React Navigation Drawer with Sectioned Menu Options & Footer

Introduction

This is an example of Navigation Drawer / Sidebar Menu with Sectioned Options Menu & Footer 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 a custom navigation drawer in place of the default navigation drawer where we will have two sections, one section with First Page Option and second section with Second Page Option and Third Page Option.

To set the custom view in Navigation Drawer / Sidebar Menu

We will use drawerContent prop of Drawer.Navigator to set our custom view in navigation drawer (CustomSidebarMenu in this example).

Here is the complete definition of navigation container / drawer navigator

<NavigationContainer>
  <Drawer.Navigator
    // For setting Custom Sidebar Menu
    drawerContent={(props) => <CustomSidebarMenu {...props} />}>
    <Drawer.Screen
      name="FirstPage"
      options={{
        drawerLabel: 'First page Option',
        // Section/Group Name
        groupName: 'Section 1',
        activeTintColor: '#e91e63',
      }}
      component={firstScreenStack}
    />
    <Drawer.Screen
      name="SecondPage"
      options={{
        drawerLabel: 'Second page Option',
        // Section/Group Name
        groupName: 'Section 2',
        activeTintColor: '#e91e63',
      }}
      component={secondScreenStack}
    />
    <Drawer.Screen
      name="ThirdPage"
      options={{
        drawerLabel: 'Third page Option',
        // Section/Group Name
        groupName: 'Section 2',
        activeTintColor: '#e91e63',
      }}
      component={thirdScreenStack}
    />
  </Drawer.Navigator>
</NavigationContainer>

This is how you can set your own custom sidebar too.

For Sectioned Menu

To create our custom navigation drawer with section menu

  1. We will add additional groupName in the options of Drawer.Screen which will help us to identify  the section/group of the navigation option
  2. By default the drawer is scrollable and supports devices with notches, but in case of cute drawer we have to use DrawerContentScrollView to handle this automatically
  3. To add items under DrawerContentScrollView in the drawer, we will use DrawerItem component
  4. There will be some custom logic also to manage DrawerItem according to the groupName passed in Drawer.Screen options

In case you need to add your own section/group and options, you can add/update/delete Drawer.Screen in App.js. Please note groupName is the key which will help you to define the section/group of the drawer option.

Let’s get started with the code and see how to create a custom navigation bar with section menu

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)

navigation_drawer_sectioned_structure

Code

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

App.js

// React Navigation Drawer with Sectioned Menu Options & Footer
// https://aboutreact.com/navigation-drawer-sidebar-menu-with-sectioned-menu-options-footer/

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}
        options={{
          title: 'Second Page', //Set Header Title
        }}
      />
    </Stack.Navigator>
  );
}

function ThirdScreenStack() {
  return (
    <Stack.Navigator
      initialRouteName="ThirdPage"
      screenOptions={{headerShown: false}}>
      <Stack.Screen
        name="ThirdPage"
        component={ThirdPage}
        options={{
          title: 'Third Page', //Set Header Title
        }}
      />
    </Stack.Navigator>
  );
}

function App() {
  return (
    <NavigationContainer>
      <Drawer.Navigator
        screenOptions={{
          headerStyle: {
            backgroundColor: '#f4511e', //Set Header color
          },
          headerTintColor: '#fff', //Set Header text color
        }}
        // For setting Custom Sidebar Menu
        drawerContent={props => <CustomSidebarMenu {...props} />}>
        <Drawer.Screen
          name="FirstScreenStack"
          options={{
            drawerLabel: 'First page Option',
            title: 'First Stack',
            // Section/Group Name
            groupName: 'Section 1',
            activeTintColor: '#e91e63',
          }}
          component={FirstScreenStack}
        />
        <Drawer.Screen
          name="SecondScreenStack"
          options={{
            drawerLabel: 'Second page Option',
            title: 'Second Stack',
            // Section/Group Name
            groupName: 'Section 2',
            activeTintColor: '#e91e63',
          }}
          component={SecondScreenStack}
        />
        <Drawer.Screen
          name="ThirdScreenStack"
          options={{
            drawerLabel: 'Third page Option',
            title: 'Third Stack',
            // Section/Group Name
            groupName: 'Section 2',
            activeTintColor: '#e91e63',
          }}
          component={ThirdScreenStack}
        />
      </Drawer.Navigator>
    </NavigationContainer>
  );
}

export default App;

