How to Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer / Sidebar

Introduction

This post is about How to Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer / Sidebar in React Native. 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 because in this post we are just extending the last post to hide the navigation option from the Navigation Drawer.

Hide navigation drawer option means while creating navigation drawer we have a screen in our navigation drawer which should be visible in the navigation option in the left menu but with some changes, we can also control the visibility of the option.

This option is very useful when you have to manage the visibility of the options on the basis of authority / access, For example if you have to different navigation options on the basis of user is logged in or not.

In this example, we will have a navigation drawer with 4 screens but only 2 navigation options available in the drawer menu. On the first screen, we will have two buttons to open two hidden screen which are the part of the navigation drawer but not in navigation drawer menu.

To Hide the Navigation Option from the Navigation Drawer

To hide the navigation option from the navigation drawer we will use drawerContent prop of Drawer.Navigator. This prop provides independence to replace default navigation drawer with our custom one. We have added some custom code to customise the navigation drawer.

The logic is simple we have just taken all the routes passed in drawer navigator and filtered out all those which we don’t want on drawer navigation. We have used DrawerContentScrollView and DrawerItemList to create the drawer option.

<Drawer.Navigator
  drawerContentOptions={{
    activeTintColor: '#e91e63',
    itemStyle: {padding: 0},
  }}
  drawerContent={(props) => {
    const filteredProps = {
      ...props,
      state: {
        ...props.state,
        routeNames: props.state.routeNames.filter(
          // To hide single option
          // (routeName) => routeName !== 'HiddenPage1',
          // To hide multiple options you can add & condition
          (routeName) => {
            routeName !== 'HiddenPage1'
            && routeName !== 'HiddenPage2';
          },
        ),
        routes: props.state.routes.filter(
          (route) =>{
            route.name !== 'HiddenPage1'
            && route.name !== 'HiddenPage2',
          },
        ),
      },
    };
    return (
      <DrawerContentScrollView {...filteredProps}>
        <DrawerItemList {...filteredProps} />
      </DrawerContentScrollView>
    );
  }}>
  <Drawer.Screen
    name="FirstPage"
    options={{drawerLabel: 'First Page Option'}}
    component={firstScreenStack}
  />
  <Drawer.Screen
    name="SecondPage"
    options={{drawerLabel: 'Second Page Option'}}
    component={secondScreenStack}
  />
  <Drawer.Screen
    name="HiddenPage1"
    options={{drawerLabel: 'Hidden Page One option'}}
    component={thirdScreenStack}
  />
  <Drawer.Screen
    name="HiddenPage2"
    options={{drawerLabel: 'Hidden Page Two option'}}
    component={fourthScreenStack}
  />
</Drawer.Navigator>

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 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 four files FirstPage.js, SecondPage.js, HiddenPage1.js, HiddenPage2.js in it.

Code

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

App.js

// How to Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer / Sidebar
// https://aboutreact.com/how-to-hide-navigation-drawer-sidebar-option/

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 HiddenPage1 from './pages/HiddenPage1';
import HiddenPage2 from './pages/HiddenPage2';

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

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

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

const ThirdScreenStack = () => {
  return (
    <Stack.Navigator screenOptions={{headerShown: false}}>
      <Stack.Screen name="HiddenPage1" component={HiddenPage1} />
    </Stack.Navigator>
  );
};

const FourthScreenStack = () => {
  return (
    <Stack.Navigator screenOptions={{headerShown: false}}>
      <Stack.Screen name="HiddenPage2" component={HiddenPage2} />
    </Stack.Navigator>
  );
};

const App = () => {
  return (
    <NavigationContainer>
      <Drawer.Navigator
        screenOptions={{
          headerStyle: {
            backgroundColor: '#f4511e', //Set Header color
          },
          headerTintColor: '#fff', //Set Header text color
        }}>
        <Drawer.Screen
          name="FirstScreenStack"
          options={{drawerLabel: 'First Page Option', title: 'First Page'}}
          component={FirstScreenStack}
        />
        <Drawer.Screen
          name="SecondScreenStack"
          options={{drawerLabel: 'Second Page Option', title: 'Second Page'}}
          component={SecondScreenStack}
        />
        <Drawer.Screen
          name="ThirdScreenStack"
          options={{
            drawerLabel: 'Hidden Page One option',
            title: 'Hidden Page 1',
            drawerItemStyle: {
              display: 'none',
            },
          }}
          component={ThirdScreenStack}
        />
        <Drawer.Screen
          name="FourthScreenStack"
          options={{
            drawerLabel: 'Hidden Page Two option',
            title: 'Hidden Page 2',
            drawerItemStyle: {
              display: 'none',
            },
          }}
          component={FourthScreenStack}
        />
      </Drawer.Navigator>
    </NavigationContainer>
  );
};

export default App;

