Basic Plugin development with Vue.js

October 20, 2019

In this tutorial, you can learn how to develop basic plug-in in Vue application
It is good to have you have basic knowledge on Vue.js

What is Vue plug-in

It is very simple to define. An object with install method which has two parameters

What you can do with Vue Plugin?

    • Vue plugin enables you to add global level functionality to your Vue application
      You can keep your code clean and small

      You can share the code with other application and developers

    • Skeleton of the plugin

    Following code shows the basic structure of the plugin. You can name this file as the MyPlugin.js

    // MyPlugin.js

// This exports the plugin object.
export default {
  // The install method will be called with the Vue constructor as
  // the first argument, along with possible options
  install (Vue, options) {
  }
}

    In this example, you first export the plugin object so that you can use the plugin anywhere in your application

    You can find the install method which takes two arguments. First argument is the Vue and second arguments is the optional parameters which can be passed into the plugin

    Inside the install method you can use one or more of the following things

    • (a) Add some global methods
      (b) Add global assets like directives, filters, transitions etc
      (c) Add custom components by using global Mixin

    • Now we will see how to implement above cases

    (a) Add global method

    This is how you define the instance method. You can simply add the method inside the install()

    export default {
install (Vue, options) {
      Vue.prototype.$myFunction = function () {
        return "Instance Method"
      }
 }
}

    You can use call this method inside the template tag or script tag as shown in below diagram

    // inside template
{{$myFunction()}}

//inside script 

$myFunction()

    (b) Add directives and filters

    You can see the directive code inside the install method of the plugin

    export default {
install (Vue, options) {

 Vue.directive('mydirective', {
        bind (el, binding, vnode, oldVnode) {
          el.style.color='red'
        }
 })

    Once you define the directive, you can use it in your template as shown below

      
     Hello

    (c) Add components 

    import MyComponent from './MyComponent.vue';
const MyPlugin {
install(Vue, options) {
    Vue.component('my_component', MyComponent)
  
}
}

    Now you can use the my_component in your application wherever you need