- 👤 Andrés Cruz
Ver Listado »The Definitive Guide to Vue.js: Creating Modern and Reactive User Interfaces
Vue.js has earned a prominent place in frontend development thanks to its progressive approach, flexibility, and ease of use. It is a framework that allows you to build interactive and dynamic user interfaces efficiently, adapting from small components to complex Single Page Applications (SPAs).
This SUPER post is your resource, designed to take you through the fundamentals, best practices, integration with the ecosystem, and its applications in mobile development.
Throughout this extensive document, we will distill the knowledge from our most detailed publications on Vue.js. We will address reactivity, component management, routing, interaction with REST APIs, UI libraries, and mobile development with Vue Native. Our goal is to provide you with a complete roadmap, full of code snippets, technical explanations, and practical tips, all with the direct and professional tone that characterizes us. Prepare to master Vue.js and build exceptional user experiences.
Vue is the framework of the moment and has managed to carve a niche between the powerful Angular and React, which have been on the market longer. It is a lightweight, versatile framework with a lower learning curve compared to the competition. One of its main characteristics is that it is very lightweight and easy to use, in addition to being progressive, which means that when implementing an entire project, we can decide whether the entire application will use Vue or just a part of it.
Key Features of Vue
Vue is a framework whose functionalities are available in other frameworks like React or Angular:
- We have directives that manipulate the data model, which are then bound to the document's DOM. Thanks to Vue's reactivity, as reactive data changes, other parts of a component and other components that reference those values update automatically. This is the magic of Vue or this type of framework in general and is one of the reasons why we can create a complete system that may seem complex with relative ease; in other words, Vue takes care of observing the changes we make through forms or events in general and replicating those changes throughout the application, so we do not have to implement this behavior ourselves.
- We use props, which allow data to be passed between components.
- We have computed properties, which are derived from other properties and are used to perform complex calculations or other component logic; in addition, computed properties are only re-evaluated when one of the dependencies defining the computed property has changed.
- We have watchers or watches that allow us to observe changes in reactive data. Reactive data is data that Vue.js observes, and actions are performed automatically when the reactive data changes.
- We also have access to popular libraries to extend the base functionality of the framework. Vue, unlike other frameworks, does not have a default routing system; instead, we must install a library called Vue Router to handle routing. We also have libraries for state management like Pinia or Vuex.
Components in Vue
Components are the fundamental building block in Vue for creating applications. A Vue application consists of multiple components, which you can see as Lego pieces that together form our application; components are pieces of the graphical interface such as lists, headers, forms for creating, updating, etc.
Vue.js is a progressive framework for building user interfaces and this is a fundamental difference from other monolithic frameworks. Vue is designed to be used incrementally, which allows Vue to be included in only a part of the application; these employed code pieces are called components. Components are blocks of code used to define user interface elements; each component consists of three sections or blocks: Script, Template, and Style:
- Script: This block is used to define the logic of the component using JavaScript; here, properties, props, as well as methods, hooks, and any other framework-supported features are declared.
- Template: This block is used to define the HTML, that is, the structure of the component. The template syntax provided by Vue.js is also used here, for example, to print variables or similar, conditionals, or loops.
- Style: This block is used to define the style of the application for the HTML elements defined in the template section; this style can be specified to be global to the application or only local to the component.
Chapter 1: First Steps and Fundamentals of Vue.js
Vue.js is a progressive framework, meaning you can start with something very basic, like jQuery, and scale up to larger and more complex systems. It is characterized by excellent performance and a lightweight size. It was created by Evan You in 2014, and has grown rapidly thanks to its community, good documentation, and a low learning curve. It does not require the use of Node.js for the simplest implementations, which is a great advantage.
1.1. What is Vue.js and what is it for?
Vue is a progressive framework, which means it is used to build user interfaces. Its core is very small, occupying about 70KB, which makes it very lightweight. It is accessible, open-source, and greatly facilitates interaction with the interface or HTML. It has a growing community and good documentation with a low learning curve, which makes it simple to use and very concise.
While Vue and jQuery both aim to make web applications simple, Vue is distinguished by its organization and its rendering system. In Vue, we can reference variables in the HTML as if it were a template, and this will be printed and updated in real-time if the variable changes, without us doing anything. Reactivity is tied to the properties we define in the data options; Vue detects every time we modify those properties and triggers the render option, updating the DOM in an optimized way. This is native and works very well.
Although jQuery offers plugins and easy Ajax requests, Vue offers superior organization, components, a powerful event system, and the possibility of building SPAs. Each technology has its advantages, and the choice depends on the project. You can see a comparison and first examples in "Basic Vue in 30 minutes".
