Calling method of another router-view's component / Vue.js - vue.js

I have two <router-view/>s: main and sidebar. Each of them is supplied with a component (EditorMain.vue and EditorSidebar.vue).
EditorMain has a method exportData(). I want to call this method from EditorSidebar on button click.
What is a good way of tackling it?
I do use vuex, but i don't wanna keep this data reactive since the method requires too much computational power.
I could use global events bus, but it doesn't feel right to use it together with vuex (right?)
I could handle it in root of my app by adding event listener to router-view <router-view #exportClick="handleExportData"> and then target editor component, but it does not feel right as well as later i could need 100 listeners.
Is there any good practice for this? Or did i make some mistakes with the way app is set up? Did is overlooked something in documentation?

After two more years of my adventure with Vue I feel confident enough to answer my own question. It boils down to communication between router views. I've presented two possible solutions, I'll address them separately:
Events bus
Use global events bus (but it doesn't feel right to use it together with vuex)
Well, it may not feel right and it is surely not a first thing you have to think about, but it is perfectly fine use-case for event-bus. The advantage of this solution would be that the components are coupled only by the event name.
Router-view event listeners
I could handle it in root of my app by adding event listener to router-view <router-view #exportClick="handleExportData"> and then target editor component, but it does not feel right as well as later i could need 100 listeners.
This way of solving this problem is also fine, buy it couples components together. Coupling happens in the component containing <router-view/> where all the listeners are set.
Big number of listeners could be addressed by passing an object with event: handler mapping pairs to v-on directive; like so:
<router-view v-on="listeners"/>
...
data () {
return {
listeners: {
'event-one': () => console.log('Event one fired!'),
'event-two': () => console.log('The second event works as well!')
}
}

You could create a plugin for handling exports:
import Vue from 'vue'
ExportPlugin.install = function (Vue, options) {
const _data = new Map()
Object.defineProperty(Vue.prototype, '$exporter', {
value: {
setData: (svg) => {
_data.set('svg', svg)
},
exportData: () => {
const svg = _data.get('svg')
// do data export...
}
}
})
}
Vue.use(ExportPlugin)
Using like:
// EditorMain component
methods: {
setData (data) {
this.$exporter.setData(data)
}
}
// EditorSidebar
<button #click="$exporter.exportData">Export</button>

Related

Programatically assign handler for native event in Vue JS?

I am trying to leverage a Vue mixin to add behavior when a native event happens. Using a mixin will allow me to share that across several components. Specifically, when a field component (or button, or checkbox, etc.) has focus, and the Escape key is pressed, the field loses focus.
A similar Stack Overflow question seemed to indicate I could listen for native events (see code comment about multiple events).
However, the Vue Documentation for programmatically adding an event listener using $on says that it will
Listen for a custom event on the current vm...
(Emphasis added)
Unsure if the custom event remark is absolute or based on the context, I have been experimenting. I have been trying to listen for the native keyup event (using the Vue alias keyup.esc) but have had no success. So I am wondering if it is indeed limited to custom events, and if so, why?
You can see my experiment in a code sandbox. The custom event works, the native does not.
The mixin looks like so:
// escape.mixin.js
export default {
created() {
// Custom event
this.$on("custom-event", function() {
console.log("Custom event handled by mixin");
});
// Native event
this.$on(["keyup.esc", "click"], function() {
alert("Native event handled!");
});
}
};
The main point of all this is to be able to add the behavior to a set of components by adding to how the event is handled, without overriding behavior that might also exist on the component. The secondary goal is to provide the behavior by simply adding the mixin, and not having to do component level wiring of events.
So a component script would look something like this:
// VText component
import escapeMixin from "./escape.mixin";
export default {
name: "VText",
mixins: [escapeMixin],
methods: {
onFocus() {
console.log("Has Focus");
this.$emit("custom-event");
}
}
};
Also, I was trying to avoid attaching the listener to the <input> element directly with vanilla JS because the Vue documentation suggested that letting Vue handle this was a good idea:
[When using v-on...] When a ViewModel is destroyed, all event listeners are automatically removed. You don’t need to worry about cleaning it up yourself.
Solution
skirtle's solution in the comment below did the trick. You can see it working in a code sandbox.
Or here's the relevant mixin:
export default {
mounted() {
this.$el.addEventListener("keyup", escapeBlur);
},
beforeDestroy() {
this.$el.removeEventListener("keyup", escapeBlur);
}
};
function escapeBlur(e) {
if (e.keyCode === 27) {
e.target.blur();
console.log("Lost focus");
}
}

