What is the difference between the views and components folders in a Vue project? - vue.js

I just used the command line (CLI) to initialize a Vue.js project. The CLI created a src/components and src/views folder.
It has been a few months since I have worked with a Vue project and the folder structure seems new to me.
What is the difference between the views and components folders in a Vue project generated with vue-cli?

First of all, both folders, src/components and src/views, contain Vue components.
The key difference is that some Vue components act as Views for routing.
When dealing with routing in Vue, usually with Vue Router, routes are defined in order to switch the current view used in the <router-view> component. These routes are typically located at src/router/routes.js, where we can see something like this:
import Home from '#/views/Home.vue'
import About from '#/views/About.vue'
export default [
{
path: '/',
name: 'home',
component: Home,
},
{
path: '/about',
name: 'about',
component: About,
},
]
The components located under src/components are less likely to be used in a route whereas components located under src/views will be used by at least one route.
Vue CLI aims to be the standard tooling baseline for the Vue
ecosystem. It ensures the various build tools work smoothly together
with sensible defaults so you can focus on writing your app instead of
spending days wrangling with configurations. At the same time, it
still offers the flexibility to tweak the config of each tool without
the need for ejecting.
Vue CLI aims for rapid Vue.js development, it keeps things simple and offers flexibility. Its goal is to enable teams of varying skill levels to set up a new project and get started.
At the end of the day, it is a matter of convenience and application structure.
Some people like to have their Views folder under src/router like
this enterprise boilerplate.
Some people call it Pages instead of Views.
Some people have all their components under the same folder.
Choose the application structure that best suits the project you are working on.

I think its more of a convention. Something that is reusable can be kept in src/components folder something that is tied to router can be kept in src/views

Generally re-usable views are suggested to be placed in src/components directory. Examples like Header, Footer, Ads, Grids or any custom controls likes styled text boxes or buttons. One or more components can be accessed inside a view.
A View can have component(s) and a view is actually intended to be accessed by navigation url. They are generally placed in src/views.
Remember that you are not constrained to access the Components via url. You are free to add any component to the router.js and access it too. But if you are intended to do it so, you can move it to a src/views rather than placing it in src/components.
Components are user-controls in analogy to asp.net web forms.
Its just about structuring your code for better maintenance and readability.

Both folders are basically the same since they both hold components, but the aesthetic of Vue is that components that will function as pages (routed to like page for navigation) are kept in the /views folder, while reusable components like form fields are kept in the /components folder.

src/views is typically used for your main pages in the application that you navigate via router.
src/components is used for the reusable components that you use inside your main pages (multiple times inside the same page or across different pages)

Simple, Views are for routes while Components are components of the route.

You can consider Views like page and components are reusable block of code that you can use in any page or components (both are Vue files these terms are just for demonstration)

Less dynamic close to static pages is reffered to views and more reuseable and dynamic content is placed under the components.

It is quite simple, as mentioned by others: you usually use Views for the actual pages you want the user to navigate. Components are the elements inside those pages that you can reuse in any page of your project.

In my view, component folder must contain the components that are going to be used in the views. And in views, there must be those pages that are to be accessed by the router. For example, you have a navbar, header and a footer in your pages to be used and you have a login page, signup page and a main page. Then your src/components must contain header, footer and navbar. And in your src/views there must be files like login, signup and main file.

Both these folders hold Vue components, 'views' folder is supposed to contain root level components where other components would be imported. The so called 'other components' reside inside the 'components' folder. Let's take an example for illustration.
Suppose you have 3 root level pages for a website yourname.com
yourname.com
yourname.com/about
yourname.com/price
Your 'views' folder would have 3 components. 'about.vue', 'index.vue' and 'price.vue'. These files would be imported in your router file or could be directly imported in app.vue file for routing. These views could have multiple components inside them like 'price-card.vue', 'contact-card.vue' and more. These files would typically reside inside a folder named 'components'. You can import these components inside the vue files you have in the 'views' folder and then render them.

Nothing but to arrange the project in logical order. You can still create components in the view folder, but it's a better approach to separate items so that the code is less messy.

The difference is the function they perform. The views are used to represent your pages properly, that you can navigate back and forth, and the components are the parts that compose your page

Related

Does Nuxt3 support named router views?

I'm building a Nuxt app with a layout that consists of 3/4 main content and 1/4 sidebar navigation that uses tabs that expand based on the current route.
My aim is to essentially have two router-views — one on the main page and one in each tab.
With the Vue Router I guess this would be possible to achieve via named views e.g.
<router-view name="rightSidebar"></router-view>
But obviously with Nuxt the idea is that the routing is taken care of behind the scenes...so it isn't possible to configure.
But none the less is it possible to use <NuxtPage /> in this way?
Nuxt.js does not support the router-view. However, you can use the NuxtPage inbuilt component. Just remember that it only works after the pages you are trying to nest have been added in the pages directory.
Here is a link to an overview of it from the Nuxt docs.