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

FirstPage.js

// React Navigation Drawer with Sectioned Menu Options & Footer
// https://aboutreact.com/navigation-drawer-sidebar-menu-with-sectioned-menu-options-footer/

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

const FirstPage = () => {
  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={{flex: 1, padding: 16}}>
        <View style={styles.container}>
          <Text style={styles.textStyle}>
            React Navigation Drawer with Sectioned Menu & Footer
            {'\n\n'}
            This is the First Page
          </Text>
        </View>
        <Text style={styles.footerHeading}>
          React Navigation Drawer with Sectioned Menu
        </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

// React Navigation Drawer with Sectioned Menu Options & Footer
// https://aboutreact.com/navigation-drawer-sidebar-menu-with-sectioned-menu-options-footer/

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}>
            React Navigation Drawer with Sectioned Menu & Footer
            {'\n\n'}
            This is the Second Page
          </Text>
        </View>
        <Text style={styles.footerHeading}>
          React Navigation Drawer with Sectioned Menu
        </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/ThirdPage.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code.

ThirdPage.js

// React Navigation Drawer with Sectioned Menu Options & Footer
// https://aboutreact.com/navigation-drawer-sidebar-menu-with-sectioned-menu-options-footer/

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

const ThirdPage = () => {
  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={{flex: 1, padding: 16}}>
        <View style={styles.container}>
          <Text style={styles.textStyle}>
            React Navigation Drawer with Sectioned Menu & Footer
            {'\n\n'}
            This is the Third Page
          </Text>
        </View>
        <Text style={styles.footerHeading}>
          React Navigation Drawer with Sectioned Menu
        </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 ThirdPage;

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

CustomSidebarMenu.js (Custom Menu)

// React Navigation Drawer with Sectioned Menu Options & Footer
// https://aboutreact.com/navigation-drawer-sidebar-menu-with-sectioned-menu-options-footer/

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

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

const CustomSidebarMenu = (props) => {
  const {state, descriptors, navigation} = props;
  let lastGroupName = '';
  let newGroup = true;

  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <DrawerContentScrollView {...props}>
        {state.routes.map((route) => {
          const {
            drawerLabel,
            activeTintColor,
            groupName
          } = descriptors[route.key].options;
          if (lastGroupName !== groupName) {
            newGroup = true;
            lastGroupName = groupName;
          } else newGroup = false;
          return (
            <>
              {newGroup ? (
                <View style={styles.sectionContainer}>
                  <Text key={groupName} style={{marginLeft: 16}}>
                    {groupName}
                  </Text>
                  <View style={styles.sectionLine} />
                </View>
              ) : null}
              <DrawerItem
                key={route.key}
                label={
                  ({color}) =>
                    <Text style={{color}}>
                      {drawerLabel}
                    </Text>
                }
                focused={
                  state.routes.findIndex(
                    (e) => e.name === route.name
                  ) === state.index
                }
                activeTintColor={activeTintColor}
                onPress={() => navigation.navigate(route.name)}
              />
            </>
          );
        })}
      </DrawerContentScrollView>
      <Text
        style={{
          fontSize: 16,
          textAlign: 'center',
          color: 'grey'
        }}>
        www.aboutreact.com
      </Text>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  sectionContainer: {
    flex: 1,
    flexDirection: 'row',
    alignItems: 'center',
    marginTop: 10,
  },
  sectionLine: {
    backgroundColor: 'gray',
    flex: 1,
    height: 1,
    marginLeft: 10,
    marginRight: 20,
  },
});

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

navigation_drawer_sectioned1   navigation_drawer_sectioned2   navigation_drawer_sectioned3   navigation_drawer_sectioned4   navigation_drawer_sectioned5   navigation_drawer_sectioned6

Output in Online Emulator

This is how you can make a Navigation Drawer / Sidebar Menu with Sectioned Menu & Footer 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. 🙂

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