drawer-navigator.md

id	drawer-navigator
title	Drawer Navigator
sidebar_label	Drawer

Component that renders a navigation drawer which can be opened and closed via gestures.

Installation

To use this navigator, ensure that you have @react-navigation/native and its dependencies (follow this guide), then install @react-navigation/drawer:

npm install @react-navigation/drawer

You also need to install react-native-gesture-handler and react-native-reanimated.

If you have a Expo managed project, in your project directory, run:

expo install react-native-gesture-handler react-native-reanimated

If you have a bare React Native project, in your project directory, run:

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

To finalize installation of 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.

The Drawer Navigator supports both Reanimated 1 and Reanimated 2. If you want to use Reanimated 2, make sure to configure it following the installation guide.

API Definition

To use this drawer navigator, import it from @react-navigation/drawer:

import { createDrawerNavigator } from '@react-navigation/drawer';

const Drawer = createDrawerNavigator();

function MyDrawer() {
  return (
    <Drawer.Navigator>
      <Drawer.Screen name="Feed" component={Feed} />
      <Drawer.Screen name="Article" component={Article} />
    </Drawer.Navigator>
  );
}

For a complete usage guide please visit Drawer Navigation.

Props

The Drawer.Navigator component accepts following props:

initialRouteName

The name of the route to render on first load of the navigator.

screenOptions

Default options to use for the screens in the navigator.

backBehavior

This controls how going back in the navigator is handled. This includes when the back button is pressed/back gesture is performed, or goBack is called.

It supports the following values:

• firstRoute - return to the first tab (default)
• initialRoute - return to initial tab
• order - return to previous tab (in the order they are shown in the tab bar)
• history - return to last visited tab
• none - do not handle back button

defaultStatus

The default status of the drawer - whether the drawer should stay open or closed by default.

When this is set to open, the drawer will be open from the initial render. It can be closed normally using gestures or programmatically. However, when going back, drawer will re-open if it was closed. This is essentially the opposite of the default behavior of the drawer where it starts closed, and back button closes an open drawer.

detachInactiveScreens

Boolean used to indicate whether inactive screens should be detached from the view hierarchy to save memory. Make sure to call enableScreens from react-native-screens to make it work. Defaults to true.

Whether the screens should render the first time they are accessed. Defaults to true. Set it to false if you want to render all screens on initial render.

useLegacyImplementation

Whether to use the legacy implementation based on Reanimated 1. The new implementation based on Reanimated 2 will perform better, but you need additional configuration and need to use Hermes with Flipper to debug.

This defaults to true in following cases:

• Reanimated 2 is not configured
• App is connected to Chrome debugger (Reanimated 2 cannot be used with Chrome debugger)
• App is running on Web

Otherwise, it defaults to false

drawerContent

Function that returns React element to render as the content of the drawer, for example, navigation items

The content component receives following props by default:

• state - The navigation state of the navigator.
• navigation - The navigation object for the navigator.
• descriptors - An descriptor object containing options for the drawer screens. The options can be accessed at descriptors[route.key].options.
• progress - Reanimated Node that represents the animated position of the drawer (0 is closed; 1 is open).

Providing a custom drawerContent

The default component for the drawer is scrollable and only contains links for the routes in the RouteConfig. You can easily override the default component to add a header, footer, or other content to the drawer. The default content component is exported as DrawerContent. It renders a DrawerItemList component inside a ScrollView.

By default the drawer is scrollable and supports devices with notches. If you customize the content, you can use DrawerContentScrollView to handle this automatically:

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

function CustomDrawerContent(props) {
  return (
    <DrawerContentScrollView {...props}>
      <DrawerItemList {...props} />
    </DrawerContentScrollView>
  );
}

To add additional items in the drawer, you can use the DrawerItem component:

function CustomDrawerContent(props) {
  return (
    <DrawerContentScrollView {...props}>
      <DrawerItemList {...props} />
      <DrawerItem
        label="Help"
        onPress={() => Linking.openURL('https://mywebsite.com/help')}
      />
    </DrawerContentScrollView>
  );
}

The DrawerItem component accepts the following props:

• label (required): The label text of the item. Can be string, or a function returning a react element. e.g. ({ focused, color }) => <Text style={{ color }}>{focused ? 'Focused text' : 'Unfocused text'}</Text>.
• icon: Icon to display for the item. Accepts a function returning a react element. e.g. ({ focused, color, size }) => <Icon color={color} size={size} name={focused ? 'heart' : 'heart-outline'} />.
• focused: Boolean indicating whether to highlight the drawer item as active.
• onPress (required): Function to execute on press.
• activeTintColor: Color for the icon and label when the item is active.
• inactiveTintColor: Color for the icon and label when the item is inactive.
• activeBackgroundColor: Background color for item when it's active.
• inactiveBackgroundColor: Background color for item when it's inactive.
• labelStyle: Style object for the label Text.
• style: Style object for the wrapper View.

