Gatsby: navigate() does not return a Promise

[antoinerousseau]

Description

When importing the navigate function

Steps to reproduce

import { navigate } from "gatsby"

navigate("/somewhere/").then(doSomething)

Expected result

When the navigation completes, doSomething should be called.

Actual result

This throws an error because navigate() returns undefined instead of an expected Promise (see type).

Looks like gatsby-link is wrapping that function using a global variable:
https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby/blob/master/packages/gatsby-link/src/index.js#L202-L204

Instead of @reach/router's navigate as indicated in the types.

When I use the one from @reach/router, it works, but is it safe to do so?

Environment

  System:
    OS: macOS 10.15.3
    CPU: (8) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8259U CPU @ 2.30GHz
    Shell: 5.7.1 - /bin/zsh
  Binaries:
    Node: 10.15.3 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v10.15.3/bin/node
    Yarn: 1.21.1 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v10.15.3/bin/yarn
    npm: 6.13.6 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v10.15.3/bin/npm
  Languages:
    Python: 2.7.16 - /usr/bin/python
  Browsers:
    Chrome: 80.0.3987.132
    Firefox: 72.0.2
    Safari: 13.0.5
  npmPackages:
    gatsby: ^2.17.15 => 2.19.35
    gatsby-image: ^2.2.33 => 2.2.43
    gatsby-plugin-google-analytics: ^2.1.27 => 2.1.37
    gatsby-plugin-manifest: ^2.2.28 => 2.2.45
    gatsby-plugin-netlify: ^2.1.25 => 2.1.34
    gatsby-plugin-offline: ^3.0.21 => 3.0.38
    gatsby-plugin-react-helmet: ^3.1.15 => 3.1.23
    gatsby-plugin-sharp: ^2.3.0 => 2.4.9
    gatsby-plugin-sitemap: ^2.2.21 => 2.2.28
    gatsby-plugin-styled-components: ^3.1.13 => 3.1.20
    gatsby-plugin-typescript: ^2.1.18 => 2.2.2
    gatsby-source-contentful: ^2.1.59 => 2.1.93
    gatsby-source-filesystem: ^2.1.37 => 2.1.51
    gatsby-transformer-inline-svg: ^0.0.7 => 0.0.7
    gatsby-transformer-sharp: ^2.3.5 => 2.3.18

[pieh]

I'm not sure if it was ever intended to return promise (and thus typings are wrong). Making navigate return promise might be difficult to implement (because we would actually wait for new path template to render before resolving the promise)

[github-actions[bot]]

Hiya!

This issue has gone quiet. Spooky quiet. 👻

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[github-actions[bot]]

Hey again!

It’s been 30 days since anything happened on this issue, so our friendly neighborhood robot (that’s me!) is going to close it.
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As a friendly reminder: the best way to see this issue, or any other, fixed is to open a Pull Request. Check out gatsby.dev/contribute for more information about opening PRs, triaging issues, and contributing!

Thanks again for being part of the Gatsby community! 💪💜

[dandv]

I've also run into this issue. What's the word, wrong typings?

Please document, thanks! :purple_heart:

[antoinerousseau]

@dandv PR welcome ;)

[dandv]

@antoinerousseau: I was told navigate would be deprecated.

[antoinerousseau]

@dandv so why suggest documenting it?

[dandv]

Because I suggested documenting that it's not available during SSR before being told it would be deprecated.