VueJS

Nuxt.js for Complete Beginners

Published Mar 22, 2021

Updated Feb 14, 2023

12 min read

This article was written over 18 months ago and may contain information that is out of date. Some content may be relevant but please refer to the relevant official documentation or available resources for the latest information.

The Vuejs Amsterdam online conference was held at the end of February in 2021. It brought together Vue.js enthusiasts and community members from around the world. Many interesting topics were presented and covered. The focus, of course, was on Vue.js 3. In addition, the creators of Nuxt.js had the opportunity to showcase it from the current standpoint in development, to their intentions for it down the track. They even demonstrated a pre-alpha version of Nuxt.js 3, that’s based on Vue.js 3.

This article will start by briefly covering general Nuxt.js concepts, creating a new Nuxt.js app using the create-nuxt-app CLI, and finally, going through the different files and folders that Nuxt.js auto-generates for us.

Let’s start!

Nuxt.js Concepts

Nuxt.js is a web development framework that builds on top of the Vue.js framework. It allows you to use your Vue.js skills to build a more confident, structured, SEO friendly website purely in Vue.js.

Remember when you had to mess with the Vue.js SSR module and the Vue Meta module to build a SEO friendly website? On top of that, you had to install and use Vuex and Vue Router too!

Well, Nuxt.js takes care of that! No more chaotic setup and scaffolding to start a new Vue.js app. With the help of the create-nuxt-app CLI, you can scaffold a Nuxt.js app in no time.

What’s remarkable about Nuxt.js is its capacity to enforce convention over configuration. This means, you write less configuration files by sticking to a specific directory structure that makes Nuxt.js happy and saves you a ton of time!

Apps supported by Nuxt.js

Nuxt.js supports building a variety of web apps, including the following:

Server-Side Rendering (SSR) SSR apps are also known as Universal Apps. The app gets rendered on the server-side before it is sent to the client-side, and is displayed in the browser. This is the best option when working on an SEO friendly website written in Vue.js.

You can read the full documentation for the SSR apps here: SSR Apps

Single Page Apps (SPA) This is what you’ve been doing so far with Vue.js. The app is compiled into a few JS and CSS files. When the user requests the app, the files are downloaded to the client-side, and the Vue.js engine takes over rendering and displaying the app.

Static Site Generation (SSG) Nuxt.js can pre-render your app at build time. This means the entire app will be converted to simple static HTML files that can be hosted and served over a Content Delivery Network (CDN). The SSG option makes an app a legal JAMStack app.

You can read the full documentation for the Static Site Generation here: Static Site Generation.

File System Routing

Nuxt.js automatically generates all the Vue.js Routes in your app based on the folder structure inside the pages folder.

For example, consider having this folder structure:

pages/
  --| user/
  -----| index.vue
  --| index.vue

Nuxt.js automatically generates the following route configuration:

router: {
  routes: [
    {
      name: 'index',
      path: '/',
      component: 'pages/index.vue'
    },
    {
      name: 'user',
      path: '/user',
      component: 'pages/user/index.vue'
    },
  ]
}

You can read about File System Routing here: File System Routing.

Data Fetching

Inside a Nuxt.js app, you can still use the old techniques you kmow when developing Vue.js apps. However, we have a new player here! Server-side rendering. Nuxt.js provides a new set of data-hooks that you can implement so that Nuxt.js can prefetch data when generating the app at the server-side.

Here are two data-hooks offered by Nuxt.js:

fetch() hook This hook was introduced with Nuxt.js 2.12+ release. It can be used inside Vue.js components stored in the pages folder and components folder.

asyncData() hook This hook has been around for a while now, and can be used only inside the Vue.js components stored in the pages folder.

You can read more about Data Fetching hooks here: Data Fetching.

Meta Tags and SEO

Nuxt.js makes it so intuitive to add SEO support to your SSR app. You can add Metadata to your app at two different levels:

Globally using the nuxt.config.js file
Locally inside a Nuxt.js Page

You can read about Meta Tags and SEO hooks here: Meta Tags and SEO.

Create our first Nuxt.js app

Let’s use the create-nuxt-app CLI, and create our first Nuxt.js app!

Before you start, you want to make sure you have all the perquisites required before you can install and run the CLI.

For this article, I am going to use npx. However, you can also use npm, or feel free to use yarn.

