Update link docs to reflect changes on dynamic routing

docs/api-reference/next.config.js/basepath.md

@@ -6,11 +6,9 @@ description: Learn more about setting a base path in Next.js
 
 > This feature was introduced in [Next.js 9.5](https://nextjs.org/blog/next-9-5) and up. If you’re using older versions of Next.js, please upgrade before trying it out.
 
-To deploy a Next.js application under a sub-path of a domain you can use the `basePath` option.
+To deploy a Next.js application under a sub-path of a domain you can use the `basePath` config option.
 
-`basePath` allows you to set a path prefix for the application. For example `/docs` instead of `/` (the default).
-
-For example, to set the base path to `/docs`, set the following configuration in `next.config.js`:
+`basePath` allows you to set a path prefix for the application. For example, to use `/docs` instead of `/` (the default), open `next.config.js` and add the `basePath` config:
 
 ```js
 module.exports = {

docs/api-reference/next/link.md

@@ -16,7 +16,13 @@ description: Enable client-side transitions between routes with the built-in Lin
 
 Client-side transitions between routes can be enabled via the `Link` component exported by `next/link`.
 
-An example of linking to `/` and `/about`:
+For an example, consider a `pages` directory with the following files:
+
+- `pages/index.js`
+- `pages/about.js`
+- `pages/blog/[slug].js`
+
+We can have a link to each of these pages like so:
 
 ```jsx
 import Link from 'next/link'
@@ -34,6 +40,11 @@ function Home() {
           <a>About Us</a>
         </Link>
       </li>
+      <li>
+        <Link href="/blog/hello-world">
+          <a>Blog Post</a>
+        </Link>
+      </li>
     </ul>
   )
 }
@@ -43,37 +54,38 @@ export default Home
 
 `Link` accepts the following props:
 
-- `href` - The path inside `pages` directory. This is the only required prop
-- `as` - The path that will be rendered in the browser URL bar. Used for dynamic routes
+- `href` - The path or URL to navigate to. This is the only required prop
+- `as` - Optional decorator for the path that will be shown in the browser URL bar. Before Next.js 9.5.3 this was used for dynamic routes, check our [previous docs](https://nextjs.org/docs/tag/v9.5.2/api-reference/next/link#dynamic-routes) to see how it worked
 - [`passHref`](#if-the-child-is-a-custom-component-that-wraps-an-a-tag) - Forces `Link` to send the `href` property to its child. Defaults to `false`
-- `prefetch` - Prefetch the page in the background. Defaults to `true`. Any `<Link />` that is in the viewport (initially or through scroll) will be preloaded. Pages using [Static Generation](/docs/basic-features/data-fetching.md#getstaticprops-static-generation) will preload `JSON` files with the data for faster page transitions.
+- `prefetch` - Prefetch the page in the background. Defaults to `true`. Any `<Link />` that is in the viewport (initially or through scroll) will be preloaded. Pages using [Static Generation](/docs/basic-features/data-fetching.md#getstaticprops-static-generation) will preload `JSON` files with the data for faster page transitions
 - [`replace`](#replace-the-url-instead-of-push) - Replace the current `history` state instead of adding a new url into the stack. Defaults to `false`
 - [`scroll`](#disable-scrolling-to-the-top-of-the-page) - Scroll to the top of the page after a navigation. Defaults to `true`
 - [`shallow`](/docs/routing/shallow-routing.md) - Update the path of the current page without rerunning [`getStaticProps`](/docs/basic-features/data-fetching.md#getstaticprops-static-generation), [`getServerSideProps`](/docs/basic-features/data-fetching.md#getserversideprops-server-side-rendering) or [`getInitialProps`](/docs/api-reference/data-fetching/getInitialProps.md). Defaults to `false`
 
-External URLs, and any links that don't require a route navigation using `/pages`, don't need to be handled with `Link`; use the anchor tag for such cases instead.
+## If the route has dynamic segments
 
-## Dynamic routes
+There is nothing special to do when linking to a [dynamic route](/docs/routing/dynamic-routes.md), including [catch all routes](/docs/routing/dynamic-routes.md#catch-all-routes), since Next.js 9.5.3 (for older versions check our [previous docs](https://nextjs.org/docs/tag/v9.5.2/api-reference/next/link#dynamic-routes)). However, it can become quite common and handy to use [interpolation](/docs/routing/introduction.md#linking-to-dynamic-paths) or an [URL Object](#with-url-object) to generate the link.
 
