[Docs]: Current instructions for installing react-router do not work on Declarative Mode

[LuckyT89]

Describe what's incorrect/missing in the documentation

I am new to React Router and wanted to start experimenting with a simple project. Looking at the docs, it seemed like Declarative Mode was the way to go. I followed the short instructions here: https://reactrouter.com/start/declarative/installation. I created a new project and installed react-router. However once this was done I could not import BrowserRouter. The line import { BrowserRouter } from "react-router"; gave an error saying Module '"react-router"' has no exported member 'BrowserRouter'.

Looking at my package.json, following these instructions and running npm i react-router added "react-router": "^6.30.1". From doing some searching it seems the current version of React Router (and what the docs are showing) is version 7. I tried creating a new project and then installed react-router using the following modified line: npm i react-router@latest. Looking at the package.json I saw this added "react-router": "^7.8.2" and from there I was able to successfully import BrowserRouter.

I think the docs should be updated to modify that specific line on installing react-router. I believe this may also apply to the installation page for Data Mode as well but I have not tested it.

[timdorr]

v6 isn't tagged as latest on npm, so that didn't happen because of the npm i react-router command. That either existed in your package.json already or something else required that version. Either way, that's not needing to be updated in the docs.

[LuckyT89]

@timdorr Appreciate the response but not sure I follow and just want to clarify. Are the installation instructions at https://reactrouter.com/start/declarative/installation supposed to be using version 6 or 7? Are you able to follow those steps listed and import BrowserRouter correctly?

Maybe it is not the docs that need to be updated but something on npm. At the end of the day I just want to make sure that a new user (like me!) can follow the instructions on that page and get a working example. Thanks!

[timdorr]

Those are the v7 docs. The version selector is at the top of the page.

[LuckyT89]

@timdorr Gotcha. And is it expected that when you run npm i react-router like in the instructions that it installs version 6 or 7?

[LuckyT89]

Just to summarize:

When I start a new project and follow the v7 docs and run npm i react-router it installs react-router v6 and the rest of the instructions do not work.

When I start a different project and instead run npm i react-router@latest it installs react-router v7 and the rest of the instructions work properly.

This is why my initial thought was to update the docs to change that line from npm i react-router to npm i react-router@latest

[sergiodxa]

Sounds more like an issue with npm, it should always install latest by default, unless it's already in the package.json

[LuckyT89]

@sergiodxa Good call, that makes sense. react-router was not in the package.json when running the install command so it seems like it is just not installing the latest version by default.

@timdorr What would be the best way to handle this? Create a separate issue saying that running npm i react-router should install v7 of react-router?

[GabenGar]

I've just checked with these commands:

mkdir test
cd test
npm init --yes
npm install react-router

and this ends with this dependency in package.json:

{
  ...
  "dependencies": {
    "react-router": "^7.9.1"
  }
}

So it's a problem on your end, probably an errant package.json in one of the parent directories.

[LuckyT89]

@GabenGar Thanks for checking this. I tried those exact steps you took above and sure enough it still installed version 6.30.1 which shows there was something wrong on my end. I eventually found out it was the version of Node I was using. I use nvm to switch between different Node versions as needed for different projects and I was on v18 when following those instructions. I switched to Node v22 and followed the same instructions again on a new project and it then installed react router v7.

@timdorr Maybe this would be a helpful thing to mark on the different installation pages of the docs that you need to be running a specific version of Node or higher for the npm i react-router command to install v7.