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

FirstPage.js

// How to Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer / Sidebar
// https://aboutreact.com/how-to-hide-navigation-drawer-sidebar-option/

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

const FirstPage = ({navigation}) => {
  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={{flex: 1, padding: 16}}>
        <View style={styles.container}>
          <Text style={styles.textStyle}>
            How to Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer
            {'\n'}
            This is the First Page
          </Text>
          <Text
            style={{
              marginTop: 30,
              fontSize: 16,
              textAlign: 'center'
            }}>
            To Open Hidden Screen One which is in navigation drawer
            but without navigation option
          </Text>
          <Button
            title="Open Hidden Screen One"
            onPress={() => navigation.navigate('ThirdScreenStack')}
          />
          <Text
            style={{
              marginTop: 30,
              fontSize: 16,
              textAlign: 'center'
            }}>
            To Open Hidden Screen Two which is in navigation drawer
            but without navigation option
          </Text>
          <Button
            title="Open Hidden Screen Two"
            onPress={() => navigation.navigate('FourthScreenStack')}
          />
        </View>
        <Text style={styles.footerHeading}>
          Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer
        </Text>
        <Text style={styles.footerText}>www.aboutreact.com</Text>
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    alignItems: 'center',
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
  textStyle: {
    fontSize: 18,
    textAlign: 'center',
  },
  footerHeading: {
    fontSize: 18,
    textAlign: 'center',
    color: 'grey',
  },
  footerText: {
    fontSize: 16,
    textAlign: 'center',
    color: 'grey',
  },
});

export default FirstPage;

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

SecondPage.js

// How to Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer / Sidebar
// https://aboutreact.com/how-to-hide-navigation-drawer-sidebar-option/

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

const SecondPage = () => {
  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={{flex: 1, padding: 16}}>
        <View style={styles.container}>
          <Text style={styles.textStyle}>
            How to Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer
            {'\n\n'}
            This is Second Page
          </Text>
        </View>
        <Text style={styles.footerHeading}>
          Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer
        </Text>
        <Text style={styles.footerText}>www.aboutreact.com</Text>
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    alignItems: 'center',
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
  textStyle: {
    fontSize: 18,
    textAlign: 'center',
  },
  footerHeading: {
    fontSize: 18,
    textAlign: 'center',
    color: 'grey',
  },
  footerText: {
    fontSize: 16,
    textAlign: 'center',
    color: 'grey',
  },
});

export default SecondPage;

Open pages/HiddenPage1.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code.

HiddenPage1.js

// How to Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer / Sidebar
// https://aboutreact.com/how-to-hide-navigation-drawer-sidebar-option/

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

const HiddenPage1 = ({navigation}) => {
  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={{flex: 1, padding: 16}}>
        <View style={styles.container}>
          <Text style={styles.textStyle}>
            How to Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer
            {'\n\n'}
            This is Hidden Page One
          </Text>
          <Button
            title="Go Back"
            onPress={() => navigation.navigate('FirstPage')}
          />
        </View>
        <Text style={styles.footerHeading}>
          Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer
        </Text>
        <Text style={styles.footerText}>www.aboutreact.com</Text>
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    alignItems: 'center',
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
  textStyle: {
    fontSize: 18,
    textAlign: 'center',
  },
  footerHeading: {
    fontSize: 18,
    textAlign: 'center',
    color: 'grey',
  },
  footerText: {
    fontSize: 16,
    textAlign: 'center',
    color: 'grey',
  },
});

export default HiddenPage1;

Open pages/HiddenPage2.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code.

HiddenPage2.js

// How to Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer / Sidebar
// https://aboutreact.com/how-to-hide-navigation-drawer-sidebar-option/

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

const HiddenPage2 = ({navigation}) => {
  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={{flex: 1, padding: 16}}>
        <View style={styles.container}>
          <Text style={styles.textStyle}>
            How to Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer
            {'\n\n'}
            This is Hidden Page One
          </Text>
          <Button
            title="Go Back"
            onPress={() => navigation.navigate('FirstPage')}
          />
        </View>
        <Text style={styles.footerHeading}>
          Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer
        </Text>
        <Text style={styles.footerText}>www.aboutreact.com</Text>
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    alignItems: 'center',
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
  textStyle: {
    fontSize: 18,
    textAlign: 'center',
  },
  footerHeading: {
    fontSize: 18,
    textAlign: 'center',
    color: 'grey',
  },
  footerText: {
    fontSize: 16,
    textAlign: 'center',
    color: 'grey',
  },
});

export default HiddenPage2;

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 to Hide Navigation Option from Navigation Drawer / Sidebar in React Native. If you have any doubt 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. 🙂