SAP Spartacus - How to show the custom components in Spartacus UI - spartacus-storefront

I have a custom component to display the images as tile in my UI.
I am getting the response as follows for the created custom component from the backend.
components: "Test1Component Test2Component Test3Component Test4Component Test5Component Test6Component Test7Component Test8Component"
container: "false"
modifiedtime: "2020-09-29T20:52:40.454+05:30"
name: "Tiles Component"
typeCode: "TileCollectionComponent"
uid: "TilesCollectionComponent"
uuid: "eyJpdGVtSWQiOiJUaWxlc0NvbGxlY3Rpb25Db21wb25lbnQiLCJjYXRhbG9nSWQiOiJhbHNheWVyLXNwYUNvbnRlbnRDYXRhbG9nIiwiY2F0YWxvZ1ZlcnNpb24iOiJPbmxpbmUifQ=="
How can I retrieve the data and show it in the UI.

The component data indicates that this component is a so-called container component. Container components do only response the component UIDs. This is a bit unfortunate, as you'd need to interact with the cms service in Spartacus to resolve the component types. before you can start rendering them.
We do have an example in our code base that you can use to render these nested components. You see in https://github.com/SAP/spartacus/blob/532603fbcfcf7c21c3abbf4e342fcda03652b61e/projects/storefrontlib/src/cms-components/content/banner-carousel/banner-carousel.component.ts#L25 that we're taken the component data and switchMap this to an array of CmsComponentData. (using cmsService.getComponentData). Spartacus will merge the different parallel requests in the loop automatically to a single backend for the component data.
You can use the CmsComponentData array in an ngFor loop, and leverage the cxComponentWrapper to iterate over all the CmsComponentData objects. The cxComponentWrapper will map to the right component and adds other stuff like smartedit integration.
<ng-container [cxComponentWrapper]="component"></ng-container>
Although this is all available, your question make me think to build a more easy solution that does the heavy lifting.

Related

Target and manipulate single DOM element in vue

Somehow I still can't wrap my head around some core vue concepts.
I have made some simple webpage using phalcon. Created it so, that it would work without JS and now is the time to add some bells and whistles - ajax queries and the like, for the user experience to be better.
I wanted to do everything using vue, to see how it all adds up. But after hours of googling I still can't find solution for the simplest of tasks.
Say: I want to get a text paragraph in a series of <li>-s and change it somewhat. Maybe make excerpt of it and add 'see more' button behind it. Now, in jQuery I would just iterate with each() and perform the tasks. With vue targeting set of DOM elements is much harder for me, probably because of whole paradigm being "the other way round".
I know I could iterate with v-for, but these elements are already in the DOM, taken from the database and templated with volt. I had even this wild idea of creating .js files from phalcon, but it would completely negate my strategy of making functional webpage first and then enhance it progressively.
Frankly speaking I feel like I'm overcomplicating for the sake of it, right now. Is vue even fit for a project like this, or is it exclusively a tool to build app from the ground up?
Vue's templating is client-side, which means if you are delivering an already templated html page (by your backend) there is little vue can still do for you. Vue needs data, not DOM elements to build its viewmodels.
This becomes pretty obvious when building a single page application for example, which would be rendered only on the client-side. You'd simply load the data asynchronously from a backend api (REST for example) and then do all the rendering on the client.
As far as I understand your usecase you want to mix client and server side rendering, rendering most of the non-interactable content using your backend's templating engine and adding some interactivity using vue. In this case you'll need to add some vue components (with their own rendering logic) to your backend template and pass data to that component using vue's data-binding.
Here's an example:
...
<div id="app">
<my-vue-list :products="{% products %}"></my-vue-list>
</div>
...
And in your JS:
var app = new Vue({
el: '#app',
data: {
components: {MyVueList} // You will have to register all the components you want to use here
}
})
Vue provides the ref attribute for registering a reference to a dom element or child component:
// accessible via this.$refs.foo
<li ref="foo">...</li>
Do note, however, that refs are not reactive, as stated in the docs:
$refs is also non-reactive, therefore you should not attempt to use it in templates for data-binding.

