I'm confused about best practices for passing data from parent to child components and modularity strategies.
As I know there are 2 ways:
Fetching data in parent component and send Array/object to the child via props
Send parent_id to the child via props and fetching data within the child component
Let's assume a use case working with a product edit view, having:
A parent component product
A child form component to edit basic product information
A child related_products component where other products can be linked/unlinked.
As per my experience, the first way works smoothly since it's all done in 1 request to the API: fetching a product object in parent component and passing through props the product itself to the form component and the nested objects to the related_products component. In addition, it can be done in beforeRouteEnter guard so the parent and all its children are shown with all the information at once. The cons I see here is that we have to send the correct object structure to the child component to avoid any error, having a strong dependency between components.
On the other hand, by sending the parent_id to every child component through props we release the parent from any logic. In this case, every child component acts as a "black box" and fetch/handles the information. The cons I see here is that we would have to perform 2 API requests for getting the product and the related products. In addition, the beforeRouteEnter is not viable at all, so we get an empty form/table until the data is retrieved.
This is not about how to code it, it's just about what's the best implementation as per your experience.
As far as my experience is concerned, 1-st way is better. Parent component acts as "smart" and you have access to it's life cycle hooks in order to trigger your api-requests, reset timers, e.t.c... I would also suggest to use vuex, as it allows you to make clean interface of communication between your parent component and "outer world", utilizing actions and getters.
With that being said, your "dumb" child component communicates with it's parent through props and emits interface. And because it is "dumb" - it's easier to test it or utilize something like "storybook".
we have to send the correct object structure to the child component to avoid any error
I guess, at the end of the day, you'll need correct object structure anyway, right? It could not be just random...
Related
I know the correct pattern to pass data from/to a parent/child component in vue.js is to pass props from the parent to the child and emit events from the child to the parent. But is there anything wrong with this:
this.$refs['child-component'].setValue(val)
I'm told that one should use refs to access child components sparingly, and only when there is no other way.
What if I want to update the value of a field in an array in the child component that isn't bound to a prop, something like this:
this.$refs['child-component'].childArray[index] = val;
...where childArray is not a prop of child-component? Do I need to MAKE childArray a prop of child-component? But then it becomes the parent's responsibility to maintain childArray. What if it isn't the business of the parent component to maintain childArray?
Thanks.
Actually, it is not a business of the parent to mess with the child's internal data at all. You should not directly mutate internal data of a child - instead, consider calling a method or emitting an event (which should be handled by the child).
Currently you are creating a tight coupling between the parent and the child - now the parent is overloaded with knowledge about the child internals. Tomorrow, when you decide to change the implementation of the child (for whatever reason) - most probably you will also have to inspect all parents where this child is being used just to check that your changes did not break the assumptions of those parents.
I have parent component that contains form component and detail component for created_at and updated_at in editing Product page.
Form is to edit the existing data and detail component will be next to the form.
I didn't have the detail component before so I fetch data from form component and use it in the component however I need some of the data in detail component which is the child of the parent of the form component.
So I moved the fetch axios to parent component and pass the data to both children now.
Is it better to do this way or is it better to send axios request both in form component and detail component?
The form is also used in adding new product.
My opinion is that you should fire requests from most top level possible. This way your children components (building blocks) can work independently from your current context. It's called presentational component and it's role is to output some markup. The container component feeds the data to the presentational component making the data flow go from top to the bottom nicely.
So in short, you did it right! However you should be careful, when your data changes in the edit form, then you probably want to fire the request on parent again, so that the data is updated for the whole app. This kind of flow is highly facilitated by Vuex. It serves as single source of truth (data) that your whole application can rely on.
I was Vue.js now for a project and created and used a lot of components.
Now I started to have the problem of having too many eventemitters and props that I need to keep track of.
I guess to illustrate the problem the best I will use an example:
Lets say you have a main.vue and 2 or 3 Components.
One contains a button that should manipulate the other 2 components or switch them out.
Now I need to emit an event to the main.vue and then main.vue has to change a binded variable and pass props down to the other 2 components.
Alright: Now lets put the button in a component of of a component. You need to make sure that every link between a parent and a child is correct.
