If you’re a Vue developer, you’ve probably heard of nuxt.js. But you probably don’t know all the hype about it. Why would I want to use a framework within a framework, you may ask, when Vue already makes it so easy to develop JavaScript applications? What’s the thinking behind Nuxt.js?
In this article, we’ll cover 10 reasons why you should use Nuxt for your next project.
What is nuxt.js?
Nuxt.js is a more advanced framework built on top of Vue. It simplifies the development of generic or single-page Vue applications.
Nuxt.js abstracts out the details of server and client code distribution so you can focus on application development. The goal of Nuxt is to make it flexible enough to be used as a major project basis. Since most of Nuxt happens during development, you can get a lot of functionality with just a few extra kilobytes added to your JavaScript files.
Let’s explore why you should consider using Nuxt for your next Vue project.
1. Easy to create generic applications
One of the biggest selling points of Nuxt.js is that creating general-purpose applications has never been easier
What is a generic application?
A generic application for describing JavaScript code that can be executed on both the client and server sides. Many modern JavaScript frameworks, such as Vue, are designed to create single-page applications (SPAs), and using SPAs on traditional websites has many benefits, such as the ability to build user interfaces that update quickly and run fast. However, SPA also has drawbacks such as long load times, and Google is struggling with them because there is initially no content on the page for SEARCH engine optimization purposes. All content is generated in JavaScript after the fact.
A generic application is about having a SPA, but instead of having a blank index.html page, it’s about preloading the application on a Web server and sending rendered HTML pages as responses to browser requests for each route to speed up loading and improve SEO by making it easier for Google to crawl Web pages.
Nuxt.js makes it much easier to write a generic application
Building generic applications can be tedious because you have to do a lot of configuration on both the server side and the client side.
This is nuxt.js designed to solve the problem of Vue applications. Nuxt.js makes it easy to share code between the client and server, so you can focus on the logic of your application.
Nuxt.js allows you to access properties such as isServer and isClient on components (nuxtjs.org/api/context… So that you can easily decide whether to render something on the client or server. There are also special components such as no-SSR components (nuxtjs.org/api/compone… Used to deliberately prevent components from being rendered on the server side.
Finally, Nuxt gives you access to the [asyncData method] (nuxtjs.org/api/) inside the component, which you can use to fetch data and render it on the server side.
This is the tip of the iceberg of how Nuxt can help you create general-purpose applications. [Click here] (nuxtjs.org/guide) to learn more about Nuxt’s rendering Universal application.
2. Render your Vue application statically and get all the benefits of a generic application without a server
Nuxt’s biggest innovation is its Nuxt generate command. This command generates a completely static version of the site. It generates HTML for each of your routes and puts it in its own file. For example, if you have the following page (routing terminology for Nuxt) :
-| pages/----| about.vue----| index.vue
Copy the codeNuxt will generate the following file structure for you:
-| dist/----| about/------| index.html----| index.html
Copy the codeThe benefits of doing this are very similar to the benefits of generic applications. Tagging makes web pages load faster and helps search engines and social media scraping tools crawl sites.
The difference is that you no longer need a server. Everything happens in the development phase.
It’s powerful because you can get the benefits of universal rendering without the need for a server. You can host your application on GitHub Pages or Amazon S3.
Learn more about the statically generated (pre-rendered) section in the nuxt.js documentation
3. Get automatic code segmentation (pre-rendered pages)
Nuxt.js has the ability to generate a static version of your website using a special Webpack configuration.
For each statically generated route (page), the route also gets its own JavaScript file, requiring only the code needed to run the route.
This really helps speed because it keeps the size of the JavaScript file relative to the size of the entire application.
4. Set the parameters using the template on the cli
Nuxt.js provides a starter template called starter-Template, which gives you all the scaffolding you need to get started with projects with a good folder structure.
Make sure you have vue-CLI installed, then run the following command:
$ vue init nuxt-community/starter-template <project-name>
From there, just CD into the application and run NPM Install, which should be easy.
Click here to learn more about setting up projects using the command line.
6. Get a good default project structure
In many small Vue applications, you end up managing the structure of your code as if it were in multiple files. The default Nuxt.js application structure gives you a good starting point for organizing your application in an understandable way.
Here are the main directories you set up:
- Components – a folder that organizes your individual Vue components.
- Layout – A folder containing the main application layout.
- Page – a folder to contain the routes for your application. Nuxt.js reads all the.vue files in this directory and creates the application router.
- Store – A folder containing Vuex store files for all applications.
Click here to learn more about all the folder structures nuxt.js has for you.
5. Easily set up conversions between your routes
Vue has a wrapper <transition> element that makes it easy to handle JavaScript animations, CSS animations, and CSS transformations of elements or components.
If you need a refresher on Vue’s
Nuxt.js sets up routing in such a way that each page is wrapped in a <transition> element so that you can simply create switches between pages.
Click here to see an example of how nuxt.js can help you with page transformations.
7. Easily write a single file component
In many small Vue projects, components are defined using Vue.com Ponent, followed by a new Vue({el: ‘#container’}) to locate container elements in the body of each page.
This applies to small projects where JavaScript is only used to enhance certain views. But in larger projects, it can become unmanageable.
All of these problems can be solved with a single-file component with a.vue extension. To use them, you must set up a build process using tools like Webpack and Babel.
Here is an example of a single file. vue component
Nuxt.js is pre-configured for Webpack, so you can start using.vue files without having to set up a complex build process yourself.
To learn more about individual file components, visit the Vue documentation here.
8. Get ES6 / ES7 compilation with no extra work
In addition to Webpack, Nuxt.js also comes preloaded with Babel. Babel handles compiling the latest versions of JavaScript, such as ES6 and ES7, into JavaScript that runs on older browsers.
Nuxt.js sets up Babel for you, so all.vue files and all ES6 code you write inside the <script> tag can be compiled into JavaScript for all browsers.
Click here to learn more about Babel
9. Setup with an automatic update server to simplify development
Developing with Nuxt.js is a breeze compared to setting up this process yourself or the change-refresh-change-refresh process we Web developers are used to. It sets up an auto-update development server for you.
As you develop and work with these.vue files, nuxt.js uses the Webpack configuration to check for changes and compile everything for you.
You can run the command NPM run dev in the nuxt.js project, which sets up the development server.
10. Access all content in the Nuxt.js community
Finally, there is a [GitHub collection] called Nuxt Community (github.com/nuxt-commun… It compiles useful libraries, modules, starter kits, etc, making it easier to create your applications. See what you need here before you write your own code.
conclusion
All of these features make the development of vue.js applications even better. Even if you don’t need a generic application and want to stick with SPA, there are still benefits to using Nuxt.js. It can be the main foundation of your project, with features such as.vue files, ES6 compilation, and more.
More on Nuxt
Learn nuxt.js at [VueMastery.com] (www.vuemastery.com/). Nuxt focused content will be released soon. You can create a free account to get notified.
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