React-Router only one child

Question

I keep on getting the error:

A 'Router' may have only one child element

when using react-router.

I can't seem to figure out why this is not working, since it's exactly like the code they show in their example: Quick Start

Here is my code:

import React from 'react';
import Editorstore from './Editorstore';
import App from './components/editor/App';
import BaseLayer from './components/baselayer';
import {BrowserRouter as Router, Route} from 'react-router-dom';
import {render} from 'react-dom';

const root = document.createElement('div');
root.id = 'app';
document.body.appendChild(root);

const store = new Editorstore();
const stylelist = ['https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.6.3/css/font-awesome.min.css', 'https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/semantic-ui/2.2.2/semantic.min.css', 'https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/animate.css/3.5.2/animate.min.css', 'https://api.tiles.mapbox.com/mapbox-gl-js/v0.33.1/mapbox-gl.css'];

stylelist.map((link) => {
    const a = document.createElement('link');
    a.rel = 'stylesheet';
    a.href = link;
    document.body.appendChild(a);
    return null;
});

render((
  <Router>
    <Route exact  path="/" component={BaseLayer} />
    <Route path="/editor" component={App} store={store} />
  </Router>
), document.querySelector('#app'));

Answer 1

You have to wrap your Route's in a <div>(or a <Switch>).

render((
  <Router>
    <Route exact  path="/" component={BaseLayer} />
    <Route path="/editor" component={App} store={store} />
  </Router>
), document.querySelector('#app'));

should be

render((
  <Router>
    <div>
       <Route exact  path="/" component={BaseLayer} />
       <Route path="/editor" component={App} store={store} />
    </div>
  </Router>
), document.querySelector('#app'));

jsfiddle / webpackbin

Answer 2

This is an API change in react-router 4.x. Recommended approach is to wrap Routes in a Switch: https://github.com/ReactTraining/react-router/issues/4131#issuecomment-274171357

Quoting:

Convert

<Router>
  <Route ...>
  <Route ...>
</Router>

to

<Router>
  <Switch>
    <Route ...>
    <Route ...>
  </Switch>
</Router>

You will, of course, need to add Switch to your imports:

import { Switch, Router, Route } from 'react-router'

Answer 3

I Always use Fragment in react web and native ( >= react 16 )

import React, { Component, Fragment } from 'react'
import { NativeRouter as Routes, Route, Link } from 'react-router-native'
import Navigation from './components/navigation'    
import HomeScreen from './screens/home'
import { RecipesScreen } from './screens/recipe'

class Main extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <Fragment>
        <Navigation />
        <Routes>
          <Fragment>
            <Route exact path="/" component={HomeScreen} />
            <Route path="/recipes" component={RecipesScreen} />
          </Fragment>
        </Routes>
      </Fragment>
    )
  }
}

export default Main

Answer 4

I put all my <Route /> tags inside the <Switch> </Switch> tag like this.

    <BrowserRouter>
        <Switch>
            <Route path='/' component={App} exact={true} /> 
            <Route path='/form-example' component={FormExample} />
        </Switch>
    </BrowserRouter>

This solves the problem.