Step 0

Start by running the following command:

npx create-nuxt-app my-first-nuxt

This command uses the create-nuxt-app tool, and specifies the name of the project- in this case my-first-nuxt-app.

The CLI will ask you a few questions that are important to scaffold the new Nuxt.js app based on your own preferences and decisions. Here’s what to expect.

Step 1

First, let’s confirm the project name as shown in the Figure 1. Give the app a name and hit Enter.

Figure 1: Specify project name Figure 1: Specify project name

Step 2

You’ve got to choose whether you want to develop your app with TypeScript or JavaScript. I will select JavaScript as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Programming language Figure 2: Programming language

Step 3

Next, you need to choose between Npm or Yarn. I will select Npm as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Package manager Figure 3: Package manager

Step 4

In this step, you’ve got to select the UI framework you are going to use in the app. I will select Tailwind CSS as shown in Figure 4. Even if you skip this step, you can add any UI framework you want later.

Figure 4: UI framework Figure 4: UI framework

Step 5

Nuxt.js offers a set of modules that you can use right away in your apps. For this app, I will pick the Axios module. Figure 5 shows the selection.

Figure 5: Nuxt.js modules Figure 5: Nuxt.js modules

Step 6

The CLI makes it super intuitive to integrate linters in your app. I will pick up both ESLint and Prettier. Figure 6 shows the selection.

Figure 6: Linting tools Figure 6: Linting tools

Step 7

Now it’s time to select a testing framework. For the sake of this article, I will select None. Feel free to add any. Figure 7 shows the selection.

Figure 7: Testing framework Figure 7: Testing framework

Step 8

By default, Nuxt.js supports two rendering modes. SSR/SSG and SPA. I will pick SSR/SSG to take advantage of the Server-side rendering. Figure 8 shows the selection.

Figure 8: Rendering mode Figure 8: Rendering mode

Step 9

The deployment target depends on our selection in Step 8. In this case, we have two options to select from. Server (using a Node.js server hosting) or Static (CDN/JAMStack hosting). I will select the Server deployment target as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Deployment target Figure 9: Deployment target_

Step 10

For the development tools, I will keep it simple and select the jsconfig.json option as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Development tools Figure 10: Development tools

Step 11

I won’t be using any continuous integration for this app. I will simply select None as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Continuous integration Figure 11: Continuous integration

Step 12

Finally, the CLI asks whether you want to use any version control system. A version control system is always recommended when doing any kind of development. I will select Git as shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12: Version control system Figure 12: Version control system

These twelve questions are enough for the CLI to start scaffolding and generating your app based on your preferences. It takes a few seconds to have everything ready for you.

If all goes well, you should see the following as in Figure 13.

Figure 13: create-nuxt-app new app instructions Figure 13: create-nuxt-app new app instructions

The CLI gives you instructions on how to run and build the app.

Step 13

Let’s run the app by following the steps highlighted in Figure 13. Run the following commands:

cd my-first-nuxt
npm run dev

The CLI compiles both the client and server parts of the app and starts the Node.js server on port 3000 as shown in Figure 14.

Figure 14: App is running Figure 14: App is running

Step 14

Open a browser instance and navigate to the URL http://localhost:3000/ and you should see the default Nuxt.js app rendering. Figure 15 shows the app running in a browser.

Figure 15: App rendering in a browser Figure 15: App rendering in a browser

That’s all you need to get started on your first Nuxt.js app. Enjoy!

Nuxt.js Directory Structure

Let’s quickly go through the different folders the CLI generated for us. I will start by opening the new app inside Visual Studio Code. Figure 16 shows the app open inside the editor.

Figure 16: App folders and files Figure 16: App folders and files

Let’s go through each folder, and explain their roles briefly.

.nuxt

The .nuxt folder is (re-)generated by the CLI every time you run or build the app. It has all the automatically generated files that Nuxt.js uses to run your app.

You can read more about the .nuxt folder here: .nuxt.

assets

The assets folder contains all of your uncompiled files such as Sass files, images, or font files. Nuxt.js makes use of Webpack to load all the files inside this folder.

You can read more about the assets folder here: assets.

components

This folder holds all of your Vue.js components. Nuxt.js components are not different from any other Vue.js component.

Read more about the components folder here: components.

layouts

This folder contains all of your layout components. These are Vue.js components with placeholders for content. At run time, the component and the layout it uses get merged together into a single component. Layouts in Nuxt.js allows you to define fixed UI sections in your app instead of having to repeat things over and over.

