Vue: communicating parameters from app to component and back, using computed properties - vue.js

Question

Sorry for the beginner question (I'm fairly sure this will be a duplicate, but I actually can't figure out what terms to use in order to find it). I just started with Vue.
I am just getting started with Vue, and following this course (https://www.vuemastery.com/courses/intro-to-vue-js/communicating-events). In this problem, there is (and here I don't know the term, so I'm going to go with...) app-level data parameter called cart. cart is an array which holds the id of each item a user has added to cart.
The problem tells us to add a button to remove items from the cart.
I ran into problems trying to create a computed property, which would allow me to hide the "remove" button in the event the selected item is not in the cart (eg. `
Communicating data from the app-level (the cart array), to the component-level (to a computed property in the product component), so that I could use something like :hidden="!inCart" on the "Remove from Cart" button, which is itself defined in the component. inCart would be a computed value here.
Communicating the selected product from the component to the app-level, computing inCart at the app level, then using the computed value at the component-level.
Either way, I can't seem to figure out how to do this in the way I would want to, which would look something like how v-bind operates. Namely, I think I may be able to hack together a solution using methods (which I believe have to be triggered by certain events), but I don't understand how I might go about this using built-in functionality such that the value of inCart is dynamically auto-computed.
Maybe there would be an answer to this in the next few courses, but I don't see us covering that in the intro material. Sorry for the neophyte question. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

In Vue the way you communicate "state" from higher-level objects to lower-level objects is through props.
So, assuming your app looks something like...
<MyApp>
<MyShoppingPageWithItems>
<MyItem></MyItem>
<MyItem></MyItem>
<MyShoppingPageWithItems>
</MyApp>
You need to pass the cart object down as a prop.
So in your MyShoppingPageWithItems template, you'll have something like...
<template>
<div>
<MyItem v-for="item in items" :item=item :cart="cart"?
</MyItem>
</div>
</template>
And in your item template...
<template>
<div>
<div>
{{item.name}}
</div>
<div v-if="cart.includes(item.id)">
Remove button or whatever
</div>
</div>
</template>
Not that the .includes() method is a native JavaScript method, which you can read more about here.
Edit
To reference a prop in a computed property (or anywhere else in a Vue component), just refer to this.propName, as demonstrated here in the Vue docs.
So, if you want to create a computed property, you can do the following:
<template>
<div>
<div>
{{item.name}}
</div>
<div v-if="isInCart">
Remove button or whatever
</div>
</div>
</template>
<script>
export default {
props: ['cart', 'item'],
computed: {
isInCart() {
return this.cart.includes(this.item.id)
}
}
}
</script>
Note that the formula is the exact same as above, but just includes this. for cart and item. In templates, the this. is implied when referring to props, data, and computed properties.