react-nativeexporeact-navigationexpo-router

How to Display a Back Button in the Header When Navigating to Nested Screens in a React Native Expo Drawer Layout?


I'm struggling to figure out how to automatically show the back button in the header when navigating to a nested screen in a Drawer layout using expo-router/drawer. I know this works with a Stack layout, but I don't know how to achieve the same behavior with a Drawer.

Folder Structure:

 app/
 |-- (app)/
 |   |-- dashboard/
 |   |   |-- detail/
 |   |   |   `-- index.jsx
 |   |   `-- index.jsx
 |   |-- _layout.jsx
 |   `-- index.jsx
 |-- _layout.jsx
 `-- sign-in.jsx

Code:

Root layout:

export default function App() {
  return <RootLayoutNav />;
}

function RootLayoutNav() {
  return (
    <GestureHandlerRootView style={{ flex: 1 }}>
      <Stack>
        <Stack.Screen
          name="sign-in"
          options={{
            title: 'Sign In',
          }}
        />
        <Stack.Screen
          name="(app)"
          options={{
            headerShown: false,
          }}
        />
      </Stack>
    </GestureHandlerRootView>
  );
}

(app) _layout.jsx:

function DrawerNavigator() {
  return (
    <Drawer
      drawerContent={props => <CustomDrawerContent drawerData={appDrawerNavData} {...props} />}
      backBehavior="history"
      screenOptions={{
        drawerStyle: {
          width: 342,
        },
      }}>
      <Drawer.Screen
        name="dashboard/index"
        options={{
          title: 'Dashboard',
        }}
      />
    </Drawer>
  );
}

export default function App() {
  const { session, isLoading } = useSession();
  if (isLoading) {
    return <Text>Loading...</Text>;
  }
  if (!session) {
    return <Redirect href="/sign-in" />;
  }

  return <DrawerNavigator />;
}

Problem:

When I navigate to the dashboard/detail screen, I still see a drawer icon in the header instead of the back icon.

Question:

What am I doing wrong here? How can I ensure that the back button automatically appears when navigating to nested screens in the Drawer layout?

Thanks in advance for your help!

What I Tried:

I set up a Drawer layout in my Expo React Native app, expecting it to automatically show the back button in the header when navigating to nested screens, similar to how it works in a Stack layout. My Drawer configuration includes a custom drawer content component, and I set backBehavior to "history" hoping this would trigger the back button to appear.

What I Expected:

I expected that when navigating from the dashboard screen to the detail screen, the header would automatically update to show a back button, allowing users to navigate back to the dashboard screen.


Solution

  • I somehow managed to resolve the issue. What I did end up doing was adding a stack layout in the dashboard folder.

    Folder structure

      app/
     |-- (app)/
     |   |-- dashboard/
     |   |   |-- detail/
     |   |   |   `-- index.jsx
     |   |   `-- index.jsx
     |   |   `-- _layout.jsx // Dashboard Stack Navigator
     |   |-- _layout.jsx // Drawer Navigator
     |   `-- index.jsx
     |-- _layout.jsx  // Root Stack Navigator
     `-- sign-in.jsx
    

    Dashboard _layout

    import { Stack } from "expo-router";
    
    export default function DashboardStack() {
      return (
        <Stack>
          <Stack.Screen
            name="index"
            options={{
              title: 'Dashboard',
            }}
          />
          <Stack.Screen
            name="detail/index"
            options={{
              title: 'Detail',
              // The back button is automatically handled by Stack Navigator
            }}
          />
        </Stack>
      );