Now create a bit project and put a button in another components and you have to change everything.
So is there a good way to avoid this?
Something like a broadcast function so that every component is receiving the event?
Or a Manager that is handling the communication of all components?
use a flux pattern (vuex)
At first you may think that this does not really answer the question, since it deals with storage of data, and not handling of events. The flux pattern changes the architecture of your application by creating a single store (think database) that all components can read and write from. Coupled with the reactive nature of the reactive frameworks such as vue (or react), the components will react to a change in data. So instead of tightly coupling component A to D through B and C, you'd have component A listen to mutations in object X, and component D makes changes to object X. When the change happens, component A gets updated without having to listen to any of the children's $emit functions firing. At first it may seem daunting, but the investment is worthwhile.
My component is pretty big so I will give you simplified example, maybe someone will know how to solve my problem.
I have invoice component with children components like 'subtotal', 'vat_subtotal', 'total' (it's example). I'm using v-ref to get direct access to every child from invoice component. Also, subtotal is calculated from invoice properties, then vat_subtotal is calculated from subtotal children properties. And 'total' is calculated from vat_subtotal children.
Example:
invoice.$refs.subtotal.total = {some calculations}
vat_subtotal.total = #$parent.$refs.subtotal.total * 1.21
total.total = #$parent.$refs.vat_subtotal.total
The problem is that i'm getting warnings when page loads, be cause 'total' children is trying to access 'vat_total' children properties, but #$parent.$refs.vat_total is still 'undefined' (I don't know why. When later im changing something in form, it reacts normaly and recalculate everything right). It seems, that one children is trying to compute properties while other children isn't loaded yet.
Don't reach into a child for data. If the parent needs access (in your case, to give access to another child), the data item should be created in the parent and passed as a prop to the child. That is how data can be shared among multiple children. Child components should not depend on other child components being available through the parent (or on anything in the parent, really, if it isn't passed in as a prop).
If the child component is responsible for changing the prop value, you can pass it using .sync.
The way you are trying to solve things is technically possible but highly discouraged. As stated in the docs:
Although it’s possible to access any instance in the parent chain, you should avoid directly relying on parent data in a child component and prefer passing data down explicitly using props. In addition, it is a very bad idea to mutate parent state from a child component, because:
It makes the parent and child tightly coupled;
It makes the parent state much harder to reason about when looking at it alone, because its state may be modified by any child! Ideally, only a component itself should be allowed to modify its own state.
In general, you should aim for creating a model representing the state of your application. Instead of accessing parents / children directly, pass any relevant data down to children using props. Children can notify their parent about changes using events, or you can use .sync binding to synchronize models automatically.
I think that you would benefit from reading about more structured approach to Vue application architecture. I'd start with Flux-inspired Application Architecture for Vue.js.
I have a requestion, how about vue.js's common component's best practice when communicating with different parent component.
for example, in my scenario, a basic modal component, trigger a 'close' method, but it has two different parent component
I find two solutions:
parent need pass an additional prop, and then baisc component just
trigger event which event's name is the prop value, so the listener
parent component attched on could be called
in basic modal just use this.$parent to visit parent component methods, or this.$parent.trigger('xxx'), and then parent knows what to do
But, both above I think not very good, the first may need pass an additional prop, this let others who write a third, a forth parent component use the basic component not very handy. And the second may be felt more hard coded.
So, is there is better solution in this case?
Use this.$dispatch('eventName', data) (for Vue 2.x, use this.$emit('eventName', data)), to trigger an event to any parent, grandparent and further up the chain (you can use this.$broadcast('eventName', data) to trigger events down the chain in Vue < 2.x).
If the parent has an event called 'eventName' then it will fire this event.
If you have multiple parents, you can give them each a different event and from the child fire this specific event via dispatch. You can also give each parent the same event and pass a data prop that specifies what the parent should do. Third option is to refer to the specific parent:
var parent = new Vue({ el: '#parent' })
// access child component instance
parent.$refs.eventName()
Each option has pros and cons. The best solution depends on the context. But I think that the best solution in general is option 1. Then you don't need an additional data parameter. Option 3 is not loosely coupled.
For more info: https://vuejs.org/guide/components.html