1.2. Your First Contact with Vue 3
Vue is a versatile framework used in the creation of SPA-type websites. It is a modular, component-based technology, where a component can be seen as a small piece of code that can be grouped to create more complex components. Its simplicity offers advantages such as a less steep learning curve and a reduced framework size (about 470 KB and 18 KB minified). It is a reactive framework, meaning that when its data model is updated, the view is updated, and vice versa. Furthermore, it is progressive, allowing it to be extended with official plugins like Vuex, Router, and Testing.
This book is mostly practical and explores the fundamentals of Vue, its main features through a small application that expands chapter by chapter. To follow it, a basic knowledge of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS is assumed. A practical approach to understanding the key aspects of the technology and moving to practice, implementing small features of a real-world application. You can see more in "Getting started with Vue 3".
Chapter 2: Components, Reactivity, and Essential Patterns
Components are the pillar of Vue.js, allowing logic and UI to be encapsulated in a reusable way. Reactivity is the magic that updates the interface automatically. Mastering these concepts is fundamental for building modern applications.
2.1. The Base of Vue: Components and Their Communication
Components are the fundamental unit of Vue, small pieces of code with their own template, script, and style. However, communication between them, especially between parent and child, is crucial. In Vue.js, data flows unidirectionally from parent to child through props. It is an anti-pattern to pass functions directly as props from a parent component to a child, as it can generate performance and maintenance problems. Instead, it is recommended to use custom events ($emit) for child components to notify the parent about actions or changes. The parent, in turn, will listen for these events. This maintains modularity and avoids unexpected side effects. Consult "Passing functions as props is an anti-pattern in Vue.js" for more details.
For state management in larger applications, where communication between unrelated components becomes complex, the use of state managers like Vuex or Pinia is recommended. Pinia, in particular, is a modern and intuitive option that simplifies global state management.
2.2. Basic Routing with Vue Router
In Single Page Applications (SPAs), routing allows navigation between different views or components without reloading the page. Vue Router is the official Vue plugin for managing this, and it is developed and maintained by the same Vue team, which guarantees optimal integration.
To configure basic routing in Vue 3 with Vue Router, you first need to install the plugin: npm i vue-router@next. Then, you define your routes in a separate file (e.g., helpers/router.js), where each route specifies a path (the URI), a name (optional, for referencing the route), and an associated component. The createRouter instance is configured with a history (e.g., createWebHistory()) to use clean URLs. Finally, in your App.vue (or main component), you use router-link for navigation links and router-view as a placeholder where the active route component will be rendered.
Vue Router also allows you to define routes with optional parameters (using ?) and child or nested routes (children) to organize your application into modules, which is fundamental for dashboards or administrative areas. It also offers solutions to redirect 404 routes to valid pages, improving the user experience. All these concepts are detailed in "Create basic routing in Vue 3 with Vue Router".
2.3. Frequent Design Patterns in Vue
Adopting efficient design patterns is key to writing clean and maintainable code in Vue.js. Some of the most common patterns include:
- v-once for Static Content: Optimizes performance by preventing Vue from re-rendering components with content that does not change.
- Communication with Custom Events: Instead of passing functions as props (as we already mentioned, it's an anti-pattern), events ($emit) are used for communication between components.
- Smart Use of v-if and v-show: v-if mounts/unmounts the element from the DOM, ideal for conditionals that change little; v-show only alters CSS visibility (display: none), better for elements that are frequently hidden and shown.
- Logic Reuse with Mixins: Objects that contain reusable logic to share between components, reducing code duplication.
- Dependency Injection (Provide/Inject): Allows an ancestor component to inject dependencies into all its descendants, regardless of depth.
- Form Handling with v-model: An essential directive for "two-way binding," automatically synchronizing form data with the component's state.
- Optimization with key in Lists: When rendering lists with v-for, using a unique key (:key) helps Vue identify changes and optimize performance.
- Slots for Flexible Components: Allow dynamic content to be inserted within a component, making your components more reusable.
- Event and Key Modifiers: Prefixes that customize the behavior of DOM events (e.g., .passive, .capture, .once).
To delve into these patterns, we recommend reading "9 Vue Patterns You Should Use More Often".
2.4. Event Handling with debounce and Transitions
The user experience is enriched with fluid interactions. Debounce is a technique to delay the execution of a function until a certain time has passed without the event being fired. It is fundamental for optimizing server requests in search fields (keyup): instead of sending a request for every key press, debounce waits for the user to finish typing. You can easily implement debounce with libraries like vue-debounce, configuring the delay time and the events to listen to. You can see how to implement it in "debounce, delay or lag in events in Vue 3".
Smooth transitions between visible/non-visible HTML elements improve the user experience. Vue provides the
Chapter 3: The Vue.js Ecosystem and Its Integration
Vue.js does not work in isolation; it integrates with a vast ecosystem of tools and libraries that enhance its capabilities, allowing you to build applications from scratch or integrate with existing backends.