The progress object can be used to do interesting animations in your drawerContent, such as parallax motion of the drawer contents:

function CustomDrawerContent(props) {
  const progress = useDrawerProgress();

  const translateX = Animated.interpolate(progress, {
    inputRange: [0, 1],
    outputRange: [-100, 0],
  });

  return (
    <Animated.View style={{ transform: [{ translateX }] }}>
      {/* ... drawer contents */}
    </Animated.View>
  );
}

The progress object is a Reanimated Node if you're using Reanimated 1 (see useLegacyImplementation), otherwise a SharedValue.

Note that you cannot use the useNavigation hook inside the drawerContent since useNavigation is only available inside screens. You get a navigation prop for your drawerContent which you can use instead:

function CustomDrawerContent({ navigation }) {
  return (
    <Button
      title="Go somewhere"
      onPress={() => {
        // Navigate using the `navigation` prop that you received
        navigation.navigate('SomeScreen');
      }}
    />
  );
}

To use the custom component, we need to pass it in the drawerContent prop:

<Drawer.Navigator drawerContent={(props) => <CustomDrawerContent {...props} />}>
  {/* screens */}
</Drawer.Navigator>

Options

The following options can be used to configure the screens in the navigator. These can be specified under screenOptions prop of Drawer.navigator or options prop of Drawer.Screen.

title

Generic title that can be used as a fallback for headerTitle and drawerLabel.

lazy

Whether this screen should render the first time it's accessed. Defaults to true. Set it to false if you want to render the screen on initial render.

drawerLabel

String or a function that given { focused: boolean, color: string } returns a React.Node, to display in drawer sidebar. When undefined, scene title is used.

drawerIcon

Function, that given { focused: boolean, color: string, size: number } returns a React.Node to display in drawer sidebar.

drawerActiveTintColor

Color for the icon and label in the active item in the drawer.

drawerActiveBackgroundColor

Background color for the active item in the drawer.

drawerInactiveTintColor

Color for the icon and label in the inactive items in the drawer.

drawerInactiveBackgroundColor

Background color for the inactive items in the drawer.

drawerItemStyle

Style object for the single item, which can contain an icon and/or a label.

drawerLabelStyle

Style object to apply to the Text style inside content section which renders a label.

drawerContentContainerStyle

Style object for the content section inside the ScrollView.

drawerContentStyle

Style object for the wrapper view.

drawerStyle

Style object for the drawer component. You can pass a custom background color for a drawer or a custom width here.

<Drawer.Navigator
  screenOptions={{
    drawerStyle: {
      backgroundColor: '#c6cbef',
      width: 240,
    },
  }}
>
  {/* screens */}
</Drawer.Navigator>

drawerPosition

Options are left or right. Defaults to left for LTR languages and right for RTL languages.

drawerType

Type of the drawer. It determines how the drawer looks and animates.

• front: Traditional drawer which covers the screen with a overlay behind it.
• back: The drawer is revealed behind the screen on swipe.
• slide: Both the screen and the drawer slide on swipe to reveal the drawer.
• permanent: A permanent drawer is shown as a sidebar. Useful for having always visible drawer on larger screens.

Defaults to slide on iOS and front on other platforms.

You can conditionally specify the drawerType to show a permanent drawer on bigger screens and a traditional drawer drawer on small screens:

import { useWindowDimensions } from 'react-native';
import { createDrawerNavigator } from '@react-navigation/drawer';

const Drawer = createDrawerNavigator();

function MyDrawer() {
  const dimensions = useWindowDimensions();

  return (
    <Drawer.Navigator
      screenOptions={{
        drawerType: dimensions.width >= 768 ? 'permanent' : 'front',
      }}
    >
      {/* Screens */}
    </Drawer.Navigator>
  );
}

You can also specify other props such as drawerStyle based on screen size to customize the behavior. For example, you can combine it with defaultStatus="open" to achieve a master-detail layout:

import { useWindowDimensions } from 'react-native';
import { createDrawerNavigator } from '@react-navigation/drawer';

const Drawer = createDrawerNavigator();

function MyDrawer() {
  const dimensions = useWindowDimensions();

  const isLargeScreen = dimensions.width >= 768;

  return (
    <Drawer.Navigator
      defaultStatus="open"
      screenOptions={{
        drawerType: isLargeScreen ? 'permanent' : 'back',
        drawerStyle: isLargeScreen ? null : { width: '100%' },
        overlayColor: 'transparent',
      }}
    >
      {/* Screens */}
    </Drawer.Navigator>
  );
}

drawerHideStatusBarOnOpen

When set to true, Drawer will hide the OS status bar whenever the drawer is pulled or when it's in an "open" state.

drawerStatusBarAnimation

Animation of the statusbar when hiding it. use in combination with hideStatusBar.

