

state

The current state of the blocker

  • unblocked - the blocker is idle and has not prevented any navigation
  • blocked - the blocker has prevented a navigation
  • proceeding - the blocker is proceeding through from a blocked navigation

location

When in a blocked state, this represents the location to which we blocked a navigation. When in a proceeding state, this is the location being navigated to after a blocker.proceed() call.

Methods

proceed()

When in a blocked state, you may call blocker.proceed() to proceed to the blocked location.

reset()

When in a blocked state, you may call blocker.reset() to return the blocker back to an unblocked state and leave the user at the current location.

Docs and examples licensed under MIT