You can read more about the layouts folder here: layouts.

pages

This folder also holds Vue.js components. It is unique because Nuxt.js converts this folder structure (components with sub-folders) into actual Vue.js Routes.

You can read about the pages folder here: pages.

plugins

This folder contains global JavaScript functions that you want to run before Nuxt.js instantiates the root Vue.js app. These functions are called Plugins. They can take multiple forms. For instance, you create a Nuxt.js Plugin to load a Vue.js Plugin to your app. You can also install, and make use of a third-party Nuxt.js Plugin.

You can read more about the plugins folder here: plugins.

static

The name of this folder says it all! This folder is directly mapped to the server root. You can place any file in this folder that you do not want Webpack to process. For example, you can place a favicon file, any CSS files, and many other such files.

You can read more about the static folder here: static.

store

The store folder holds all the Vuex store files. Nuxt.js comes with the Vuex module installed, but keeps it disabled. In order to enable the Vue store in your Nuxt.js app, create an index.js file inside this folder, and Nuxt.js will automatically enable it for you.

You can read more about store folder here: store.

nuxt.config.js

As I mentioned, Nuxt.js prefers convention over configuration. However, at some times you may need to tweak the configuration a little. Nuxt.js provides the nuxt.config.js file to allow for custom configuration settings on the app level.

Read more about nuxt.config file here: nuxt.config.

That’s just a quick overview of what folders are generated by the Nuxt.js CLI. There are more you can read up on. You can find all the information you need on Nuxt.js Documentation website.

Conclusion

In this article, you were introduced to Nuxt.js and took a few baby steps towards creating your first Nuxt.js app. In the coming articles, we will immerse ourselves in the Nuxt.js world, and explore this fresh and promising web development framework together.

You can follow me on Twitter to see more of my work.

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About the author(s)

Bilal Haidar
Author, Developer, and Mentor: Professional ASP.NET 3.5 Security, Membership, and Role Management with C# and VB | A Complete Guide to VueJS
@bhaidar @bhaidar

Nuxt DevTools v1.0: Redefining the Developer Experience Beyond Conventional Tools