-A `Link` to a dynamic route is a combination of the `href` and `as` props. A link to the page `pages/post/[pid].js` will look like this:
+For example, the dynamic route `pages/blog/[slug].js` will match the following link:
 
 ```jsx
-<Link href="/post/[pid]" as="/post/abc">
-  <a>First Post</a>
-</Link>
-```
-
-`href` is a file system path used by the page and it shouldn't change at runtime. `as` on the other hand, will be dynamic most of the time according to your needs. Here's an example of how to create a list of links:
+import Link from 'next/link'
 
-```jsx
-const pids = ['id1', 'id2', 'id3']
-{
-  pids.map((pid) => (
-    <Link href="/post/[pid]" as={`/post/${pid}`}>
-      <a>Post {pid}</a>
-    </Link>
-  ))
+function Posts({ posts }) {
+  return (
+    <ul>
+      {posts.map((post) => (
+        <li key={post.id}>
+          <Link href={`/blog/${encodeURIComponent(post.slug)}`}>
+            <a>{post.title}</a>
+          </Link>
+        </li>
+      ))}
+    </ul>
+  )
 }
+
+export default Posts
 ```
 
 ## If the child is a custom component that wraps an `<a>` tag
@@ -140,18 +152,40 @@ import Link from 'next/link'
 
 function Home() {
   return (
-    <div>
-      <Link href={{ pathname: '/about', query: { name: 'test' } }}>
-        <a>About us</a>
-      </Link>
-    </div>
+    <ul>
+      <li>
+        <Link
+          href={{
+            pathname: '/about',
+            query: { name: 'test' },
+          }}
+        >
+          <a>About us</a>
+        </Link>
+      </li>
+      <li>
+        <Link
+          href={{
+            pathname: '/blog/[slug]',
+            query: { slug: 'my-post' },
+          }}
+        >
+          <a>Blog Post</a>
+        </Link>
+      </li>
+    </ul>
   )
 }
 
 export default Home
 ```
 
-The above example will be a link to `/about?name=test`. You can use every property as defined in the [Node.js URL module documentation](https://nodejs.org/api/url.html#url_url_strings_and_url_objects).
+The above example has a link to:
+
+- A predefined route: `/about?name=test`
+- A [dynamic route](/docs/routing/dynamic-routes.md): `/blog/my-post`
+
+You can use every property as defined in the [Node.js URL module documentation](https://nodejs.org/api/url.html#url_url_strings_and_url_objects).
 
 ## Replace the URL instead of push
 

docs/api-reference/next/router.md

@@ -62,8 +62,8 @@ Handles client-side transitions, this method is useful for cases where [`next/li
 router.push(url, as, options)
 ```
 
-- `url` - The URL to navigate to. This is usually the name of a `page`
-- `as` - Optional decorator for the URL that will be shown in the browser. Defaults to `url`
+- `url` - The URL to navigate to
+- `as` - Optional decorator for the URL that will be shown in the browser. Before Next.js 9.5.3 this was used for dynamic routes, check our [previous docs](https://nextjs.org/docs/tag/v9.5.2/api-reference/next/link#dynamic-routes) to see how it worked
 - `options` - Optional object with the following configuration options:
   - [`shallow`](/docs/routing/shallow-routing.md): Update the path of the current page without rerunning [`getStaticProps`](/docs/basic-features/data-fetching.md#getstaticprops-static-generation), [`getServerSideProps`](/docs/basic-features/data-fetching.md#getserversideprops-server-side-rendering) or [`getInitialProps`](/docs/api-reference/data-fetching/getInitialProps.md). Defaults to `false`
 
@@ -91,11 +91,7 @@ import { useRouter } from 'next/router'
 export default function Page() {
   const router = useRouter()
 