Does $destroy function removes the Vue Custom component from cache

I construct deep nested tree of parent and children Vue custom components using my top level component dynamically and then I am updating the data from which all tree is constructed. Which has an effect of rendering the entire tree (its a form with various custom components). I refresh/rebuild the whole form after fetching the data (which is what vue do for reactive data) that itself tell me how to regenerate the view (its like a JSON Schema from which I render the entire view).
This is related to my other issue here.
I am observing a very weird behavior in my Vue Application. When I destroy all my children components and rebuild the data to force rendering the form, it appears that even after I have called $destroy on every child component...Vue is not entirely removing them from cache?
Does vue remove the component from cache if a $destroy is called ?
Because I do not see multiple components of the same type in the Vue component list in the Chrome Vue DevTool extension panel. But I see that the same custom event is handled twice by the same component. Same function that handle the events is getting called twice even though there is only one component visible in Vue DevTools of this type.
This only happens after I render the form. When the page is loaded for the first time every thing works. Then after I reset the form by destroying the child component and resetting the data to re-render the form, magically this child component start handling the event twice.. and in 3rd render it handle the events thrice. But I see only one component in google chrome VueJS DevTool extension panel. So my guess is that vue is still keeping the previously destroyed component in cache. I am trying to figure out how should I destroy those components in the cache.
If anyone has observed something similar and found a solution please let me know.
At the moment I am going to dig little bit more on my component keys (this particular component does not have explicit key set by me).
First and foremost, the vue documentation states:
vm.$destroy
In normal use cases you shouldn’t have to call this method yourself.
Prefer controlling the lifecycle of child components in a data-driven
fashion using v-if and v-for.
So instead of destroying and rebuilding the components manually yourself, you should really letting vue handle that via v-if and v-for. If the components aren't updating to your changes, you might be dealing with a reactivity issue.
As you mentioned that this is a deeply nested structure, the reactivity is key to keeping the components up to data with the data.
Vue does not allow dynamically adding new root-level reactive properties to an already created instance. However, it’s possible to add reactive properties to a nested object using the Vue.set(object, key, value) method:
Vue.set(vm.someObject, 'b', 2)
Inside of a component:
this.$set(this.someObject, 'b', 2)
Also, keep in mind that Vue should be doing the heavy lifting in regards to component management, while you should define the parameters by which a component is rendered.

Initialize dynamic Component in Code using Vue.js

I am currently developing a web application that is used to display elements for events on a map provided by HERE Maps. I am using Vue.
I have some components, but the relevant component is the component HereMaps.vue which initializes the map using the HERE Maps Api.
The HERE Maps Api provides the possibility to place so called InfoBubbles on the map showing additional information. These InfoBubbles can be provided some HTML-code in order to customize their appearance.
Please refer to the documentation for additional information
Following the documentation the code looks something like this:
let bubble = new H.ui.InfoBubble(marker.getPosition(), {
content: "<div class='someClass'>Some Content</div>"
});
this.ui.addBubble(bubble)
This is happening after mount in the "mounted" method from Vue in the "HereMaps" component.
The Bubbles are added in a "closed" (hidden) form and dynamically "opened" to reveal their content when the corresponding marker icon on the map is clicked. Therefore the HTML-code is present on the DOM after the component is mounted and is not removed at a later stage.
Now instead of supplying custom code within each bubble added to the UI i want to just add a component like this:
let bubble = new H.ui.InfoBubble(marker.getPosition(), {
content: "<myDynamicComponent></myDynamicComponent>"
});
this.ui.addBubble(bubble)
It does not matter to me wether the component is initialized using props or if it is conditionally rendered depending on the state of a global variable. I just want to be able to use the "myDynamicComponent" in order to customize the appearance in a different file. Otherwise the design process gets very messy.
As far as i know this is not possible or at least i was not able to get it work. This is probably due to the fact that the "myDynamicComponent" is not used within the "template" of the "HereMaps" component und thus Vue does not know that it needs to render something here after the directive is added to the DOM in the "mounted" method.
This is what the InfoBubble looks using normal HTML as an argument:
This is what the InfoBubble looks using the component as an argument:
It appears to just be empty. No content of the "myDynamicComponent" is shown.
Does anyone have any idea how i could solve this problem.
Thank You.
Answer is a bit complicated and I bet you wouldn't like it:)
content param can accept String or Node value. So you can make new Vue with rendered your component and pass root element as content param.
BTW, Vue does not work as you think, <myDynamicComponent></myDynamicComponent> bindings, etc exists in HTML only in compile time. After that all custom elements(components) are compiled to render functions. So you can't use your components in that way.
Give us fiddle with your problem, so we can provide working example:)

Differences between vue instance and vue component?