In the ever-evolving world of web development, Nuxt.js has taken a monumental leap with the launch of Nuxt DevTools v1.0. More than just a set of tools, it's a game-changer—a faithful companion for developers. This groundbreaking release, available for all Nuxt projects and being defaulted from Nuxt v3.8 onwards, marks the beginning of a new era in developer tools. It's designed to simplify our development journey, offering unparalleled transparency, performance, and ease of use. Join me as we explore how Nuxt DevTools v1.0 is set to revolutionize our workflow, making development faster and more efficient than ever. What makes Nuxt DevTools so unique? Alright, let's start delving into the features that make this tool so amazing and unique. There are a lot, so buckle up! In-App DevTools The first thing that caught my attention is that breaking away from traditional browser extensions, Nuxt DevTools v1.0 is seamlessly integrated within your Nuxt app. This ensures universal compatibility across browsers and devices, offering a more stable and consistent development experience. This setup also means the tools are readily available in the app, making your work more efficient. It's a smart move from the usual browser extensions, making it a notable highlight. To use it you just need to press Shift + Option + D (macOS) or Shift + Alt + D (Windows): With simple keystrokes, the Nuxt DevTools v1.0 springs to life directly within your app, ready for action. This integration eliminates the need to toggle between windows or panels, keeping your workflow streamlined and focused. The tools are not only easily accessible but also intelligently designed to enhance your productivity. Pages, Components, and Componsables View The Pages, Components, and Composables View in Nuxt DevTools v1.0 are a clear roadmap for your app. They help you understand how your app is built by simply showing its structure. It's like having a map that makes sense of your app's layout, making the complex parts of your code easier to understand. This is really helpful for new developers learning about the app and experienced developers working on big projects. Pages View lists all your app's pages, making it easier to move around and see how your site is structured. What's impressive is the live update capability. As you explore the DevTools, you can see the changes happening in real-time, giving you instant feedback on your app's behavior. Components View is like a detailed map of all the parts (components) your app uses, showing you how they connect and depend on each other. This helps you keep everything organized, especially in big projects. You can inspect components, change layouts, see their references, and filter them. By showcasing all the auto-imported composables, Nuxt DevTools provides a clear overview of the composables in use, including their source files. This feature brings much-needed clarity to managing composables within large projects. You can also see short descriptions and documentation links in some of them. Together, these features give you a clear picture of your app's layout and workings, simplifying navigation and management. Modules and Static Assets Management This aspect of the DevTools revolutionizes module management. It displays all registered modules, documentation, and repository links, making it easy to discover and install new modules from the community! This makes managing and expanding your app's capabilities more straightforward than ever. On the other hand, handling static assets like images and videos becomes a breeze. The tool allows you to preview and integrate these assets effortlessly within the DevTools environment. These features significantly enhance the ease and efficiency of managing your app's dynamic and static elements. The Runtime Config and Payload Editor The Runtime Config and Payload Editor in Nuxt DevTools make working with your app's settings and data straightforward. The Runtime Config lets you play with different configuration settings in real time, like adjusting settings on the fly and seeing the effects immediately. This is great for fine-tuning your app without guesswork. The Payload Editor is all about managing the data your app handles, especially data passed from server to client. It's like having a direct view and control over the data your app uses and displays. This tool is handy for seeing how changes in data impact your app, making it easier to understand and debug data-related issues. Open Graph Preview The Open Graph Preview in Nuxt DevTools is a feature I find incredibly handy and a real time-saver. It lets you see how your app will appear when shared on social media platforms. This tool is crucial for SEO and social media presence, as it previews the Open Graph tags (like images and descriptions) used when your app is shared. No more deploying first to check if everything looks right – you can now tweak and get instant feedback within the DevTools. This feature not only streamlines the process of optimizing for social media but also ensures your app makes the best possible first impression online. Timeline The Timeline feature in Nuxt DevTools is another standout tool. It lets you track when and how each part of your app (like composables) is called. This is different from typical performance tools because it focuses on the high-level aspects of your app, like navigation events and composable calls, giving you a more practical view of your app's operation. It's particularly useful for understanding the sequence and impact of events and actions in your app, making it easier to spot issues and optimize performance. This timeline view brings a new level of clarity to monitoring your app's behavior in real-time. Production Build Analyzer The Production Build Analyzer feature in Nuxt DevTools v1.0 is like a health check for your app. It looks at your app's final build and shows you how to make it better and faster. Think of it as a doctor for your app, pointing out areas that need improvement and helping you optimize performance. API Playground The API Playground in Nuxt DevTools v1.0 is like a sandbox where you can play and experiment with your app's APIs. It's a space where you can easily test and try out different things without affecting your main app. This makes it a great tool for trying out new ideas or checking how changes might work. Some other cool features Another amazing aspect of Nuxt DevTools is the embedded full-featured VS Code. It's like having your favorite code editor inside the DevTools, with all its powerful features and extensions. It's incredibly convenient for making quick edits or tweaks to your code. Then there's the Component Inspector. Think of it as your code's detective tool. It lets you easily pinpoint and understand which parts of your code are behind specific elements on your page. This makes identifying and editing components a breeze. And remember customization! Nuxt DevTools lets you tweak its UI to suit your style. This means you can set up the tools just how you like them, making your development environment more comfortable and tailored to your preferences. Conclusion In summary, Nuxt DevTools v1.0 marks a revolutionary step in web development, offering a comprehensive suite of features that elevate the entire development process. Features like live updates, easy navigation, and a user-friendly interface enrich the development experience. Each tool within Nuxt DevTools v1.0 is thoughtfully designed to simplify and enhance how developers build and manage their applications. In essence, Nuxt DevTools v1.0 is more than just a toolkit; it's a transformative companion for developers seeking to build high-quality web applications more efficiently and effectively. It represents the future of web development tools, setting new standards in developer experience and productivity....