Prevent $emit from emitting more than once in Vue

I have an emit call within my Vue project to update search results, but the emit is being called at least 4 times, because the emit call is defined at various spots, so the data is sometimtes emitted with it and at other spots it is not.
I am using a global bus to perform an emit.
this.$root.bus.$emit('resetValuesInInfiniteLoader', filteredEntities);
this.$root.bus.$on('resetValuesInInfiniteLoader', function (filteredEntities) {});
I tried to name the emits calls differently, and also tried to use a different global vue bus but both options did not really work well.
Any idea how I can do this in an efficient manner so that the $emit is always only called once? How do I need to set it up to ensure that the emit is always only called once? I also tried using $once, which did not work, or tried to destroy the $emit. Can someone give me a small fiddle example or so maybe so I understand how to do this in the right way?
I have found this to be the case also and feel that there are some problems with using it in multiple locations. My understanding is that global event busses are not recommended in most applications as they can lead to a confusing tangle of events. The recommendation is that you use a state management solution like vuex.
But anyway, just a couple of points with your code above. I don't know how you created your bus but I have known to create it as such:
//main.js
const EventBus = new Vue()
Object.defineProperties(Vue.prototype, {
$bus: {
get: function () {
return EventBus
}
}
})
This creates it and makes it global. It can then be triggered in a component or components with:
<button #click="$bus.$emit('my-event')">click</button>
or
methods: {
triggerMyEvent () {
this.$bus.$emit('my-event', { ... pass some event data ... })
}
}
and listened to:
created () {
this.$bus.$on('my-event', ($event) => {
console.log('My event has been triggered', $event)
this.eventItem = 'Event has now been triggered'
//this.$bus.$off('my-event')
})
},
I have found that it works sometimes. I don't know why but it will work then it will trigger several events and I think it is because it isn't finalised or something. You may note I have commented out this.$bus.off which certainly stops it but it then doesn't work again. So I don't know what that's all about.
So there you go, a total non-answer, as in, Yes I've had that too, No I cant fix it.
I went with using vuex store, it seems a lot easier to communicate with any component within the application, has the advantage of global communication, yet does not have the caveat of sending multiple actions such as emit events

Vue component .$on use case

Its not clear to me how to use the .$on(...) method available in every Vue instance. I am sure I am probably missing some use case where an event would be emitted and consumed by the same Vue component (?) but currently I am not able to imagine many. Also, where would this wiring be performed. Would that be in a lifecycle method ?
My problem: I have unrelated (that is non-sibling, non-descendant or non-common-parent) components which change view based on interactions made on a different component. And, $on(...) does not seem to help my purpose.
And, there arises the need to understand how/why .$on(..) is made available in the framework. Thank you.
You can use the $on-method for implementation of CommunicationHub -- common mixin, for non parent <--> child communication (like in your case).
For example: you have two Vue root applications: RootAppA and RootAppB. To communicate between them, you can create CommunicationHub mixin with next code:
let CommunicationHub = new Vue();
Vue.mixin({
data: function () {
return {
communicationHub: CommunicationHub
}
}
});
Now you can send data by emitting custom event from RootAppA with $emit-method, and get this data by subscribing on this event in RootAppB, with method $on:
let RootAppA = {
methods: {
sendData(){
this.communicationHub.$emit('customEvent', {foo: 'bar', baz: 1, comment: 'custom payload object'});
}
}
}
let RootAppB = {
created(){
this.communicationHub.$on('customEvent', (payload) => {
console.log(payload); //{foo: 'bar', baz: 1, comment: 'custom payload object'}
});
}
}
By the way, please mention that CommunicationHub-pattern is not so flexible solution for bigger apps. So if your application will grow up, perhaps you will want to use Vuex-library (see my example in previous so-answer)

Best practice to change the route (VueRouter) after a mutation (Vuex)

I've searched a lot, but there is no clear answer to that. Basically, what should be the best practice to automatically change a route after a mutation?
Ex: I click a button to login() -> action login that makes an http call -> mutation LOGIN_SUCCESSFUL -> I want to redirect the user to the main page $router.go()
Should I wrap the action in a Promise, and then listen to the result to call the route change from the component?
Should I do it directly from the $store?
Does vuex-router-sync helps in any way?
Thanks a lot!
The answer to this questions seems to be somewhat unclear in the Vue community.
Most people (including me) would say that the store mutation should not have any effects besides actually mutating the store. Hence, doing the route change directly in the $store should be avoided.
I have very much enjoyed going with your first suggestion: Wrapping the action in a promise, and changing the route from withing your component as soon as the promise resolves.
A third solution is to use watch in your component, in order to change the route as soon as your LOGGED_IN_USER state (or whatever you call it) has changed. While this approach allows you to keep your actions and mutations 100% clean, I found it to become messy very, very quickly.
As a result, I would suggest going the promise route.
Put an event listener on your app.vue file then emit en event by your mutation function. But I suggest you wrapping the action in a promise is good way
App.vue:
import EventBus from './eventBus';
methods: {
redirectURL(path) {
this.$router.go(path)}
},
created() {
EventBus.$on('redirect', this.redirectURL)
}
mutation:
import EventBus from './eventBus';
LOGIN_SUCCESSFUL() {
state.blabla = "blabla";
EventBus.$emit('redirect', '/dashboard')
}
As of now (mid 2018) API of Vuex supports subscriptions. Using them it is possible to be notified when a mutation is changing your store and to adjust the router on demand.
The following example is an excerpt placed in created() life-cycle hook of a Vue component. It is subscribing to mutations of store waiting for the first match of desired criteria to cancel subscriptions and adjust route.
{
...
created: function() {
const unsubscribe = this.$store.subscribe( ( mutation, state ) => {
if ( mutation.type === "name-of-your-mutation" && state.yourInfo === desiredValue ) {
unsubscribe();
this.$router.push( { name: "name-of-your-new-route" } );
}
} );
},
...
}

