How to Add a Side Menu To Your Ionic React App.

I am going to keep this short and simple. This page will show you how to add a start/side menu in your Ionic React Application or project in three simple steps.

Step 1

Create a new component file in src/component/Menu.tsx and add the following code:

Menu.tsx

import React from 'react';
import { IonMenu, IonHeader, IonToolbar, IonTitle, IonContent, IonList, IonItem } from '@ionic/react';
const Menu: React.FC = () => {
  return (
<IonMenu side="start" contentId="main" type="overlay">
      <IonHeader>
        <IonToolbar color="primary">
          <IonTitle>Start Menu</IonTitle>
        </IonToolbar>
      </IonHeader>
      <IonContent>
        <IonList>
          <IonItem>Menu Item</IonItem>
          <IonItem>Menu Item</IonItem>
          <IonItem>Menu Item</IonItem>
          <IonItem>Menu Item</IonItem>
          <IonItem>Menu Item</IonItem>
        </IonList>
      </IonContent>
    </IonMenu>
  );
};
export default Menu;

Step 2

Modify src/App.tsx and add the following:

Import the Menu component we just created in step 1

import Menu from "./components/Menu";

Change FROM:

  <IonApp>
    <IonReactRouter>
      <IonRouterOutlet>

Change TO:

  <IonApp>
    <IonReactRouter>
    <Menu />
      <IonRouterOutlet id="main">

NOTICE: Notice the contentId="main" in  <IonMenu> and  id="main" in <IonRouterOutlet > - You can name it whatever you want but they both must match.

Step 3

In src/pages/Home.tsx we need to add the Menu Button in the <IonHeader> after <IonTitle>

Add </IonButtons> after <IonTitle> - Should look like this:

      <IonHeader>
        <IonToolbar color="primary">
        <IonTitle>Math Practice</IonTitle>
        <IonButtons slot="start"><IonMenuButton/></IonButtons>

Now if you did everthing correct as described in these 3 steps, your app should now have a side menu you can slide or scroll into when the screen size is of a mobile device for example.

Some helpful resources to help you understand the side menu if you don't already:

https://ionicframework.com/docs/api/menu