Simple Guide to Nuxt.js (Vue.js SSR)

February 14, 2020

Why use Nuxt

I wanted to do Vue.js Server-Side Rendering (SSR). After reading into https://ssr.vuejs.org/ and exploring https://github.com/vuejs/vue-hackernews-2.0/, I found that there are a lot of codes required to piece things together, and decide to explore Nuxt.js. I try to keep to vanilla Vue.js without touching Vuex or Nuxt.js for quite a while (as more frameworks means more learning and more problems to solve), but I guess there is more pros for using Vuex in the case of SSR.

Nuxt.js support something called Universal mode, which generate both SSR and client side code.
It also support static site generation, like VuePress or Hugo.
SSR just work out of the box, though you need to be aware of some SSR caveats while coding.
Using Nuxt.js means I won’t be using Vue Cli, but luckily their tooling and hot-reload is pretty good as well.

SSR Caveats

For AJAX, use library like axios as it support server and client side fetch. Fetch API work on client-side (browser only).
On server-side, reactivity is disabled. It renders the component default state only.
Lifecyle Hook: beforeCreate and created is used (beforeMount and mount is executed on client only); Avoid global side effects code (such as setInterval in beforeCreate - created, do them at mounted and destroyed instead)
Avoid access to browser API like window and document
Some 3rd party library might not be written with universal (server and client-side) usage in mind
Probably want to use Webpack for both client and server code, due to vue-loader, file-loader, css-loader, javascript features (Babel), etc.

Setup Nuxt.js Project

npx create-nuxt-app PROJECT
cd PROJECT

NOTE: Previous vue init nuxt-community/starter-template is deprecated.

create-nuxt-app v2.14.0
✨  Generating Nuxt.js project in journey-nuxt
? Project name PROJECT
? Project description My superior Nuxt.js project
? Author name desmond
? Choose the package manager Npm
? Choose UI framework Bootstrap Vue
? Choose custom server framework None (Recommended)
? Choose Nuxt.js modules Axios, Progressive Web App (PWA) Support
? Choose linting tools None
? Choose test framework None
? Choose rendering mode Universal (SSR)
? Choose development tools jsconfig.json (Recommended for VS Code)

NOTE: I setup with Axios, BootstrapVue and Universal (SSR) rendering mode.

Setup Page / Route

Edit pages/index.vue, which is the main home page.

<template>
  <div class="mb-3">
      <h1>{{ title }}</h1>
      <div>{{ description }}</div>
    <button type="button" class="btn btn-primary" @click="showToast">Show Toast</button>
  </div>

  <pagination :total-page="totalPage" :current-page="page" />
</template>

<script>
import Pagination from '~/components/Pagination.vue'

export default {
  head() {
    return {
      title: 'Home',
      meta: [
        { hid: 'description', name: 'description', content: 'This is home page' }
      ]
    }
  },
  async asyncData ({ $axios }) {
    const { data } = await $axios.get('/data/home.json')
    /*
    return {
      title: data.title,
      description: data.desscription
    }
     */
    return data
  },
  data() {
    return {
      page: 1,
      totalPage: 3
    }
  },
  methods: {
    showToast() {
      this.$toast.show('Hello from Toast')
    }
  },
  components: {
    Pagination
  }
}
</script>

asyncData is called before the component is rendered, which return data is merged into components’s data.

head is for page title and other meta tags.

About Page

Edit pages/about.vue

<template>
  <div>
    <h1>About</h1>
  </div>
</template>

<script>
export default {
  head() {
    return {
      title: 'About'
    }
  }
}
</script>

Pages

Page component which receive param id.