-  return (
-    <span onClick={() => router.push('/post/[pid]', '/post/abc')}>
-      Click me
-    </span>
-  )
+  return <span onClick={() => router.push('/post/abc')}>Click me</span>
 }
 ```
 
@@ -129,15 +125,15 @@ You can use an URL object in the same way you can use it for [`next/link`](/docs
 ```jsx
 import { useRouter } from 'next/router'
 
-export default function ReadMore() {
+export default function ReadMore({ post }) {
   const router = useRouter()
 
   return (
     <span
       onClick={() => {
         router.push({
-          pathname: '/about',
-          query: { name: 'Vercel' },
+          pathname: '/post/[pid]',
+          query: { pid: post.id },
         })
       }}
     >
@@ -181,8 +177,8 @@ Prefetch pages for faster client-side transitions. This method is only useful fo
 router.prefetch(url, as)
 ```
 
-- `url` - The path to a `page` inside the `pages` directory
-- `as` - Optional decorator for `url`, used to prefetch [dynamic routes](/docs/routing/dynamic-routes.md). Defaults to `url`
+- `url` - The URL to prefetch, that is, a path with a matching page
+- `as` - Optional decorator for `url`. Before Next.js 9.5.3 this was used to prefetch dynamic routes, check our [previous docs](https://nextjs.org/docs/tag/v9.5.2/api-reference/next/link#dynamic-routes) to see how it worked
 
 #### Usage
 
@@ -210,7 +206,7 @@ export default function Login() {
   }, [])
 
   useEffect(() => {
-    // Prefetch the dashboard page as the user will go there after the login
+    // Prefetch the dashboard page
     router.prefetch('/dashboard')
   }, [])
 
@@ -317,9 +313,7 @@ You can listen to different events happening inside the Next.js Router. Here's a
 - `hashChangeStart(url)` - Fires when the hash will change but not the page
 - `hashChangeComplete(url)` - Fires when the hash has changed but not the page
 
-> Here `url` is the URL shown in the browser. If you call `router.push(url, as)` (or similar), then the value of `url` will be `as`.
->
-> **Note:** If you [configure a `basePath`](/docs/api-reference/next.config.js/basepath.md) then the value of `url` will be `basePath + as`.
+> **Note:** Here `url` is the URL shown in the browser, including the [`basePath`](/docs/api-reference/next.config.js/basepath.md).
 
 #### Usage
 

docs/routing/dynamic-routes.md

@@ -54,7 +54,37 @@ Multiple dynamic route segments work the same way. The page `pages/post/[pid]/[c
 { "pid": "abc", "comment": "a-comment" }
 ```
 
-**Note:** Client-side navigations to a dynamic route (including [catch all routes](#catch-all-routes)) can be handled with [`next/link`](/docs/api-reference/next/link.md#dynamic-routes). Read our docs for [Linking between pages](/docs/routing/introduction.md#linking-between-pages) to learn more.
+Client-side navigations to dynamic routes are handled with [`next/link`](/docs/api-reference/next/link.md). If we wanted to have links to the routes used above it will look like this:
+
+```jsx
+import Link from 'next/link'
+
+function Home() {
+  return (
+    <ul>
+      <li>
+        <Link href="/post/abc">
+          <a>Go to pages/post/[pid].js</a>
+        </Link>
+      </li>
+      <li>
+        <Link href="/post/abc?foo=bar">
+          <a>Also goes to pages/post/[pid].js</a>
+        </Link>
+      </li>
+      <li>
+        <Link href="/post/abc/a-comment">
+          <a>Go to pages/post/[pid]/[comment].js</a>
+        </Link>
+      </li>
+    </ul>
+  )
+}
+
+export default Home
+```
+
+Read our docs for [Linking between pages](/docs/routing/introduction.md#linking-between-pages) to learn more.
 
 ### Catch all routes
 
@@ -108,6 +138,23 @@ The `query` objects are as follows:
   - `pages/post/[pid].js` - Will match `/post/1`, `/post/abc`, etc. But not `/post/create`
   - `pages/post/[...slug].js` - Will match `/post/1/2`, `/post/a/b/c`, etc. But not `/post/create`, `/post/abc`
 - Pages that are statically optimized by [Automatic Static Optimization](/docs/advanced-features/automatic-static-optimization.md) will be hydrated without their route parameters provided, i.e `query` will be an empty object (`{}`).
-- When routing to a dynamic route using `Link` or `router`, you will need to specify the `href` as the dynamic route, for example `/post/[pid]` and `as` as the decorator for the URL, for example `/post/abc`.
 