Dec 1, 2023

8 mins

VueNuxtJSDevToolsJavaScript

Getting started with Vitepress

Getting started with Vitepress to create your blog site Have you heard about Vitepress, but you have not checked it out at it yet? Well, in this article, we are going to cover the basic setup and share what all the fuss about this new fantastic static site generator. If you are looking for something that would allow you to quickly create a static site with Markdown support, search, Light/Dark theme, advertisement, navigation, and much more, then Vitepress is what you are looking for. Suppose you want some proof of Vitepress's power without having to invest any further time, I suggest you head over to the main Vitepress site (vitepress.dev) and experience what Vitepress can do, as the official site is built on Vitepress! What is Vitepress Vitepress is a powerful Static Site Generator powered by Vite mainly used for Documentation and Blogs with the default theme, and open to customization to be used for anything you may need it to with custom themes and theme overrides.. Vitepress power comes from its low learning curve, powerful configuration settings, and the ability to easily customize it. For example, internationalization is built-in, Theme toggling is built-in and even full-site searches require a single line in the config to be set up. What makes Vitepress so powerful is its extensive configuration and the fact that it can be customized by overriding the existing theme, creating your theme, or simply enhancing pages with custom Vue code. Prerequisites To successfully run the following demo, you will need: - Node.js version 18 or higher. - Terminal for accessing VitePress via its command line interface (CLI). - Text Editor with Markdown syntax support. - VSCode is recommended, along with the official Vue extension. Create your project To create the project, we will follow the steps shown in the official Getting Started guide. If you want to set up a Vitepress project quickly, run the following steps: - Create a new folder mkdir vitepress-tutorial - Access the folder cd vitepress-tutorial - Install Vitepress npm add -D vitepress - Run the Wizard npx vitepress init - Answer the questions: - Where should VitePress initialize the config? - Site title - Site Description - Theme - Do you want Typescript support? - run npm run docs:dev - Enjoy your site. After you run the above steps, your Vitepress will be ready and running as shown below What is available out of the box The site comes fully set up with enough to get you started. Let's see what features are available within the software: - Navbar: The site comes with a Navbar that already includes links to our blog pages - Light/Dark theme: Out of the box theming - Home page: Basic Homepage layout - Blogs: Two different blog posts with sidebar navigation All of the above is available with just 4 files! Let's move forward and see how to customize our app. Overriding the homepage It is time to modify our site by accessing its folders. What you will probably notice when opening the site, is that Vitepress follows a very simple file structure, in fact, a new installation just includes 4 extra files on top of the expected package.json and node_modules. Let's update our homepage to make it more unique. Because Vitepress follows a "file-system based router" we can find this file within the root of the project within a file called index.md. This file will be accessible at "/" or "/index.html" of your site. The content of the file is the following: ` As you can see, the file has no code in it, and it is just driven by configuration, or more specifically in this case Markdown frontmatter, that is a set of configurations accepted by markdown files that help you set up your options such as title, description, og:image. We will describe frontmatter in more detail later in the article. Before we jump into modifying the configuration of the file, you should know that Vitepress has a very extensive and well-detailed documentation site where you can find help if you are stuck or would like to learn more. In this case, we are overriding the "home" page, so the documentation can be found here: Home Page Default Theme configuration. If you read the current file within the homepage, you will notice that it defines a "layout" of "home". This layout displays a main header with CTAs and a set of feature blocks. There are three different layouts available in the Default theme: "home", "doc" and "page". The title and description have already been set from the information we provided from the installation wizard. But the rest is just a basic boiler template. Let's see what we can change: 1) Add a hero image. This image can either be externally sourced or saved within the repository. ` 2) Update the action buttons. ` As shown above, Action buttons have two themes "brand" or "alt" and can accept internal or external links. Vitepress is clever enough to set the external links to open in a new tab and set the rel="noreferrer". 3) Change the feature blocks: Features blocks are great for engaging with the user and telling them what makes your site special. This accepts an icon and some text, so let's change ours with the following: ` The homepage is now completed and updated and it should look like this: Please note that what we did on the homepage is just changing the markdown front matter of the "home" layout. What this means is that if you want to, you can easily customise the page further by either adding more blocks to the layout file or actually by writing and styling the rest of the page as normal. Site configuration In this step, we are going learn about the main site configuration and how we can use it to customize our site. The configuration file can be found in the .vitepress folder under the name of "config.mjs". Just like the homepage layout, the configuration used in the preset file is self-explanatory: ` This file is very important and you are probably going to have it open at all times as it is going to be responsible for the layout of the sidebar navigations of your site. In this section, we are going to learn how to use the Vitepress configuration file to achieve the following: - Modify the sidebar navigation - Enable Search - Add Favicon to your site Modify the sidebar navigation The sidebar is the component displayed on the left-hand side of the blog pages. This is not automatically generated, but it is manually set in this file. You can have more than one navigation, so, for example, you could specify sidebar navigation that shows in pages that have "/blog/" within their path and another one for all markdown pages that have "/tutorials/". Let's see how to implement this: ` With the above code, there will be 2 different sidebars. One will just show if the URL includes "/blog" and the other will be displayed if the path includes "tutorials". Clicking on the above items will give a 404 error