Custom Navigation Drawer / Sidebar with Image and Icon in Menu Options

Introduction

This is an example of Custom Navigation Drawer / Sidebar with Image and Icon in Menu Options with React Navigation. We will use react-navigation to make a navigation drawer in this example. I hope you have already seen our last post on React Native Navigation Drawer as this post is the extended version of React Native Navigation Drawer.

In this example, we have a navigation drawer with 3 screens in the navigation menu. We will make the custom sidebar in place of the simple navigation drawer so that we can modify the Navigation Drawer menu options according to our needs.

In the custom Sidebar, we will have a profile image and additional options with the icon. We are going to use drawerContent prop of Drawer.Navigator to set our custom view which is CustomSidebarMenu.js in this example.

To set the custom view in Navigation Drawer / Sidebar Menu

<NavigationContainer>
  <Drawer.Navigator
    drawerContentOptions={{
      activeTintColor: '#e91e63',
      itemStyle: {marginVertical: 5},
    }}
    // Here we are setting our custom sidebar menu 
    drawerContent={(props) => <CustomSidebarMenu {...props} />}>
    <Drawer.Screen
      .......
    />
  </Drawer.Navigator>
</NavigationContainer>

You can set your own custom sidebar too. So let’s get started with the example.

To Make a React Native App

Getting started with React Native will help you to know more about the way you can make a React Native project. We are going to use react native command line interface to make our React Native App.

If you have previously installed a global react-native-cli package, please remove it as it may cause unexpected issues:

npm uninstall -g react-native-cli @react-native-community/cli

Run the following commands to create a new React Native project

npx react-native init ProjectName

If you want to start a new project with a specific React Native version, you can use the --version argument:

npx react-native init ProjectName --version X.XX.X

Note If the above command is failing, you may have old version of react-native or react-native-cli installed globally on your pc. Try uninstalling the cli and run the cli using npx.

This will make a project structure with an index file named App.js in your project directory.

Installation of Dependencies

For React Native Navigation Drawer we need to add react-navigation and other supporting dependencies.

To install the dependencies open the terminal and jump into your project

cd ProjectName

1. Install react-navigation

npm install @react-navigation/native --save

2. Other supporting libraries react-native-screens and react-native-safe-area-context

npm install react-native-screens react-native-safe-area-context --save

react-native-screens package requires one additional configuration step to properly work on Android devices. Edit MainActivity.java file which is located in android/app/src/main/java/<your package name>/MainActivity.java.

Add the following code to the body of MainActivity class:

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(null);
}

and make sure to add the following import statement at the top of this file below your package statement:

import android.os.Bundle;

This change is required to avoid crashes related to View state being not persisted consistently across Activity restarts.
3. For the Drawer Navigator install

npm install @react-navigation/drawer --save

4. Now we need to install and configure install react-native-gesture-handler and react-native-reanimated libraries that is required by the drawer navigator:

npm install react-native-gesture-handler react-native-reanimated --save

To configure react-native-reanimated add Reanimated’s Babel plugin to your babel.config.js (Reanimated plugin has to be listed last.)

module.exports = {
  presets: [
    ...
  ],
  plugins: [
    ... ,
    'react-native-reanimated/plugin'
  ],
};

To configure react-native-gesture-handler, add the following at the top (make sure it’s at the top and there’s nothing else before it) of your entry file, such as index.js or App.js

import 'react-native-gesture-handler';

Note: If you are building for Android or iOS, do not skip this step, or your app may crash in production even if it works fine in development. This is not applicable to other platforms.
5. These steps are enough for the drawer navigation but in this example, we are also moving between screens so we will also need Stack Navigator

npm install @react-navigation/native-stack --save

CocoaPods Installation

Please use the following command to install CocoaPods

npx pod-install

Project Structure

To start with this example you need to create a directory named pages in your project and create three files Firstpage.js, SecondPage.js, ThirdPage.js in it.