I'm new to vue js and have some questions when learning it.
I'm now a little confused about the relationship between its instance and component. As far as I learned, every app build by vue should only have one instance and one instance only, it can have as many components as you like if needed. But recently I've seen a demo, and in that demo it has more than one instance.
So my question is, is that ok to have multiple intances in one app( the demo code works fine, but is that the correct way)? What's the best practice to use instance and component in vue app?
It's ok to have two instances in the same project, however, you probably don't want to do that.
A good scenario is to have one main instance to control your app, specially if you are creating a Single Page Application (SPA). Then use as many components as you want.
Components are a great way to reuse code and keep it organized, and, with Vue.js, is very easy to communicate between your components and your "main" Vue instance.
It depends very much on your situation.
I work on a large web project which is not an SPA. We have a Vue instance for each "silo" of the application. We are slowly transitioning an older project from a mostly jQuery frontend so it's possible that as it evolves We'll be able to condense down to a single Vue instance but we're having no trouble with multiple instances. The ease of using Vue in existing projects was one of the biggest deciding factors in choosing it over another library such as react.
I have taken a different approach with green development, one instance and many components.
There are something in common, and some difference between Vue instance and Vue component.
From Vue docs:
all Vue components are also Vue instances, and so accept the same options object (except for a few root-specific options).
The root Vue instances accept properties like el, router, the Vue components cannot.
The data property in root Vue instances is an object, but in Vue components must be a function.
The design target is different:
A root Vue instance is a Vue application launcher, Vue component is an extension of the Vue instance.
Vue components can create elements to be reused in many places. This is Vue characteristic of componentization mainly reflect point.
Vue instance can associated with and manipulate an element which is already exist.
Vue component more suitable for create new element and reuse it at anywhere.
Think of a Vue Component as a blueprint or set of rules on how to create something that can be inserted into the DOM that the user can interact with.
So when you create a Vue file you are going to define exactly one component with a set of rules that tells Vue how to display stuff on the screen and tells a user how to interact with it.
On the other hand is a Vue instance, its an instance of a Vue component, it represents something that has been inserted into the DOM and is something that a user can interact with.
If you have a background in Object-Oriented Programming, think of a Vue Component as being like a class and a Vue instance as an instance of that class.
What has not been mentioned in previous answers that I will cover in regards to the difference between Vue instance and Vue component is how we define the data property that we are working with.
If we are working with a Vue instance, then we can define the data property as an object or a function that returns an object like so:
With a Vue Component that data property must be a function that returns an object.
So for example this is a Vue component:
export default {
name: "App",
components: {
SearchBar,
VideoList
},
And if we want to make use of data inside of that Vue component, we have to make a function that returns an object.
Vue components extends Vue instances
but Vue instances accept properties like el, router, the Vue components cannot.
best practice:
one Vue instance
many Vue component

Attach/Render RactiveJS component outside of template

I've got an existing SPA that was developed using nested RactiveJS components. Which is great, and offers a ton of flexibility throughout the entire app. Currently I attempting to add in client side routing support using page. My navigation switches out high-level components using simple {{#visible}}{{/visible}} template markup on each component. This is a little troublesome in its current state as it always kicks off a re-render whenever the high-level component becomes visible again.
Is there a way to render a component, for example, called widget, without using the
<widget></widget>
method? I've already "registered" the component with the parent, but obviously when constructing it by means of
new App.components.widget
I am able to control how/when it's rendered/inserted/detached, but lose the recognition in the application's component hierarchy.
There is insert exactly for that. You don't even need to "register" it to the component you plan to put it to. You can use the different find* methods or nodes to easily retrieve a reference of your planned container element.
var instance = new YourDetachedWidget({ ... });
instance.insert('#your-container'); // This could be a node, selector or jQuery object