How to use a Vue.js Plugin inside a custom Component?

Question

I need to output a table and it's content which can be updated via Ajax. So I'm planning to use vue-tables-2 (https://github.com/matfish2/vue-tables-2) which is a Vue.js plugin.

Using the Laravel way, I'm writing a Vue.js custom component, so how can I use the vue-tables-2 plugin inside my component?

Here an example of how to use the plugin https://jsfiddle.net/matfish2/jfa5t4sm/ . Unfortunately in the example is not wrapping the plugin inside a component.

Answer 1

You have two ways available to make a third party component available to your custom Vue component:

1. Import (ES6) and use locally

In your component's script block, put this on top:

import { ServerTable, ClientTable, Event } from 'vue-tables-2'

In your component VM, add this to the components property:

export default { 
  data () { 
    return { /* data properties here */ }
  }, 
  components: {
    ServerTable, ClientTable, Event
  }
}

You can now use the <v-server-table>, <v-client-table> etc in your component template.

2. Import (ES6) globally in your application entry point:

import { ServerTable, ClientTable, Event } from 'vue-tables-2'

Then make those parts of vue-tables-2 that you application repeatedly needs available to your main Vue file and all child components:

Vue.use(ClientTable, [options = {}], [useVuex = false], [theme = 'bootstrap3'], [template = 'default']);

Or/And:

Vue.use(ServerTable, [options = {}], [useVuex = false], [theme = 'bootstrap3'], [template = 'default']);

This can also be found on the vue-tables-2 documentation GitHub page.

Note: When you are not using a build system like webpack in your Vue application, there's a third way:

3. Make globally available when not using webpack or the likes

Put this in your HTML before including you application script:

<script src="/path/to/vue-tables-2.min.js"></script>

This will expose a global VueTables object so in your application entry point you can

Vue.use(VueTables.ClientTable);

If you use the global way, you don't have to declare those 3rd party components in the components object of your custom component.

Why would I pick either method over the other?

Importing globally has the advantage of you having to write less code and following the DRY principle (don't repeat yourself). So this does make sense if your whole application at many points needs that plugin/3rd party Vue component.

It does, though, have the downside that it makes your custom components harder to reuse across several applications/projects because they no longer declare their own dependencies.

Also, if your own custom components at some point gets removed from your application for whatever reason, your application will still include the vue-tables-2 package, which might not be needed any more. In this scenario it will uselessly increase your bundle size.