as we do not have any pages in that specific location. Still, we can easily fix the issue by creating the two folders "blog" and "tutorial" and creating the required files within these folders in our case are "index.md" and "one.md" for the blog and "index.md" and "two.md" for tutorials. The sidebar has further settings like the ability to create a nested tree or create collapsable menus. You can learn more by checking out the the official documentation on default theme sidebar. Enable Search No documentation or blog site is complete until a search is fully implemented on it. Luckily for us, enabling a site-wide search is extremely simple with Vitepress. Vitepress supports two different search types: a full-text search using minisearch and Algolia based search. In this tutorial, we are going to enable the full-text search. This is fully built-in and requires no external accounts. To enable search, we need to add a "Search" parameter within our themeConfig and set the provider to "local". We can add this right below the socialLinks. ` With just a simple config change, our site will now have a full site search working as shown below: The official search documentation has further information about the look and functionality of the search. Add Favicon to your site Even if the site configuration is very extensive, there are times when you will need to add something within the site-wise page that is not available. In this section we are going to learn how to add specific attributes to the of our site, and specifically how to add a favicon. To add custom values to the head, we are going to use the "head" properties available with the Vitepress configuration. The "head" configuration is an array that accepts an array with the element type (eg. link, script, meta), and an object including all the attributes for that specific element. So for example to replicate the following HTML: ` we would define the following head config: ` We can use this technique to set up metadata and even load fonts or Google Analytics. More info in the site-config head Writing your post In the last section of this article, we are going to learn how to actually write a blog post and also learn how to customize the pages with JS and styles. Writing your first page In the previous section, we created a couple of markdown files, but they are currently empty. Let's see how to create beautiful documentation using the built-in feature of Vitepress. In this section, we are going to work on the file stored in /blog/index.md. This file can be accessed in your browser by accessing "http://localhost:5174/blog/index.html". Blog Frontmatter Every file needs to have a frontmatter defined. This is used to define basic information on the page, such as the title, description, and more. For best SEO results, it is best practice to always define a title and description for a new page. We can do this by adding the following code at the top of our file: ` Frontmatter in Markdown files are delimited by the "---". In the above code, we set our title and description. Vitepress frontmatter supports further config like lastUpdates, sidebar, outline, and more. You can find info on the frontmatter-config documentation. Frontmatter has some global configuration, such as title and description, but also "layout specific" settings that are just available on specific layouts. This is clearly explained in the documentation. Blog Markdown Now that our post frontmatter is set, it is time to write the content of it. This is done using a very extensive markdown engine. Let's start with the basics and write a heading with some text and a link as shown below: ` After saving, our development environment will show the following results: Let's add a couple of headings and a table of contents to our document using [[toc]] to the top of our page: ` The above will produce an unordered list with all our links. The last feature that I want to share about the Vitepress markdown engine is the code editors. The markdown engine used in Vitepress offers extensive features when it comes to code rendering. Features available are "code highlight", "code focus", external snippets loading and much more. The full list of features can be found in the markdown docs. Let's implement a simple code snippet with a line of code focused. This can be achieved by adding "// [!code focus]" at the end of our row. Let's give it a try: ` The output of this will be: Customize your blog with Vue In this last section, we will learn how to customize our code by adding js logic, style, and external components. Before we begin, it is important to understand that when you use the default template of Vitepress, your pages are going to be rendered with Vue. This means that we can expand the individual page's functionality by rendering other vue components and/or writing logic and styles directly on the page. To better explain this concept, we are going to create a team page. Create a file called team.md within the root of our repository. This file will be accessible on "http://localhost:5174/team.html" and will be just a simple Markdown file. First, we set up the frontmatter as before. In this case, we have to specify an additional config called "layout". This will ensure the page has no style or components loaded such as sidebar or aside. ` Then we will have to create our team variable, just like a normal Vue component; we can do so by defining a script setup tag and defining the constant there. ` In the above code, we have imported the VPTeamMembers component from the vitepress/theme and defined an array of members. The values used in the members array are hardcoded, but as you may expect, you can load this information directly from an API. We now have to use the "members" variable within our file. We can do so by writing normal JavaScript. The markdown file will evaluate the JavaScript and render it, so in the following example it will render a specific component. ` Before we move forward we need to define some style as the page is unstyled since we have loaded the layout of "page". Just like we did with the tag, we can load a tag and update our styles: ` The completed file will look like this: ` The file above now includes: - A frontmatter that specifies a "page" layout - A script tag that loads an external component and defines a variable - Styles to make the page pretty - Markdown with a custom component The completed team page would render the following: Conclusion Vitepress is an extremely flexible static site generator. Its default theme provides you with everything you need to get started quickly. The ability to load external themes, enhance the current theme, and or write custom code within your page makes this tool extremely powerful. In future articles, we will discover what components are available within the Default Theme and see how you can make the most of your Vitepress site but keep on coding....

