Prevent page reload when rendering ui fabric react nav component

Question

I'm stuck trying to get the ui-fabric Nav component working with react-router-dom v4+. My solution "works", but the whole page is rerendered instead of just the NavSelection component. After some research i realize i need to do a e.preventDefault() somewhere, but i can't figure out where to add it.

Main Page:

    export const Home = () => {
        return (
            <div className="ms-Grid-row">
                <div className="ms-Grid-col ms-u-sm6 ms-u-md4 ms-u-lg2">
                    <Navbar />
                </div>
                <div className="ms-Grid-col ms-u-sm6 ms-u-md8 ms-u-lg10">
                    <NavSelection />
                </div>
            </div>
        );
    }

Navbar:

const navGroups = [
  {
    links: [
      { name: 'Name1', url: '/Name1', key: '#Name1' },
      { name: 'Name2', url: '/Name2', key: '#Name2' }
    ]
  }
];

export class Navbar extends React.Component<any, any> {
  constructor(props: INavProps) {
    super(props);

    this.state = {
      selectedNavKey: '#Name1'
    };
  }

  public componentDidMount() {
    window.addEventListener('hashchange', (e) => {
      this.setState({ selectedNavKey: document.location.hash || '#' });
    });
  }

  public render(): JSX.Element {
    const { selectedNavKey } = this.state;

    return (
      <Nav
        selectedKey={selectedNavKey}
        groups={navGroups}
      />
    );
  }
}

NavSelection:

export const NavSelection = () => {
    return (
        <div>
            <Route path="/Name1" component={Component1} />
            <Route path="/Name2" component={Component2} />
        </div>
    );
}

Any help is greatly appreciated

Edit: I've tried to put it inside componentDidMount like this:

public componentDidMount() {
    window.addEventListener('hashchange', (e) => {
      e.preventDefault();
      this.setState({ selectedNavKey: document.location.hash || '#' });
    });
  }

That does not work.

Answer 1

Use the HashRouter instead of the BrowserRouter.

Example:

Router:

...

import { Switch, Route, Redirect, HashRouter } from 'react-router-dom'

...

export const Router: React.FunctionComponent = () => {

  // persisted to localStorage
  const navActiveItem = useSelector(selectNavActiveItem)

  return (
    <Suspense fallback={<LargeSpinner />}>
      <HashRouter>
        <Switch>
          <Route exact path="/" render={() => (
            <Redirect to={navActiveItem.url} />
          )}/>

          <Route exact path="/dashboard/overview" component={Overview} />
          <Route exact path="/dashboard/progress" component={Progress} />
          <Route exact path="/dashboard/issues" component={Issues} />

          ...

        </Switch>
      </HashRouter>
    </Suspense>
  )
}

Navigation:

...

const navLinkGroups: INavLinkGroup[] = [
  {
    name: 'Dashboard',
    expandAriaLabel: 'Expand Dashboard section',
    collapseAriaLabel: 'Collapse Dashboard section',
    links: [
      {
        key: 'DashboardOverview',
        name: 'Overview',
        icon: 'BIDashboard',
        url: '#/dashboard/overview',
      },
      {
        key: 'DashboardProgress',
        name: 'Progress',
        icon: 'TimelineProgress',
        url: '#/dashboard/progress',
      },
      {
        key: 'DashboardIssues',
        name: 'Issues',
        icon: 'ShieldAlert',
        url: '#/dashboard/issues',
      },
    ],
  },
...

export const Navigation: React.FunctionComponent = () => {
  const navActiveItem = useSelector(selectNavActiveItem)
  const dispatch = useDispatch()

  const onLinkClick = (ev?: React.MouseEvent<HTMLElement>, item?: INavLink) => {
    dispatch(setNavActiveItem(item || { name: '', url: '/' }))
  }

  return (
    <Stack tokens={stackTokens} styles={stackStyles}>
      <Nav
        styles={navStyles}
        ariaLabel="Navigation"
        groups={navLinkGroups}
        onLinkClick={onLinkClick}
        initialSelectedKey={navActiveItem.key}
      />
    </Stack>
  )
}