For the custom sidebar, make a file called CustomSidebarMenu.js in the project directory (not in the pages directory)

Code

Now Open App.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code

App.js

// Custom Navigation Drawer / Sidebar with Image and Icon in Menu Options
// https://aboutreact.com/custom-navigation-drawer-sidebar-with-image-and-icon-in-menu-options/

import 'react-native-gesture-handler';

import * as React from 'react';

import {NavigationContainer} from '@react-navigation/native';
import {createNativeStackNavigator} from '@react-navigation/native-stack';
import {createDrawerNavigator} from '@react-navigation/drawer';

import FirstPage from './pages/FirstPage';
import SecondPage from './pages/SecondPage';
import ThirdPage from './pages/ThirdPage';

// Import Custom Sidebar
import CustomSidebarMenu from './CustomSidebarMenu';

const Stack = createNativeStackNavigator();
const Drawer = createDrawerNavigator();

function FirstScreenStack() {
  return (
    <Stack.Navigator
      initialRouteName="FirstPage"
      screenOptions={{headerShown: false}}>
      <Stack.Screen name="FirstPage" component={FirstPage} />
    </Stack.Navigator>
  );
}

function SecondScreenStack() {
  return (
    <Stack.Navigator
      initialRouteName="SecondPage"
      screenOptions={{headerShown: false}}>
      <Stack.Screen name="SecondPage" component={SecondPage} />
      <Stack.Screen name="ThirdPage" component={ThirdPage} />
    </Stack.Navigator>
  );
}

function App() {
  return (
    <NavigationContainer>
      <Drawer.Navigator
        screenOptions={{
          activeTintColor: '#e91e63',
          itemStyle: {marginVertical: 5},
        }}
        drawerContent={props => <CustomSidebarMenu {...props} />}>
        <Drawer.Screen
          name="FirstDrawerPage"
          options={{drawerLabel: 'First page Option', title: 'First Stack'}}
          component={FirstScreenStack}
        />
        <Drawer.Screen
          name="ScondDrawerPage"
          options={{drawerLabel: 'Second page Option', title: 'Second Stack'}}
          component={SecondScreenStack}
        />
      </Drawer.Navigator>
    </NavigationContainer>
  );
}

export default App;

Open pages/FirstPage.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code.

FirstPage.js

// Custom Navigation Drawer / Sidebar with Image and Icon in Menu Options
// https://aboutreact.com/custom-navigation-drawer-sidebar-with-image-and-icon-in-menu-options/

import * as React from 'react';
import {Button, View, Text, SafeAreaView} from 'react-native';

const FirstPage = ({navigation}) => {
  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={{flex: 1, padding: 16}}>
        <View
          style={{
            flex: 1,
            alignItems: 'center',
            justifyContent: 'center',
          }}>
          <Text
            style={{
              fontSize: 25,
              textAlign: 'center',
              marginBottom: 16,
            }}>
            This is the First Page under First Page Option
          </Text>
          <Button
            onPress={() => navigation.navigate('ScondDrawerPage')}
            title="Go to Second Page"
          />
        </View>
        <Text
          style={{
            fontSize: 18,
            textAlign: 'center',
            color: 'grey'
          }}>
          Custom React Navigate Drawer
        </Text>
        <Text
          style={{
            fontSize: 16,
            textAlign: 'center',
            color: 'grey'
          }}>
          www.aboutreact.com
        </Text>
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

export default FirstPage;

Open pages/SecondPage.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code.

SecondPage.js

// Custom Navigation Drawer / Sidebar with Image and Icon in Menu Options
// https://aboutreact.com/custom-navigation-drawer-sidebar-with-image-and-icon-in-menu-options/

import * as React from 'react';
import {Button, View, Text, SafeAreaView} from 'react-native';

const SecondPage = ({navigation}) => {
  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={{flex: 1, padding: 16}}>
        <View
          style={{
            flex: 1,
            alignItems: 'center',
            justifyContent: 'center',
          }}>
          <Text
            style={{
              fontSize: 25,
              textAlign: 'center',
              marginBottom: 16,
            }}>
            This is Second Page under Second Page Option
          </Text>
          <Button
            title="Go to First Page"
            onPress={() => navigation.navigate('FirstPage')}
          />
          <Button
            title="Go to Third Page"
            onPress={() => navigation.navigate('ThirdPage')}
          />
        </View>
        <Text
          style={{
            fontSize: 18,
            textAlign: 'center',
            color: 'grey'
          }}>
          Custom React Navigate Drawer
        </Text>
        <Text
          style={{
            fontSize: 16,
            textAlign: 'center',
            color: 'grey'
          }}>
          www.aboutreact.com
        </Text>
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

export default SecondPage;

Open pages/ThirdPage.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code.