3.1. Nuxt.js: The Vue Framework for Universal Applications
Nuxt.js is a Vue.js framework that elevates Vue applications to a higher level, allowing you to create Universal Applications (Server-Side Rendering or SSR), SPAs, or generate static sites. Nuxt simplifies the configuration of routing, state management (with Vuex/Pinia), SEO optimization, and pre-rendering, which is essential for search engine positioning. It is ideal for projects that require better SEO or a faster initial loading time. We analyze "where Nuxt.js fits into web development".
3.2. UI Libraries and Third-Party Components
The Vue ecosystem offers a large number of user interface component libraries that accelerate development. These libraries provide pre-built and stylized components (buttons, tables, modals, forms, etc.) that you can use directly or customize. Some of the best UI libraries for Vue 3 stood out for their modernity, flexibility, and support for the new version of the framework. We present "the best new Vue 3 user interface libraries".
An example is Oruga UI, a lightweight library that does not impose CSS styles, allowing you to use it with any CSS framework like Tailwind CSS or Bootstrap. You can integrate it into your Vue 3 project, install it via NPM, and configure it in your main.js to use its components throughout your application. Oruga UI is excellent for building paginated lists, confirmation modals, "toast" notifications, and other UI elements. Its integration is straightforward, and its customization is done via CSS variables.
3.3. Integration with Backends (CodeIgniter and REST APIs)
Vue.js is a frontend framework, meaning it needs a backend to manage data persistence and business logic. It integrates perfectly with any backend that exposes a RESTful API. We have seen how to consume a REST API created with CodeIgniter 4 from a Vue 3 application. This process involves:
- Making HTTP requests from Vue (using fetch or axios).
- Handling responses (promises, async/await).
- Resolving CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) issues in the backend to allow communication between domains.
- Managing the authentication token to protect API requests.
The axios library is a popular replacement for fetch due to its more expressive syntax and automatic JSON deserialization handling. To integrate Axios, you install it via NPM and configure it as a global property on the Vue instance. You can see the details in "First steps with Vue 3 and CodeIgniter 4 consuming a Rest API", including how to send data in GET and POST requests and how to use the Vue lifecycle (created, mounted) to load data from the API.
A practical case is the implementation of client-side filters, which allow users to search and sort information efficiently without reloading the page, making API requests based on the selected filters. Consult "Implementing a multiple filter in Vue".
3.4. Additional Tools: Code Highlighting and More
In a blog or technical website, displaying code legibly is fundamental. Vue integrates with libraries like highlight.js for code highlighting. The key is to load the library and apply the highlighting to the HTML code blocks. You can see an example of this in "Code highlighting with Vue highlightjs". Also, to avoid long and relative paths in your component imports, Vue CLI and Vite allow you to configure aliases (e.g., @ for src/), making your imports cleaner and more maintainable.
For debugging, the Vue Devtools are an indispensable browser extension that allows you to inspect your Vue application's component tree, reactive state, events, and routes, greatly facilitating the debugging and optimization of your applications.
Chapter 4: Vue Native: Developing Mobile Applications
Vue Native allowed Vue.js developers to build native mobile applications for iOS and Android using their existing knowledge of Vue.js and React Native. It is based on React Native, but exposes the React Native API through a Vue-inspired syntax and component model.
4.1. LEGACY: Introduction to Vue Native
Vue Native was a way to create native mobile applications using Vue.js. It combined the React Native ecosystem with the simplicity of Vue. This meant you could use Vue components, reactivity, and lifecycle to build mobile interfaces. It was an ideal solution for those who wanted to develop for mobile without learning a native language or framework like Swift/Kotlin or even Flutter from scratch.
The advantages of Vue Native included a smooth learning curve for Vue developers, reusable components, great performance (as it compiled to native code), and the ability to access native device APIs. However, being a relatively new technology, the documentation and community support might not have been as extensive as for pure React Native or Flutter.
Unfortunately, the technology was passed to deprecated.
Conclusion: The Future of Vue.js in Front-End Development
Vue.js has established itself as an exceptional framework for frontend development. Its progressive approach, powerful reactivity system, component-based architecture, and vibrant ecosystem make it adaptable to almost any type of project. From creating interactive web interfaces to developing native mobile applications with Vue Native (legacy), Vue.js offers a pleasant and efficient development experience.
Mastering Vue.js means not only learning its syntax but also understanding its design patterns, how it interacts with backends (like CodeIgniter), how it integrates with UI libraries, and how to debug efficiently. This definitive guide has covered these key aspects, providing you with the foundations to build modern and robust applications. We encourage you to explore each of the linked articles to delve into the topics of your interest and continue bringing your ideas to life.