Error: [PrivateRoute] is not a <Route> component. All component children of <Routes> must be a <Route> or <React.Fragment>

Question

I'm using React Router v6 and am creating private routes for my application.

In file PrivateRoute.js, I've the code

import React from 'react';
import {Route,Navigate} from "react-router-dom";
import {isauth}  from 'auth'

function PrivateRoute({ element, path }) {
  const authed = isauth() // isauth() returns true or false based on localStorage
  const ele = authed === true ? element : <Navigate to="/Home"  />;
  return <Route path={path} element={ele} />;
}

export default PrivateRoute

And in file route.js I've written as:

 ...
<PrivateRoute exact path="/" element={<Dashboard/>}/>
<Route exact path="/home" element={<Home/>}/>

I've gone through the same example React-router Auth Example - StackBlitz, file App.tsx

Is there something I'm missing?

Answer 1

I ran into the same issue today and came up with the following solution based on this very helpful article by Andrew Luca

In PrivateRoute.js:

import React from 'react';
import { Navigate, Outlet } from 'react-router-dom';

const PrivateRoute = () => {
    const auth = null; // determine if authorized, from context or however you're doing it

    // If authorized, return an outlet that will render child elements
    // If not, return element that will navigate to login page
    return auth ? <Outlet /> : <Navigate to="/login" />;
}

In App.js (I've left in some other pages as examples):

import './App.css';
import React, {Fragment} from 'react';
import {BrowserRouter as Router, Route, Routes} from 'react-router-dom';
import Navbar from './components/layout/Navbar';
import Home from './components/pages/Home';
import Register from './components/auth/Register'
import Login from './components/auth/Login';
import PrivateRoute from './components/routing/PrivateRoute';

const App = () => {
  return (
    <Router>
      <Fragment>
        <Navbar/>
        <Routes>
          <Route exact path='/' element={<PrivateRoute/>}>
            <Route exact path='/' element={<Home/>}/>
          </Route>
          <Route exact path='/register' element={<Register/>}/>
          <Route exact path='/login' element={<Login/>}/>
        </Routes>
      </Fragment>
    </Router>
    
  );
}

In the above routing, this is the private route:

<Route exact path='/' element={<PrivateRoute/>}>
      <Route exact path='/' element={<Home/>}/>
</Route>

If authorization is successful, the element will show. Otherwise, it will navigate to the login page.

Answer 2

Only Route components can be a child of Routes. If you follow the v6 docs then you'll see the authentication pattern is to use a wrapper component to handle the authentication check and redirect.

function RequireAuth({ children }: { children: JSX.Element }) {
  let auth = useAuth();
  let location = useLocation();

  if (!auth.user) {
    // Redirect them to the /login page, but save the current location they were
    // trying to go to when they were redirected. This allows us to send them
    // along to that page after they login, which is a nicer user experience
    // than dropping them off on the home page.
    return <Navigate to="/login" state={{ from: location }} />;
  }

  return children;
}

...

<Route
  path="/protected"
  element={
    <RequireAuth>
      <ProtectedPage />
    </RequireAuth>
  }
/>

The old v5 pattern of create custom Route components no longer works. An updated v6 pattern using your code/logic could look as follows:

const PrivateRoute = ({ children }) => {
  const authed = isauth() // isauth() returns true or false based on localStorage
  
  return authed ? children : <Navigate to="/Home" />;
}

And to use

<Route
  path="/dashboard"
  element={
    <PrivateRoute>
      <Dashboard />
    </PrivateRoute>
  }
/>

Answer 3

Complement to reduce lines of code, make it more readable and beautiful.

This could just be a comment but I don't have enough points, so I'll put it as an answer.

Dallin's answer works but Drew's answer is better! And just to complete Drew's answer on aesthetics, I recommend creating a private component that takes components as props instead of children.

Very basic example of private routes file/component:

import { Navigate } from 'react-router-dom';

const Private = (Component) => {
    const auth = false; //your logic

    return auth ? <Component /> : <Navigate to="/login" />
}

Route file example:

<Routes>
    <Route path="/home" element={<Home />} />
    <Route path="/user" element={<Private Component={User} />} />
</Routes>