Example of React Native Navigation Drawer with Latest Navigation Version

Navigation Drawer/Sidebar

This is an Example of React Native Navigation Drawer for Android and IOS. We will use react-navigation to make a navigation drawer in this example. React Native Navigation Drawer is a very popular component in app development. It provides you to manage the number of app options in a very easy manner. A user can navigate from one screen to another screen very easily by just pulling out the drawer. Here is an example of a navigation drawer.

To Create React Navigation Drawer

const DrawerNavigatorExample = createDrawerNavigator({
  //Drawer Optons and indexing
  Screen1: { //Title
    screen: FirstActivity_StackNavigator,
    navigationOptions: {
      drawerLabel: "Demo Screen 1"
    }
  },
  Screen2: {//Title
    screen: Screen2_StackNavigator,
    navigationOptions: {
      drawerLabel: "Demo Screen 2"
    }
  },
  Screen3: {//Title
    screen: Screen3_StackNavigator,
    navigationOptions: {
      drawerLabel: "Demo Screen 3"
    }
  },
});
export default createAppContainer(DrawerNavigatorExample);

In this example, we will make a navigation drawer with Three screens. So let’s get started.

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 init to make our React Native App. Assuming that you have node installed, you can use npm to install the react-native-cli command line utility. Open the terminal and go to the workspace and run

npm install -g react-native-cli

Run the following commands to create a new React Native project

react-native init ProjectName

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

react-native init ProjectName --version X.XX.X
react-native init ProjectName --version react-native@next

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

Installation of Dependencies

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

cd ProjectName

1. Install react-navigation dependency to import createAppContainer

npm install react-navigation --save

2. Install react-native-gesture-handler dependency to support gesture navigation

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

3. Install react-navigation-drawer to import createDrawerNavigator

npm install react-navigation-drawer --save

4. Install react-native-reanimated for the drawer animation (Used internally by react-navigation-drawer)

npm install react-native-reanimated --save

These steps are enough for the drawer navigation but in this example, we are also using createStackNavigator to switch screens, so please follow the next step also

5. Install react-navigation-stack to import createStackNavigator

npm install react-navigation-stack --save

These commands will copy all the dependencies into your node_module directory.

CocoaPods Installation

After the updation of React Native 0.60, they have introduced autolinking so we do not require to link the libraries but need to install pods.

In this example, we need to install the pods for react-native-gesture-handler and react-native-reanimated.

Please use the following command to install CocoaPods

cd ios && pod install && cd ..

Project Structure

To start with this Example you need to create a directory named pages in your project and create three files Screen1.js, Screen2.js, and Screen3.js in it.

To have the drawer Icon in Action Bar you have to make an image directory in your project and have to copy any drawer image with name drawer.png (For this example. You can change if you want but you need to change the file name in code too).

Here is the drawer.png if you want to download it

Code

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

App.js

//This is an example code for NavigationDrawer//
import React, { Component } from 'react';
//import react in our code.
import { View, Image, TouchableOpacity } from 'react-native';
// import all basic components

//For React Navigation 3+
//import {
//  createStackNavigator,
//  createDrawerNavigator,
//  createAppContainer,
//} from 'react-navigation';

//For React Navigation 4+
import {createAppContainer} from 'react-navigation';
import {createDrawerNavigator} from 'react-navigation-drawer';
import {createStackNavigator} from 'react-navigation-stack';
import Screen1 from './pages/Screen1';
import Screen2 from './pages/Screen2';
import Screen3 from './pages/Screen3';

class NavigationDrawerStructure extends Component {
  //Structure for the navigatin Drawer
  toggleDrawer = () => {
    //Props to open/close the drawer
    this.props.navigationProps.toggleDrawer();
  };
  render() {
    return (
      <View style={{ flexDirection: 'row' }}>
        <TouchableOpacity onPress={this.toggleDrawer.bind(this)}>
          {/*Donute Button Image */}
          <Image
            source={require('./image/drawer.png')}
            style={{ width: 25, height: 25, marginLeft: 5 }}
          />
        </TouchableOpacity>
      </View>
    );
  }
}

const FirstActivity_StackNavigator = createStackNavigator({
  //All the screen from the Screen1 will be indexed here
  First: {
    screen: Screen1,
    navigationOptions: ({ navigation }) => ({
      title: 'Demo Screen 1',
      headerLeft: <NavigationDrawerStructure navigationProps={navigation} />,
      headerStyle: {
        backgroundColor: '#FF9800',
      },
      headerTintColor: '#fff',
    }),
  },
});

