React Routing Works In Local Machine But Not Heroku

Are you facing issues with your React app's routing on Heroku? Many developers encounter a situation where their React app's routing works perfectly fine on their local machine but runs into trouble once deployed to Heroku. In this article, we'll explore common reasons why this might be happening and provide you with solutions to help you get your React routing working seamlessly on Heroku.

One possible reason for this issue is the way in which client-side routing works in a single-page application (SPA) like React. When you run your app locally, the development server handles all the requests and serves the correct page based on the route. However, when you deploy your app to a platform like Heroku, the server needs to be configured to handle client-side routing properly.

To resolve this, you can add a custom server to your React app that ensures all routes are directed to the root index.html file. This way, when a user navigates to a specific route on your app, the server will still serve the main index.html file, allowing React Router to handle the routing internally.

Here's a simple example using Express.js to create a basic server for your React app:

const express = require('express');
const path = require('path');
const app = express();

app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build')));

app.get('/*', function (req, res) {
  res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, 'build', 'index.html'));
});

const port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Server is running on port ${port}`);
});

In this snippet, we are serving the static files from the 'build' folder where your React app is bundled. The `/*` route ensures that all requests are directed to the index.html file, allowing React Router to handle the routing.

Make sure to install Express.js by running `npm install express` and update your package.json script to start the server instead of the development server.

Another common issue that may be causing routing problems on Heroku is related to the use of BrowserRouter in your React app. When using BrowserRouter, your app relies on the HTML5 History API to manage routes, which might not be fully supported in a server environment like Heroku.

Switching to HashRouter, which uses the hash portion of the URL to simulate a full URL, can help resolve this issue. Simply replace BrowserRouter with HashRouter in your main routing component, and your app should work seamlessly on Heroku.

In summary, by ensuring proper server-side configuration and using HashRouter instead of BrowserRouter, you can resolve React routing issues on Heroku. Remember to test your app thoroughly after making these changes to ensure everything is working as expected.