Dec 21, 2023

12 mins

VueViteVitepress

Async Components in Vue 3

Async Components have had their roots in the Vue JS framework since the second version release. However, in Vue 3, they've had a revamped facelift and their API is a well defined and clear API interface. Async components are best used in medium to large apps. When an app is formed out of several hundred components, it's wise not to load all the components at once in a single chunk. Rather, the recommendation is to split the components' packing into a set of smaller packages that get loaded whenever needed asynchronously. While developing, nothing will change in terms of using and placing components inside the section. However, only importing those components will change slightly. Vue 3 offers an intuitive and clear API to help you define the async components. In this article, we'll explore the new Async Components API, delve into the details and show it in action. Async Components In Action Before we go further, here's a link to the Async Components RFC to keep as a reference for later. The new API offers the defineAsyncComponent() method that you use to define the Async Components. This method accepts a callback function. In return, this callback function should return an instance of a Promise. Async Load Inline Defined Component In the simplest form, defining a local async component can be done as follows: ` > You can play with this example at codesandbox.io. Let's focus on the local variable named LocalComponent. This variable is assigned the result of calling the defineAsyncComponent() function. The result is a component named AsyncComponentWrapper that wraps around the loaded component. The callback passed to defineAsyncComponent() function accepts zero parameters and returns a new Promise. The Promise in this case, resolves an inline Vue Component using the Object Literal method that defines the template of the component returned. Figure 1 shows the app running. Async Load Standalone Defined Component The other way to load components async is to have a component defined in its own file and loaded asynchronously when needed. ` The StandaloneComponent is assigned the result of calling the defineAsyncComponent() function. The result is a component named AsyncComponentWrapper that wraps around the loaded component. The callback passed to defineAsyncComponent() function returns the Promise result returned by calling the import() function. The import() function in this context refers to the Dynamic Import feature in JavaScript. If you are running a Vue 3 app using the Vue CLI then the import() function refers to the Webpack Import function. Instead of defining the component-to-be-async-loaded inline, the code imports an existing standalone component: ` Figure 2 shows the app running. > You can play with this example at codesandbox.io Where to define Async Components? There are two main forms of defining async components in a Vue app. You've already seen one form, where the async component is defined locally inside the component. The other option is to define the async component globally at the app level: ` Figure 3 shows the app running. > You can play with this example at codesandbox.io Async Components API Defining an async component can take two forms: the simple usage and the options usage. Simple Usage So far you've seen how to define an async component the simple way. The defineAsyncComponent() method accepts a callback that returns a Promise. ` Options Usage The Async Component API offers a rich API to better control loading components asynchronously. ` > You can play with this example at codesandbox.io. The defineAsyncComponent() method now accepts an object with several options. Let's dissect this object! * loader: It's the bread and butter behind the API. The loader returns a Promise to load the component. Now you can clearly see that the simple usage of the API specifies only a loader! * loadingComponent: Is one you define to show to the user while the API loads the component asynchronously. * errorComponent: You define to show to the user when there is an error loading the component. * delay: It's the time elapse before showing the loadingComponent to the user. * timeout: It's the time elapsed between requesting the component and having it ready to render to the user. * suspensible: By default this property is set to false. This is useful when a component is wrapping a component that makes use of Async Component API to load components asynchronously. If the value of suspensible is set to true, then the component takes precedence in showing a fallback content. The loadingComponent, delay, and other properties of the API will be ignored in this case. If the value was kept false, then the API will take precedence over the component. > You can read more about Suspense in Vue 3. * onErorr: This function has been newly added to the Async Component API in Vue 3. It accepts a few parameters: error, retry, fail, and attempts. When the component fails to load, this function is called. error parameter gives details about the error that occurred. retry is a function callback that you can call to try loading the component again. fail is a function callback that you can call to stop any further trials of loading the component. Finally, the attempts are the number of attempts that were carried out in order to load the component. In brief, that is an introduction to the Async Components API in Vue 3....