const Screen2_StackNavigator = createStackNavigator({
  //All the screen from the Screen2 will be indexed here
  Second: {
    screen: Screen2,
    navigationOptions: ({ navigation }) => ({
      title: 'Demo Screen 2',
      headerLeft: <NavigationDrawerStructure navigationProps={navigation} />,
      headerStyle: {
        backgroundColor: '#FF9800',
      },
      headerTintColor: '#fff',
    }),
  },
});

const Screen3_StackNavigator = createStackNavigator({
  //All the screen from the Screen3 will be indexed here
  Third: {
    screen: Screen3,
    navigationOptions: ({ navigation }) => ({
      title: 'Demo Screen 3',
      headerLeft: <NavigationDrawerStructure navigationProps={navigation} />,
      headerStyle: {
        backgroundColor: '#FF9800',
      },
      headerTintColor: '#fff',
    }),
  },
});

const DrawerNavigatorExample = createDrawerNavigator({
  //Drawer Optons and indexing
  Screen1: {
    //Title
    screen: FirstActivity_StackNavigator,
    navigationOptions: {
      drawerLabel: 'Demo Screen 1',
    },
  },
  Screen2: {
    //Title
    screen: Screen2_StackNavigator,
    navigationOptions: {
      drawerLabel: 'Demo Screen 2',
    },
  },
  Screen3: {
    //Title
    screen: Screen3_StackNavigator,
    navigationOptions: {
      drawerLabel: 'Demo Screen 3',
    },
  },
});

export default createAppContainer(DrawerNavigatorExample);

Open pages/Screen1.js in any code editor and the Replace the code with the following code.

Screen1.js

//This is an example code for NavigationDrawer//
import React, { Component } from 'react';
//import react in our code.
import { StyleSheet, View, Text } from 'react-native';
// import all basic components

export default class Screen1 extends Component {
  //Screen1 Component
  render() {
    return (
      <View style={styles.MainContainer}>
        <Text style={{ fontSize: 23 }}> Screen 1 </Text>
      </View>
    );
  }
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  MainContainer: {
    flex: 1,
    paddingTop: 20,
    alignItems: 'center',
    marginTop: 50,
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
});

Open pages/Screen2.js in any code editor and the Replace the code with the following code.

Screen2.js

//This is an example code for NavigationDrawer//
import React, { Component } from 'react';
//import react in our code.
import { StyleSheet, View, Text } from 'react-native';
// import all basic components

export default class Screen2 extends Component {
  //Screen2 Component
  render() {
    return (
      <View style={styles.MainContainer}>
        <Text style={{ fontSize: 23 }}> Screen 2 </Text>
      </View>
    );
  }
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  MainContainer: {
    flex: 1,
    paddingTop: 20,
    alignItems: 'center',
    marginTop: 50,
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
});

Open pages/Screen3.js in any code editor and the Replace the code with the following code.

Screen3.js

//This is an example code for NavigationDrawer//
import React, { Component } from 'react';
//import react in our code.
import { StyleSheet, View, Text } from 'react-native';
// import all basic components

export default class Screen3 extends Component {
  //Screen3 Component
  render() {
    return (
      <View style={styles.MainContainer}>
        <Text style={{ fontSize: 23 }}> Screen 3 </Text>
      </View>
    );
  }
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  MainContainer: {
    flex: 1,
    paddingTop: 20,
    alignItems: 'center',
    marginTop: 50,
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
});

To Run the React Native App

Open the terminal again and jump into your project using.
cd ProjectName
To run the project on an Android Virtual Device or on real debugging device
react-native run-android
or on the iOS Simulator by running
react-native run-ios (macOS only).

Output Screenshot

iOS

               

Android

               

Output in Online Emulator

That was the React Native Navigation Drawer. 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. 🙂

93 thoughts on “Example of React Native Navigation Drawer with Latest Navigation Version”

  4. Showing the error: undefined is not a function (evaluating ‘_this.props.navigationProps.toggleDrawer()’)
    toggleDrawer

    Can you please check this issue?

    Reply

  12. Hello, I have this issues when trying to pass params to another screen, e.g. passing email from users list to user detail screen….