Supported values:

• slide
• fade
• none

This is only supported on iOS. Defaults to slide.

overlayColor

Color overlay to be displayed on top of the content view when drawer gets open. The opacity is animated from 0 to 1 when the drawer opens.

sceneContainerStyle

Style object for the component wrapping the screen content.

gestureEnabled

Whether you can use gestures to open or close the drawer. Setting this to false disables swipe gestures as well as tap on overlay to close. See swipeEnabled to disable only the swipe gesture.

gestureHandlerProps

Props to pass to the underlying pan gesture handler.

This is not supported on Web.

swipeEnabled

Whether you can use swipe gestures to open or close the drawer. Defaults to true.

Swipe gesture is not supported on Web.

swipeEdgeWidth

Allows for defining how far from the edge of the content view the swipe gesture should activate.

This is not supported on Web.

swipeMinDistance

Minimum swipe distance threshold that should activate opening the drawer.

keyboardDismissMode

Whether the keyboard should be dismissed when the swipe gesture begins. Defaults to 'on-drag'. Set to 'none' to disable keyboard handling.

unmountOnBlur

Whether this screen should be unmounted when navigating away from it. Unmounting a screen resets any local state in the screen as well as state of nested navigators in the screen. Defaults to false.

Normally, we don't recommend enabling this prop as users don't expect their navigation history to be lost when switching screens. If you enable this prop, please consider if this will actually provide a better experience for the user.

Header related options

You can find the list of header related options here. These options can be specified under screenOptions prop of Drawer.navigator or options prop of Drawer.Screen. You don't have to be using @react-navigation/elements directly to use these options, they are just documented in that page.

In addition to those, the following options are also supported in drawer:

header

Custom header to use instead of the default header.

This accepts a function that returns a React Element to display as a header. The function receives an object containing the following properties as the argument:

• navigation - The navigation object for the current screen.
• route - The route object for the current screen.
• options - The options for the current screen
• layout - Dimensions of the screen, contains height and width properties.

Example:

import { getHeaderTitle } from '@react-navigation/elements';

// ..

header: ({ navigation, route, options }) => {
  const title = getHeaderTitle(options, route.name);

  return <MyHeader title={title} style={options.headerStyle} />;
};

To set a custom header for all the screens in the navigator, you can specify this option in the screenOptions prop of the navigator.

Specify a height in headerStyle

If your custom header's height differs from the default header height, then you might notice glitches due to measurement being async. Explicitly specifying the height will avoid such glitches.

Example:

headerStyle: {
  height: 80, // Specify the height of your custom header
};

Note that this style is not applied to the header by default since you control the styling of your custom header. If you also want to apply this style to your header, use options.headerStyle from the props.

headerShown

Whether to show or hide the header for the screen. The header is shown by default. Setting this to false hides the header.

Events

The navigator can emit events on certain actions. Supported events are:

drawerOpen

This event is fired when the drawer opens.

Example:

React.useEffect(() => {
  const unsubscribe = navigation.addListener('drawerOpen', (e) => {
    // Do something
  });

  return unsubscribe;
}, [navigation]);

drawerClose

This event is fired when the drawer closes.

Example:

React.useEffect(() => {
  const unsubscribe = navigation.addListener('drawerClose', (e) => {
    // Do something
  });

  return unsubscribe;
}, [navigation]);

Helpers

The drawer navigator adds the following methods to the navigation prop:

openDrawer

Opens the drawer pane.

navigation.openDrawer();

closeDrawer

Closes the drawer pane.

navigation.closeDrawer();

toggleDrawer

Opens the drawer pane if closed, closes the drawer pane if opened.

navigation.toggleDrawer();

jumpTo

Navigates to an existing screen in the drawer navigator. The method accepts following arguments:

• name - string - Name of the route to jump to.
• params - object - Screen params to pass to the destination route.

navigation.jumpTo('Profile', { owner: 'Satya' });

Example

import { createDrawerNavigator } from '@react-navigation/drawer';

const Drawer = createDrawerNavigator();

function MyDrawer() {
  return (
    <Drawer.Navigator initialRouteName="Feed">
      <Drawer.Screen
        name="Feed"
        component={Feed}
        options={{ drawerLabel: 'Home' }}
      />
      <Drawer.Screen
        name="Notifications"
        component={Notifications}
        options={{ drawerLabel: 'Updates' }}
      />
      <Drawer.Screen
        name="Profile"
        component={Profile}
        options={{ drawerLabel: 'Profile' }}
      />
    </Drawer.Navigator>
  );
}

Checking if the drawer is open

You can check if the drawer is open by using the useDrawerStatus hook.

import { useDrawerStatus } from '@react-navigation/drawer';

// ...

const isDrawerOpen = useDrawerStatus() === 'open';

Nesting drawer navigators inside others

If a drawer navigator is nested inside of another navigator that provides some UI, for example a tab navigator or stack navigator, then the drawer will be rendered below the UI from those navigators. The drawer will appear below the tab bar and below the header of the stack. You will need to make the drawer navigator the parent of any navigator where the drawer should be rendered on top of its UI.