Sep 4, 2020

5 mins

Vue

Understanding the Difference Between `:focus` and `:focus-visible` in CSS

Understanding the Difference Between :focus and :focus-visible in CSS I have learned my fair share about the importance of keyboard accessibility, so I know that visual indication of the focused element is very important. But the well-known :focus pseudo-class is not always the best fit for this job. That's where :focus-visible comes in. Let's look at the differences between these two pseudo-classes and explore the best practices for using them effectively. What is the :focus Pseudo-Class? The :focus pseudo-class is a CSS selector that applies styles to any element that receives focus, regardless of how that focus was triggered. This includes focus events from keyboard navigation, mouse clicks, and touch interactions. Example Usage of :focus ` In this example, the button will display a blue outline whenever it is focused, whether the user clicks on it with a mouse, taps it on a touchscreen, or navigates to it using the keyboard. What is the :focus-visible Pseudo-Class? The :focus-visible pseudo-class is more specialized. It only applies styles to an element when the browser determines that the focus should be visible. This typically occurs when the user navigates via the keyboard or assistive technologies rather than through mouse or touch input. Example Usage of :focus-visible ` Here, the button will only show a blue outline when focused through keyboard navigation or another input method that usually requires visible focus indicators. Key Differences Between :focus and :focus-visible :focus - Behavior: Applies to any element that receives focus, regardless of the input method. - Use Cases: Ensures that all interactions with the element are visually indicated, whether by mouse, keyboard, or touch. :focus-visible - Behavior: Applies styles only when the focus should be visible, such as using a keyboard or assistive technology. - Use Cases: Ideal for scenarios where you want to provide focus indicators only to keyboard and assistive technology users while avoiding unnecessary outlines for mouse and touch users, typically required by design. Accessibility Implications :focus - Pros: - Guarantees that all users can see when an element is focused, which is critical for accessibility. - Cons: - Can lead to a suboptimal experience for mouse users, as focus styles may appear unnecessarily during mouse interactions. :focus-visible - Pros: - Enhances user experience by showing focus indicators only when necessary, thus keeping the interface clean for mouse and touch users. - Tailors the experience for keyboard and assistive technology users, providing them with clear visual cues. - Cons: - Additional considerations may be required to ensure that focus indicators are not accidentally omitted, especially in older browsers that do not support :focus-visible. - There may be cases where you want to show focus indicators for all users, regardless of input method. Best Practices for Using :focus and :focus-visible To achieve the best accessibility and user experience, combining both :focus and :focus-visible in your CSS is often a good idea. Combining :focus and :focus-visible ` Here is a Stackblitz example of what such styling could look like for you to try out and play with. Additional Tips - Test with Keyboard and Assistive Technology: Ensure that your web application is navigable using a keyboard (Tab, Shift + Tab, etc.) and that focus indicators are visible for those who rely on them. It's never a bad idea to include accessibility testing in your e2e testing suite. - Provide Clear Focus Indicators: Make sure that focus indicators are prominent and easy to see. A subtle or hard-to-spot focus indicator can severely impact accessibility for users who rely on keyboard navigation. Conclusion The :focus-visible pseudo-class offers a more refined way to manage focus indicators, improving accessibility and user experience, particularly for keyboard and assistive technology users. By understanding the differences between :focus and :focus-visible, and applying best practices in your CSS, you can create more accessible and user-friendly web applications. Remember, accessibility should never be an afterthought. By thoughtfully applying focus styles, you ensure that all users, regardless of how they interact with your site, can easily navigate and interact....

Nov 8, 2024

3 mins

AccessibilityCSSPlaywright

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Async Components in Vue 3

Understanding the Difference Between `:focus` and `:focus-visible` in CSS

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Nuxt DevTools v1.0: Redefining the Developer Experience Beyond Conventional Tools

Getting started with Vitepress

Async Components in Vue 3

Understanding the Difference Between `:focus` and `:focus-visible` in CSS