    TypeError: TypeError: undefined is not an object (evaluating ‘this.props.navigation.state.params.JSON_ListView_Clicked_Item’)

    Reply

      • Actually I am. on the users list screen I have…..

        this.props.navigation.navigate(‘Profiles’, { Emailsss: item.email })} > {item.first_name} {item.last_name}

        and I get this error…

        TypeError: TypeError: undefined is not an object (evaluating ‘this.props.navigation.state.params.Emailsss’)

        I had to change from JSON_ListView_Clicked_Item to Emailsss to try fixing, but still not working.

        It Started happening since I implemented Drawer navigation.

        Reply

  13. Actually I am. on the users list screen I have…..

    this.props.navigation.navigate(‘Profiles’, { Emailsss: item.email })} > {item.first_name} {item.last_name}

    and I get this error…

    TypeError: TypeError: undefined is not an object (evaluating ‘this.props.navigation.state.params.Emailsss’)

    I had to change from JSON_ListView_Clicked_Item to Emailsss to try fixing, but still not working.

    Reply

  14. How can i remove the header from inside pages like
    Screen1 List -> Screen Details is page where i need back button how i can achieve this also change the header title.

    Reply

  17. I already update react native navigation into 3+ but i also get error : undefined is not and object : this.props.navigationProps.toggleDrawer. please help

    Reply

  19. null is not an object ( evaluating ‘RNGestureHandlerModule.Direction’)

    My app:
    “dependencies”: {
    “react”: “16.8.6”,
    “react-native”: “0.60.3”,
    “react-native-gesture-handler”: “^1.3.0”,
    “react-navigation”: “^3.11.1”
    }

    Reply

    • Hi Rod,
      Not yet as React Native versions are changing very frequently almost in a month so we think the code base will expire over a time but still We are planning for that with some solution of this frequent changes.

      Reply

  22. Thanks a lot, I was struggling to make it work. I was not sure if I had linked rn gesture handler correctly, but apparently I did. Just my code was not working but yours does so thanks a lot!

    Reply

  23. Thanks a lot excellent tutorial.I have a small doubt in my example i have created a custom drawer menu where top area will be occupied by main app icon and below will my drawer menu like home,about,settings… etc so my question is on press of the main icon i want to close the drawer menu and update the state of the home screen.

    Reply

  24. Hello Snehal,

    Thank you for the snippet.
    I tried to add multple indexes in a stackNavigator but there wasn’t any changes.
    Could you explain the utility to do that (if there is) and what should be the result.

    Reply

    • Hello Sevag, If you talk about the stack navigator then they are related to the single screen. In a single line, drawer navigation contains multiple stack navigator where each index of drawer navigator is a sidebar option and each index of the stack navigator is the multiple screens in the single option.
      If we have option1 with screen11, screen12, screen13, option2 with screen21, screen22, and option3 with screen31 then option1, option2, and option3 will be the drawer options and will come in drawer navigator but in the form of stack navigator with the same screen in a single option.

      Reply

  27. null is not an object ( evaluating ‘RNGestureHandlerModule.Direction’)

    App Dependencies

    “dependencies”: {
    “react”: “16.8.6”,
    “react-native”: “0.60.5”,
    “react-native-gesture-handler”: “^1.4.1”,
    “react-navigation”: “^3.12.0”
    },

    Reply

  30. Great tutorial!! You helped me a lot!! 🙂 I spend so much time to find out how to make proper navigation drawer, any tutorial was working but yours finally did the job 😀 Thank you so much.

    Reply

  33. Hi Snehal Agrawal,

    It’s very help to me to learn react native.
    I have a question how to close side menu when clicking outside of side menu part link other screen?
    it’s working when clicking on other screen on side menu but i need to close when open side menu then click out side of side menu want to close.

    Reply

  34. I swear to god i looked for around 12 hrs trying to do this and none of the blogs helped me like this one. A big thanks to whoever wrote this post . Keep coding

    Reply

  35. Hi Snehal,

    Two days i was hardly trying to configure am getting the error as toggle drawer is not a function.Am not getting toggleDrawer or openDrawer or closeDrawer in my navigation props.Anything i did wrong ?Please help me to solve this issue

    Reply

  38. I get blank white screen after do something in another screen in drawer orders and back to first screen in drawer products

    Reply

  39. error: bundling failed: Error: Unable to resolve module `@react-native-community/masked-view` from `node_modules\react-navigation-stack\lib\module\vendor\views\MaskedView.js`: @react-native-community/masked-view could not be found within the project.

    how to solve this sir?

    Reply

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