Server-rendered 404

[secretfader]

The current documentation for server-side rendering only mentions sending a 404 response as a last resort: when there is no other error, the router doesn't know of a redirectLocation, or if there are no renderProps to pass to the RouterContext. However, there is another case that falls under the scope of React Router.

Consider this: what if an app needs to render content at a globbed path? (Example <Route path='*'></Route>). If the requested content no longer exists at that path (or the API call to retrieve the data required to render fails), current best practices have users redirecting to a <NotFound /> route. This behavior can wreak havoc on the SEO of server pre-rendered applications, and undermine one of the main reasons for using React in the first place.

As the initial request comes in, well before the client has bootstrapped, we should have an option to load up any required data, and return a 404 error code.

[taion]

if (renderProps.components.indexOf(NotFoundComponent) !== -1) {
  /* ... */
}

[secretfader]

@taion Is this API stable and officially supported?

[taion]

That's not "an API" that's just a trivial way to tell if the routing matched your "not found" component. You can do the equivalent for a "not found" route.

As always, if you have further support questions, please use Stack Overflow or Reactiflux rather than the issue tracker here.

[taion]

Though unless you plan on having broken links inside your code, you might be better off handling the 404 without the catch-all route anyway.

[ryanflorence]

As the initial request comes in, well before the client has bootstrapped, we should have an option to load up any required data, and return a 404 error code.

All we know is route matching. Your own app's data strategy will tell you the rest.

match({ routes, location }, (err, redirect, props) => {
  // do your data loading, you might use `props` or `location`, to know what to load.
  // if it fails to find anything, then send a 404
  // not matching a route is different than not finding a resource
})

We're working on AsyncProps as both a useful library and a reference implementation for data loading. It will have a solution for this scenario but its still experimental.