How to call function on child component on parent events

Question

Give the child component a ref and use $refs to call a method on the child component directly.

html:

<div id="app">
  <child-component ref="childComponent"></child-component>
  <button @click="click">Click</button>  
</div>

javascript:

var ChildComponent = {
  template: '<div>{{value}}</div>',
  data: function () {
    return {
      value: 0
    };
  },
  methods: {
    setValue: function(value) {
        this.value = value;
    }
  }
}

new Vue({
  el: '#app',
  components: {
    'child-component': ChildComponent
  },
  methods: {
    click: function() {
        this.$refs.childComponent.setValue(2.0);
    }
  }
})

For more info, see Vue documentation on refs.

What you are describing is a change of state in the parent. You pass that to the child via a prop. As you suggested, you would watch that prop. When the child takes action, it notifies the parent via an emit, and the parent might then change the state again.

var Child = {
  template: '<div>{{counter}}</div>',
  props: ['canI'],
  data: function () {
    return {
      counter: 0
    };
  },
  watch: {
    canI: function () {
      if (this.canI) {
        ++this.counter;
        this.$emit('increment');
      }
    }
  }
}
new Vue({
  el: '#app',
  components: {
    'my-component': Child
  },
  data: {
    childState: false
  },
  methods: {
    permitChild: function () {
      this.childState = true;
    },
    lockChild: function () {
      this.childState = false;
    }
  }
})

<script src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/vue/2.2.1/vue.js"></script>
<div id="app">
<my-component :can-I="childState" v-on:increment="lockChild"></my-component>
<button @click="permitChild">Go</button>
</div>

If you truly want to pass events to a child, you can do that by creating a bus (which is just a Vue instance) and passing it to the child as a prop.

You can use $emit and $on. Using @RoyJ code:

html:

<div id="app">
  <my-component></my-component>
  <button @click="click">Click</button>  
</div>

javascript:

var Child = {
  template: '<div>{{value}}</div>',
  data: function () {
    return {
      value: 0
    };
  },
  methods: {
    setValue: function(value) {
        this.value = value;
    }
  },
  created: function() {
    this.$parent.$on('update', this.setValue);
  }
}

new Vue({
  el: '#app',
  components: {
    'my-component': Child
  },
  methods: {
    click: function() {
        this.$emit('update', 7);
    }
  }
})

Running example: https://jsfiddle.net/rjurado/m2spy60r/1/

A simple decoupled way to call methods on child components is by emitting a handler from the child and then invoking it from parent.

var Child = {
  template: '<div>{{value}}</div>',
  data: function () {
    return {
      value: 0
    };
  },
  methods: {
  	setValue(value) {
    	this.value = value;
    }
  },
  created() {
    this.$emit('handler', this.setValue);
  }
}

new Vue({
  el: '#app',
  components: {
    'my-component': Child
  },
  methods: {
  	setValueHandler(fn) {
    	this.setter = fn
    },
    click() {
    	this.setter(70)
    }
  }
})

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/vue.js"></script>

<div id="app">
  <my-component @handler="setValueHandler"></my-component>
  <button @click="click">Click</button>  
</div>

The parent keeps track of the child handler functions and calls whenever necessary.

Did not like the event-bus approach using $on bindings in the child during create. Why? Subsequent create calls (I'm using vue-router) bind the message handler more than once--leading to multiple responses per message.

The orthodox solution of passing props down from parent to child and putting a property watcher in the child worked a little better. Only problem being that the child can only act on a value transition. Passing the same message multiple times needs some kind of bookkeeping to force a transition so the child can pick up the change.

I've found that if I wrap the message in an array, it will always trigger the child watcher--even if the value remains the same.

Parent:

{
   data: function() {
      msgChild: null,
   },
   methods: {
      mMessageDoIt: function() {
         this.msgChild = ['doIt'];
      }
   }   
   ...
}

Child:

{
   props: ['msgChild'],
   watch: {
      'msgChild': function(arMsg) {
         console.log(arMsg[0]);
      }
   }
}

HTML:

<parent>
   <child v-bind="{ 'msgChild': msgChild }"></child>
</parent>