ThirdPage.js

// Custom Navigation Drawer / Sidebar with Image and Icon in Menu Options
// https://aboutreact.com/custom-navigation-drawer-sidebar-with-image-and-icon-in-menu-options/

import * as React from 'react';
import {Button, View, Text, SafeAreaView} from 'react-native';

const ThirdPage = ({navigation}) => {
  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={{flex: 1, padding: 16}}>
        <View
          style={{
            flex: 1,
            alignItems: 'center',
            justifyContent: 'center',
          }}>
          <Text
            style={{
              fontSize: 25,
              textAlign: 'center',
              marginBottom: 16,
            }}>
            This is Third Page under Second Page Option
          </Text>
          <Button
            onPress={() => navigation.navigate('FirstPage')}
            title="Go to First Page"
          />
          <Button
            onPress={() => navigation.navigate('SecondPage')}
            title="Go to Second Page"
          />
        </View>
        <Text
          style={{
            fontSize: 18,
            textAlign: 'center',
            color: 'grey'
          }}>
          Custom React Navigate Drawer
        </Text>
        <Text
          style={{
            fontSize: 16,
            textAlign: 'center',
            color: 'grey'
          }}>
          www.aboutreact.com
        </Text>
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

export default ThirdPage;

Open CustomSidebarMenu.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code.

CustomSidebarMenu.js

(Custom Menu with large profile Image and Options)

// Custom Navigation Drawer / Sidebar with Image and Icon in Menu Options
// https://aboutreact.com/custom-navigation-drawer-sidebar-with-image-and-icon-in-menu-options/

import React from 'react';
import {
  SafeAreaView,
  View,
  StyleSheet,
  Image,
  Text,
  Linking,
} from 'react-native';

import {
  DrawerContentScrollView,
  DrawerItemList,
  DrawerItem,
} from '@react-navigation/drawer';

const CustomSidebarMenu = (props) => {
  const BASE_PATH =
    'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AboutReact/sampleresource/master/';
  const proileImage = 'react_logo.png';

  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      {/*Top Large Image */}
      <Image
        source={{uri: BASE_PATH + proileImage}}
        style={styles.sideMenuProfileIcon}
      />
      <DrawerContentScrollView {...props}>
        <DrawerItemList {...props} />
        <DrawerItem
          label="Visit Us"
          onPress={() => Linking.openURL('https://aboutreact.com/')}
        />
        <View style={styles.customItem}>
          <Text
            onPress={() => {
              Linking.openURL('https://aboutreact.com/');
            }}>
            Rate Us
          </Text>
          <Image
            source={{uri: BASE_PATH + 'star_filled.png'}}
            style={styles.iconStyle}
          />
        </View>
      </DrawerContentScrollView>
      <Text
        style={{
          fontSize: 16,
          textAlign: 'center',
          color: 'grey'
        }}>
        www.aboutreact.com
      </Text>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  sideMenuProfileIcon: {
    resizeMode: 'center',
    width: 100,
    height: 100,
    borderRadius: 100 / 2,
    alignSelf: 'center',
  },
  iconStyle: {
    width: 15,
    height: 15,
    marginHorizontal: 5,
  },
  customItem: {
    padding: 16,
    flexDirection: 'row',
    alignItems: 'center',
  },
});

export default CustomSidebarMenu;

To Run the React Native App

Open the terminal again and jump into your project using.

cd ProjectName

1. Start Metro Bundler

First, you will need to start Metro, the JavaScript bundler that ships with React Native. To start Metro bundler run following command:

npx react-native start

Once you start Metro Bundler it will run forever on your terminal until you close it. Let Metro Bundler run in its own terminal. Open a new terminal and run the application.

2. Start React Native Application

To run the project on an Android Virtual Device or on real debugging device:

npx react-native run-android

or on the iOS Simulator by running (macOS only)

npx react-native run-ios

Output Screenshots

      

Output in Online Emulator

This is how you can make a Custom Navigation Drawer / Sidebar with Image and Icon in Menu Options with React Navigation. If you have any doubts or you want to share something about the topic you can comment below or contact us here. There will be more posts coming soon. Stay tuned!

Hope you liked it. 🙂