How to create Header in React JS ?

Last Updated : 09 Jan, 2025

The Header is an important element of a website’s design. It’s the first impression of the website. It provides useful links to other areas of the website that the user may want to visit. In this article, we will create a functioning Header using React JS and Material UI.

Prerequisites:

Approach:

To create a Header, we will use the App Bar from Material UI which will provide screen titles, navigation, and actions. Also, we will need a ToolBar inside which will set the properties to child components making them all horizontally aligned. Then import the Header component to App.js to render it on the page.

Steps to create React Application And Installing Module:

Step 1: Create a React application using the following command:

npx create-react-app foldername

Step 2: After creating your project folder i.e. foldername, move to it using the following command:

cd foldername

Step 3: After creating the React.js application, install the material-ui modules using the following command.

npm i @material-ui/core @mui/icons-material @mui/material @mui/styled-engine @emotion/react @emotion/styled

Project Structure:

updated project structure

The updated dependencies in package.json file will look like.

"dependencies": {
        "@emotion/react": "^11.11.1",
        "@emotion/styled": "^11.11.0",
        "@material-ui/core": "^4.12.4",
        "@mui/icons-material": "^5.14.18",
        "@mui/material": "^5.14.18",
        "@mui/styled-engine": "^5.14.18",
        "@testing-library/jest-dom": "^5.17.0",
        "@testing-library/react": "^13.4.0",
        "@testing-library/user-event": "^13.5.0",
        "react": "^18.2.0",
        "react-dom": "^18.2.0",
        "react-scripts": "5.0.1",
        "web-vitals": "^2.1.4"
}

Example: This example uses Material UI AppBar and Toolbar Components to implement a Header in the application.

JavaScript

// Filename - App.js

import React from "react";
import Header from "./Header";

function App() {
    return (
        // Using the newly created Header
        // component in this main component
        <Header />
    );
}
export default App;

JavaScript

// Filename - Header.js

import * as React from "react";

// importing material UI components
import AppBar from "@mui/material/AppBar";
import Toolbar from "@mui/material/Toolbar";
import Typography from "@mui/material/Typography";
import Button from "@mui/material/Button";
import IconButton from "@mui/material/IconButton";
import MenuIcon from "@mui/icons-material/Menu";

export default function Header() {
    return (
        <AppBar position="static">
            <Toolbar>
                {/*Inside the IconButton, we 
                    can render various icons*/}
                <IconButton
                    size="large"
                    edge="start"
                    color="inherit"
                    aria-label="menu"
                    sx={{ mr: 2 }}
                >
                    {/*This is a simple Menu 
                      Icon wrapped in Icon */}
                    <MenuIcon />
                </IconButton>
                {/* The Typography component applies 
                     default font weights and sizes */}

                <Typography
                    variant="h6"
                    component="div"
                    sx={{ flexGrow: 1 }}
                >
                    GeeksforGeeks Header
                </Typography>
                <Button color="inherit">Login</Button>
            </Toolbar>
        </AppBar>
    );
}