I am using react-router-dom node package in my react project to implement routing.

After setting up the router links,I used following custom CSS to hide the link underline by default:

let styles = theme => ({
   TextLink: {
      position: 'relative',
      color: 'white',
      textDecoration: 'none',    
      '&:hover':{
            color: 'white',
      },
});

using this I was able to hide.

My objective is to make a link that will display underline on hovering with transition effect(Link underline grows from center to both ends).

Modified CSS or Code samples with any additional node packages would be helpful.

I am using react-router-dom node package in my react project to implement routing.

After setting up the router links,I used following custom CSS to hide the link underline by default:

let styles = theme => ({
   TextLink: {
      position: 'relative',
      color: 'white',
      textDecoration: 'none',    
      '&:hover':{
            color: 'white',
      },
});

using this I was able to hide.

My objective is to make a link that will display underline on hovering with transition effect(Link underline grows from center to both ends).

Modified CSS or Code samples with any additional node packages would be helpful.

• javascript
• css
• reactjs
• react-router-dom

2 Answers 2

The following example is done in pure css.

Basically links in reactjs are a tags, hence u can use the following css

@import url("https://fonts.googleapis./css?family=Montserrat:500");
body {
  font-family: 'Montserrat', sans-serif;
}

ol,
ul {
  list-style: none;
}

li {
  display: inline-block;
  padding: 20px 0 20px;
}

a {
  text-decoration: none;
  position: relative;
  display: block;
  padding: 16px 0;
  margin: 0 12px;
  font-size: 1.2rem;
  text-transform: uppercase;
  transition: color 0.1s, background-color 0.1s;
  color: #000;
}
a:hover {
  color: #4dd0e1;
}
a:focus, a:active {
  color: #00bcd4;
}

a::before {
  content: '';
  display: block;
  position: absolute;
  top: 100%;
  height: 3px;
  width: 100%;
  background-color: #00bcd4;
  -webkit-transform-origin: center top;
          transform-origin: center top;
  -webkit-transform: scale(0, 1);
          transform: scale(0, 1);
  transition: color 0.1s, -webkit-transform 0.2s ease-out;
  transition: color 0.1s, transform 0.2s ease-out;
  transition: color 0.1s, transform 0.2s ease-out, -webkit-transform 0.2s ease-out;
}

a:active::before {
  background-color: #00bcd4;
}

a:hover::before,
a:focus::before {
  -webkit-transform-origin: center top;
          transform-origin: center top;
  -webkit-transform: scale(1, 1);
          transform: scale(1, 1);
}

<nav>
  <ul>
    <li class=""><a href="#">home</a></li>
    <li class=""><a href="#">career</a></li>
    <li class=""><a href="#">projects</a></li>
    <li class=""><a href="#">about us</a></li>
    <li class=""><a href="#">contact us</a></li>
  </ul>
</nav>

If you give the <a> a a display declaration of inline-block, you can then apply to it an ::after pseudo-element. The pseudo-element can be made to behave as a dynamic alternative to the conventional underline.

You can initially position the pseudo-element in the centre (using position: absolute; left: 50%;) and render it invisible by giving it a width of 0.

When the <a> is hovered over, you can update the position of the pseudo-element to left: 0; and give it a width of 100%.

If these two values are animated simultaneously, the pseudo-element will appear to grow outwards from the centre until it bees a full-width underline.

Working Example:

a {
position: relative;
display: inline-block;
font-size: 16px;
line-height: 24px;
height: 24px;
color: rgb(0, 0, 191);
text-decoration: none;
}

a::after {
content: '';
position: absolute;
display: block;
bottom: 0;
left: 50%;
width: 0;
height: 2px;
border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(255, 0, 0);
}

a, a::after {
transition: all 0.6s linear;
}

a:hover {
color: rgb(255, 0, 0);
}

a:hover::after {
left: 0;
width: 100%;
}

<a href="">Hover Me</a>