VueJS access child component's data from parent

I'm using the vue-cli scaffold for webpack
My Vue component structure/heirarchy currently looks like the following:
App
PDF Template
Background
Dynamic Template Image
Static Template Image
Markdown
At the app level, I want a vuejs component method that can aggregate all of the child component's data into a single JSON object that can be sent off to the server.
Is there a way to access child component's data? Specifically, multiple layers deep?
If not, what is the best practice for passing down oberservable data/parameters, so that when it's modified by child components I have access to the new values? I'm trying to avoid hard dependencies between components, so as of right now, the only thing passed using component attributes are initialization values.
UPDATE:
Solid answers. Resources I found helpful after reviewing both answers:
Vuex and when to use it
Vuex alternative solution for smaller apps
In my child component, there are no buttons to emit changed data. It's a form with somewhat 5~10 inputs. the data will be submitted once you click the process button in another component. so, I can't emit every property when it's changing.
So, what I did,
In my parent component, I can access child's data from "ref"
e.g
<markdown ref="markdowndetails"></markdown>
<app-button #submit="process"></app-button>
// js
methods:{
process: function(){
// items is defined object inside data()
var markdowns = this.$refs.markdowndetails.items
}
}
Note: If you do this all over the application I suggest move to vuex instead.
For this kind of structure It's good to have some kind of Store.
VueJS provide solution for that, and It's called Vuex.If you are not ready to go with Vuex, you can create your own simple store.
Let's try with this
MarkdownStore.js
export default {
data: {
items: []
},
// Methods that you need, for e.g fetching data from server etc.
fetchData() {
// fetch logic
}
}
And now you can use those data everywhere, with importing this Store file
HomeView.vue
import MarkdownStore from '../stores/MarkdownStore'
export default {
data() {
sharedItems: MarkdownStore.data
},
created() {
MarkdownStore.fetchData()
}
}
So that's the basic flow that you could use, If you dont' want to go with Vuex.
what is the best practice for passing down oberservable data/parameters, so that when it's modified by child components I have access to the new values?
The flow of props is one way down, a child should never modify its props directly.
For a complex application, vuex is the solution, but for a simple case vuex is an overkill. Just like what #Belmin said, you can even use a plain JavaScript object for that, thanks to the reactivity system.
Another solution is using events. Vue has already implemented the EventEmitter interface, a child can use this.$emit('eventName', data) to communicate with its parent.
The parent will listen on the event like this: (#update is the shorthand of v-on:update)
<child :value="value" #update="onChildUpdate" />
and update the data in the event handler:
methods: {
onChildUpdate (newValue) {
this.value = newValue
}
}
Here is a simple example of custom events in Vue:
http://codepen.io/CodinCat/pen/ZBELjm?editors=1010
This is just parent-child communication, if a component needs to talk to its siblings, then you will need a global event bus, in Vue.js, you can just use an empty Vue instance:
const bus = new Vue()
// In component A
bus.$on('somethingUpdated', data => { ... })
// In component B
bus.$emit('somethingUpdated', newData)
you can meke ref to child component and use it as this
this.$refs.refComponentName.$data
parent-component
<template>
<section>
<childComponent ref="nameOfRef" />
</section>
</template>
methods: {
save() {
let Data = this.$refs.nameOfRef.$data;
}
},
In my case I have a registration form that I've broken down into components.
As suggested above I used $refs, In my parent I have for example:
In Template:
<Personal ref="personal" />
Script - Parent Component
export default {
components: {
Personal,
Employment
},
data() {
return {
personal: null,
education: null
}
},
mounted: function(){
this.personal = this.$refs.personal.model
this.education = this.$refs.education.model
}
}
This works well as the data is reactive.