Is it possible to use NuxtLink to a Vue "component" in the components directory vs. a "page" route

I'm trying to create a form that I want to use modularly by linking to it from multiple page templates. Using just the straight vue-cli I would simply create a route to the file that has the form defined that I store in the "components" directory and then wrap a button linking to the form in a <router-link to="componentFormName"><btn></btn></router-link>. I'm having some difficulty determining how to do the equivalent in Nuxt. Any insights would be greatly appreciated. It seems the <NuxtLink></NuxtLink> only works with Vue files in the "Pages" directory.
You probably want to use dynamic components here: https://v2.vuejs.org/v2/guide/components-dynamic-async.html#keep-alive-with-Dynamic-Components
With something like this
<component :is="currentTabComponent"></component>
With currentTabComponent being one of the component to mount. You can mount a component depending of the current route with a relation between the URL and the component name too.
Also, Vue does not have any knowledge of "route", and everything is a component. Nothing really changes with a page because it is also a component at the end of the day. Or you could write one inside of it.
Maybe an example of your use-case would be helpful here.

Implementing Vue on Existing Site Issue

We have an existing website. We'd like to add Vue to areas of the site. Some areas we'd only need a single Vue app to run like a shopping cart. Other areas we'd have multiple of the same component on the page broken up by non Vue items. We'd also like to use single .vue files for our building. I can't for the life of me figure out the best way to do this.
If we use the CLI to build individual apps, we can of course bring those apps in on the pages and where needed. However on the pages where we have the same component separated by non Vue items, it seems we'd need the exact same app multiple times and compiled this doesn't seem to work.
Whats the best route to do this. I'd like to just add a global wrapper to my site, compile a single APP and then house all logic inside components. This breaks down as it replaces my existing content with the app's content when it's a compiled app. I can on the core layout page just instantiate an app and that works, but then I can't use single file components.
Am I missing something. I'd like to use single file components, have a global wrapper on my site with existing content used and components only where needed, AND not have to import each component file one by one.
We cannot use WC builds either as we can't drop IE 11.

Should I use code splitting on every component in vue?

I have an application in vue with typescript. I saw when I use import to load component then I got component-bundle with all the code of component inside.
I wonder if should I do this for every component I want to load, for example: I have app.vue inside I have toolbar.vue and drawer.vue. in my router components I have others vue components.
What I'm afraid that gonna happened is app.js is loaded then components inside the route definition(500k), then I get the toolbar component (1.5mb). and I'll get flashing screen weird.
So, should I use splitting bundle for every component in my app?
You can do code splitting if you are not expecting that particular component to be re-used for every page.
Take for example the Header and Footer component. Since they will be used in almost all of the pages, there is no reason to code split as you want it to be loaded along with the bundle for all pages.
Take for example you have a component where it has a Blog Widget. This component will only load in the /blog page. Therefore, this is a good use case to be using code splitting as you do not need the Blog Widget to be bundled in other pages except in the /blog page.
I can only provide you with a generic answer and using the Header and Footer components are the best way to express different use cases. As for the rest of the components, you have to decide for yourself if it is worth to code split or not.

Nuxt - global components according to layout

I'm developing Nuxt universal application, where I have two layouts one for control panel and one for frond-end UI.
And the thing I need is to register global components, but I need them to be only global for specific layout, couse I dont want to download unnecesary scripts on my front-end app in its bundle.
Is there some way to do that?
According to docs global component's are registered on Vue prototype and will be accessible from any component within created Vue instance. That means, that as long you use single instance, all global registrations (components, filter, mixins, etc) will be shared.
So, the answer is that there is no easy way to do that, specially when Nuxt.js takes care of essential part of webpack configuration and route splitting.
Registering component's locally should be done, in order to optimize performance.
Another recommendation you might want to look at, is that even you optimize loading of components, application will still load all declared store modules, plugins, external libraries, etc. And the most important, from my experience, once automatic deployment has been setup for that application and some changes have to be deployed to control panel - whole site will have to go down for maintenance.
I would consider a good practice to separate front-end and control panel to their own apps, which keeps responsibility separated and is the only way to deliver best optimization to front-end part of application.
Control panel is usually available on a subdomain, but can be configured on the web server as a subfolder, e.g. domain.com/control-panel.
Two step can solve your problem:
make a global_component.js file into plugins directory
then add below code,
import Vue from 'vue'
import your_component from '../your component directory/your_component.vue'
Vue.component('your-component', your_component)
add this js file into Nuxt.config.js plugins block
plugins: ['#/plugins/global_component.js '],
now you can use your component into any template like below
<template>
<section class="container">
<your-component></your-component>
</section>
</template>