Edit pages/page/_id.vue

<template>
  <div>
    <div class="mb-3">
      <h1>Page {{ page }}</h1>
      <div v-for="value in items" :key="value">
        {{ value }}
      </div>
    </div>
    <pagination :total-page="totalPage" :current-page="page" />
  </div>
</template>

<script>
import Pagination from '~/components/Pagination.vue'

export default {
  head() {
    return {
      title: `Page ${this.page}`
    }
  },
  validate ({ params }) {
    // Must be a number
    return /^\d+$/.test(params.id)
  },
  async asyncData ({ $axios, params }) {
    const { data } = await $axios.get(`/data/page-${params.id}.json`)
    return data
  },
  data() {
    return {
      totalPage: 3,
    }
  },
  computed: {
    page() {
      return parseInt(this.$route.params.id)
    }
  },
  components: {
    Pagination
  }
}
</script>

Edit nuxr.config.js.

export default {
  // ..
  head: {
    // title formatting
    titleTemplate: '%s - My App Name',
    meta: [
      { charset: 'utf-8' },
      // for bootstrap
      { name: 'viewport', content: 'width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no' },
    ],
    link: [
      { rel: 'icon', type: 'image/x-icon', href: '/favicon.ico' }
    ]
  },
  // ..
}

Static Json File

Edit static/data/home.json

{
  "title": "Home",
  "description": "This is Home"
}

Edit static/data/page-2.json

{
  "title": "List of Fruit",
  "items": ["Apple", "Orage", "Pear"]
}

Edit static/data/page-3.json

{
  "title": "List of Friends",
  "items": ["Mei Ru", "Jack", "John"]
}

Components

Edit components/Pagination.vue

Import this Pagination component.

Replace all <a> with <router-link> and :href with :to.

Layout

This is the default layout used by all pages component.

Edit layouts/default.vue

<template>
  <div>
    <notifications />
    <!-- <notifications group="default" /> -->

    <b-navbar toggleable="lg" type="dark" variant="info">
      <div class="container">
        <b-navbar-brand to="/">APP_NAME</b-navbar-brand>

        <b-navbar-toggle target="nav-collapse"></b-navbar-toggle>
        <b-collapse id="nav-collapse" is-nav>
          <b-navbar-nav>
            <b-nav-item to="/about">About</b-nav-item>
          </b-navbar-nav>
        </b-collapse>
      </div>
    </b-navbar>

    <div class="container" style="padding-top: 16px;">
      <nuxt/>
    </div>
  </div>
</template>

<style>
html {
  font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI',
    Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif;
  font-size: 16px;
  word-spacing: 1px;
  -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;
  -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;
  -moz-osx-font-smoothing: grayscale;
  -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

*,
*:before,
*:after {
  box-sizing: border-box;
  margin: 0;
}
</style>

WARN: The generated pages/index.vue have a container style which mess up the container CSS of Bootstrap.

Install Vue Plugins

We install a plugin for notification.

npm install --save @nuxtjs/toast

NOTE: Not all vue components are compatible with Nuxt.js/SSR due to the confitions of SSR Caveats mentioned above. Refer to a list of Nuxt.js Modules.

NOTE: Refer to Nuxt.js Install Vue.js Plugins for non-Nuxt modules.

Edit nuxt.config.js.

export default {
  // ..
  modules: [
    // ..
    '@nuxtjs/toast'
  ],
  toast: {
    position: 'top-center',
    duration: 3000
  },
  // ...
}

NOTE: The usage to toast plugin is demonstrated in pages/index.vue as shown above.

Local Development

npm run dev

Access: http://localhost:3000/

Deployment

Refer Deploy Nuxt.js (SSR) to Firebase Cloud Functions

References:

https://nuxtjs.org/guide/installation

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👶 Apps I built

Pixtory App (Alpha) - easily organize photos on your phone into a blog.
COVID-19 - data, chart, information & news.
暖心芽 (WIP) 🌞❤️🌱 - reminder of hope, warmth, thoughts and feelings.
Travelopy - travel discovery and journal
LuaPass - offline password manager
WhatIDoNow - a public log of things I am working on now

By Desmond Lua

A dream boy who enjoys making apps, travelling and gardening. Follow me on @d_luaz.

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