# Routing libraries

<p class="description">By default, the navigation is performed with a native &lt;a&gt; element. You can customize it, for instance, using Next.js's Link or react-router.</p>

## Navigation components

There are two main components available to perform navigations.
The most common one is the [`Link`](/material-ui/react-link/) as its name might suggest.
It renders a native `<a>` element and applies the `href` as an attribute.

{{"demo": "LinkDemo.js"}}

You can also make a button perform navigation actions.
If your component is extending [`ButtonBase`](/material-ui/api/button-base/), providing a `href` prop enables the link mode.
For instance, with a `Button` component:

{{"demo": "ButtonDemo.js"}}

## Global theme Link

In real-life applications, using a native `<a>` element is rarely enough.
You can improve the user experience by using an enhanced Link component systematically.
The Material UI theme lets you configure this component once.
For instance, with react-router:

```tsx
import { Link as RouterLink, LinkProps as RouterLinkProps } from 'react-router';
import { LinkProps } from '@mui/material/Link';

const LinkBehavior = React.forwardRef<
  HTMLAnchorElement,
  Omit<RouterLinkProps, 'to'> & { href: RouterLinkProps['to'] }
>((props, ref) => {
  const { href, ...other } = props;
  // Map href (Material UI) -> to (react-router)
  return <RouterLink ref={ref} to={href} {...other} />;
});

const theme = createTheme({
  components: {
    MuiLink: {
      defaultProps: {
        component: LinkBehavior,
      } as LinkProps,
    },
    MuiButtonBase: {
      defaultProps: {
        LinkComponent: LinkBehavior,
      },
    },
  },
});
```

{{"demo": "LinkRouterWithTheme.js", "defaultCodeOpen": false}}

:::warning
This approach has limitations with TypeScript.
The `href` prop only accepts a string.
In the event you need to provide a richer structure, see the next section.
:::

## `component` prop

You can achieve the integration with third-party routing libraries with the `component` prop.
You can learn more about this prop in the **[composition guide](/material-ui/guides/composition/#component-prop)**.

## React Router examples

Here are a few demos with the [Link component](https://reactrouter.com/start/declarative/navigating#link) of [React Router](https://github.com/remix-run/react-router).
You can apply the same strategy with all the components: BottomNavigation, Card, etc.

### Link

{{"demo": "LinkRouter.js"}}

### Button

{{"demo": "ButtonRouter.js"}}

**Note**: The button base component adds the `role="button"` attribute when it identifies the intent to render a button without a native `<button>` element.
This can create issues when rendering a link.
If you are not using one of the `href`, `to`, or `component="a"` props, you need to override the `role` attribute.
The above demo achieves this by setting `role={undefined}` **after** the spread props.

```jsx
const LinkBehavior = React.forwardRef((props, ref) => (
  <RouterLink ref={ref} to="/" {...props} role={undefined} />
));
```

### Tabs

{{"demo": "TabsRouter.js", "defaultCodeOpen": false}}

### List

{{"demo": "ListRouter.js"}}

## More examples

### Next.js Pages Router

The [example folder](https://github.com/mui/material-ui/tree/HEAD/examples/material-ui-nextjs-pages-router-ts) provides an adapter for the use of [Next.js's Link component](https://nextjs.org/docs/pages/api-reference/components/link) with Material UI.

- The first version of the adapter is the [`NextLinkComposed`](https://github.com/mui/material-ui/blob/-/examples/material-ui-nextjs-pages-router-ts/src/Link.tsx) component.
  This component is unstyled and only responsible for handling the navigation.
  The prop `href` was renamed `to` to avoid a naming conflict.
  This is similar to react-router's Link component.

  ```tsx
  import Button from '@mui/material/Button';
  import { NextLinkComposed } from '../src/Link';

  export default function Index() {
    return (
      <Button
        component={NextLinkComposed}
        to={{
          pathname: '/about',
          query: { name: 'test' },
        }}
      >
        Button link
      </Button>
    );
  }
  ```

- The second version of the adapter is the `Link` component.
  This component is styled.
  It uses the [Material UI Link component](/material-ui/react-link/) with `NextLinkComposed`.

  ```tsx
  import Link from '../src/Link';

  export default function Index() {
    return (
      <Link
        href={{
          pathname: '/about',
          query: { name: 'test' },
        }}
      >
        Link
      </Link>
    );
  }
  ```

### TanStack Router

TanStack Router supports custom links through its `createLink` helper function.
The snippet below shows the most basic implementation, wrapping a Material UI Link component.
See [TanStack Router—Custom Link](https://tanstack.com/router/latest/docs/framework/react/guide/custom-link) for more component integration examples.

```tsx
import { createLink } from '@tanstack/react-router';
import { Link as MUILink } from '@mui/material';

const CustomLink = createLink(MUILink);

function App() {
  return (
    <CustomLink underline="none" to="/about">
      Link to about page
    </CustomLink>
  );
}
```