   After hydration, Next.js will trigger an update to your application to provide the route parameters in the `query` object.
+
+## Related
+
+For more information on what to do next, we recommend the following sections:
+
+<div class="card">
+  <a href="/docs/api-reference/next/link.md">
+    <b>Pages:</b>
+    <small>Enable client-side transitions with next/link.</small>
+  </a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="card">
+  <a href="/docs/routing/introduction.md">
+    <b>Routing:</b>
+    <small>Learn more about routing in Next.js.</small>
+  </a>
+</div>

docs/routing/introduction.md

@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ To match a dynamic segment you can use the bracket syntax. This allows you to ma
 - `pages/[username]/settings.js` → `/:username/settings` (`/foo/settings`)
 - `pages/post/[...all].js` → `/post/*` (`/post/2020/id/title`)
 
+> Check out the [Dynamic Routes documentation](/docs/routing/dynamic-routes.md) to learn more about how they work.
+
 ## Linking between pages
 
 The Next.js router allows you to do client-side route transitions between pages, similarly to a single-page application.
@@ -54,54 +56,82 @@ function Home() {
           <a>About Us</a>
         </Link>
       </li>
+      <li>
+        <Link href="/blog/hello-world">
+          <a>Blog Post</a>
+        </Link>
+      </li>
     </ul>
   )
 }
 
 export default Home
 ```
 
-When linking to a route with [dynamic path segments](/docs/routing/dynamic-routes.md) you have to provide `href` and `as` to make sure the router knows which JavaScript file to load.
+In the example above we have multiple links, each one maps a path (`href`) to a known page:
+
+- `/` → `pages/index.js`
+- `/about` → `pages/about.js`
+- `/blog/hello-world` → `pages/blog/[slug].js`
+
+### Linking to dynamic paths
 
-- `href` - The name of the page in the `pages` directory. For example `/blog/[slug]`.
-- `as` - The url that will be shown in the browser. For example `/blog/hello-world`.
+You can also use interpolation to create the path, which comes in handy for [dynamic route segments](#dynamic-route-segments). For example, to show a list of posts which have been passed to the component as a prop:
 
 ```jsx
 import Link from 'next/link'
 
-function Home() {
+function Posts({ posts }) {
   return (
     <ul>
-      <li>
-        <Link href="/blog/[slug]" as="/blog/hello-world">
-          <a>To Hello World Blog post</a>
-        </Link>
-      </li>
+      {posts.map((post) => (
+        <li key={post.id}>
+          <Link href={`/blog/${encodeURIComponent(post.slug)}`}>
+            <a>{post.title}</a>
+          </Link>
+        </li>
+      ))}
     </ul>
   )
 }
 
-export default Home
+export default Posts
 ```
 
-The `as` prop can also be generated dynamically. For example, to show a list of posts which have been passed to the page as a prop:
+> [`encodeURIComponent`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/encodeURIComponent) is used in the example to keep the path utf-8 compatible.
+
+Alternatively, using a URL Object:
 
 ```jsx
-function Home({ posts }) {
+import Link from 'next/link'
+
+function Posts({ posts }) {
   return (
     <ul>
       {posts.map((post) => (
         <li key={post.id}>
-          <Link href="/blog/[slug]" as={`/blog/${post.slug}`}>
+          <Link
+            href={{
+              pathname: '/blog/[slug]',
+              query: { slug: post.slug },
+            }}
+          >
             <a>{post.title}</a>
           </Link>
         </li>
       ))}
     </ul>
   )
 }
+
+export default Posts
 ```
 
+Now, instead of using interpolation to create the path, we use a URL object in `href` where:
+
+- `pathname` is the name of the page in the `pages` directory. `/blog/[slug]` in this case.
+- `query` is an object with the dynamic segment. `slug` in this case.
+
 ## Injecting the router
 
 <details>