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Servue

Helping you serve vue with servue

Last Commit

Server-side rendering engine that renders vue files into html strings

Servue

Installation

npm install servue --save

Then install peer dependencies (so you can control your vue version)

npm install vue --save
npm install vue-server-renderer --save
npm install vue-template-compiler --save

What is servue?

Servue server-side-renders Vue Single File Components (.vue files) into html. It is a fully capable templating engine, and allows users to create nested layouts using slots and components.

The renderer provides the correct scripts, and styles on the client-side. It creates no extra build/compiled files. It's perfect for multi-page applications and great for users wanting to use Vue with Express or Koa

It's this easy to render .vue files:

await servue.render('home') // renders "home.vue" into html string

Requires Node 8+

Features

Supports precompilation
Supports layouts
Supports templating
Supports server-side Rendering
Supports head management
Supports imports CSS files and other assets
Supports custom language preprocessors (less, pug, etc)
No build or compile files, all in-memory
Supports custom templating

Setup

Express Usage

const Servue = require("servue")
const express = require("express")

var app = express()
var servue = new Servue()

servue.resources = path.resolve(__dirname, "resources")

app.get('/', async (req, res) => {
    res.send(await servue.render('home')) // renders "./resources/home.vue"
})

app.listen(2000)

Koa Usage

const Servue = require("servue")
const Koa = require("koa")

var app = new Koa()
var servue = new Servue()

servue.resources = path.resolve(__dirname, "resources")

app.use(async (ctx) => {
    ctx.body = await servue.render('home') // renders "./resources/home.vue"
})

app.listen(2000)

Layouts & Views

Servue fully supports templating features and allows for multiple and nested layouts using Vue slots.

Here's a simple example:

Ensure you wrap your app/root-level layout with <servue>. It is required for Servue to work.

`layouts/parent.vue`

<template>
    <servue>
        <template slot="head">
            <title><slot name="title"/></title>
        </template>
        <template slot="content">
            <h1>The page title is: <slot name="title"></slot></h1>
            <slot name="content"/>
        </template>
    </servue>
</template>

This layout has a slot for content named content and a slot for the title named title

Now, the home file can use this layout:

`pages/home.vue`

<template>
    <parent>
        <template slot="title">Home</template>
        <template slot="content">
            Hello
        </template>
    </parent>
</template>
<script>
import parent from "layouts/parent.vue"

export default {
    components: {
        parent //layouts can be nested, just provide the correct slots
    }
}
</script>

Rendered Result

<html>
    <head>
        <title>Home</title>
        <!-- CSS, state and head are all automatically injected here -->
    </head>
    <body>
        <div id="app">
            <h1>The page title is: Home</h1>
            Hello
        </div>
        <script>/** Vue client-side webpack bundle script is rendered here **/</script>
    </body>
</html>

Setting custom path variables

You may use your own custom paths for folders

//Sets views folder path which contains .vue .css .less .js and etc
servue.resources = path.resolve(__dirname, "resources")

//path of node_modules
servue.nodemodules = path.resolve(__dirname, 'node_modules')

Custom html body template

servue.template = (content, context, bundle) => (`
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html${ context.htmlattr ? ' ' + context.htmlattr : '' }>
    <head>
        ${context.head ? context.head : ''}
        ${context.renderResourceHints()}
        ${context.renderStyles()}
        ${context.renderState({windowKey: '__INITIAL_STATE__', contextKey: "data"})}
        ${context.renderState({windowKey: '__INITIAL_ROOTSTATE__', contextKey: "state"})}
    </head>
    <body>
        ${content}
        <script>${bundle.client}</script>
    </body>
</html>
`)

Custom Preprocessor/Language Support

Here we add support for the LESS/SCSS/Stylus/pug preprocessor language so it can be used in our .vue files.

In this example, we use the stylus-loader packagetop to add stylus support to our package.

servue.webpackCommon.module.rules.push({
    test: /\.styl(us)?$/,
    use: [
        'vue-style-loader',
        'css-loader',
        'stylus-loader'
    ]
})

<template>
    <div class="red">
        This will be red
    </div>
</template>
<style lang="red">
    .red{
        color: red;
    }
</style>

Mode

For faster compilation, you can use the production version of vue.

servue.mode = "production" //default = "development"

However, this will remove vue development warnings, so it is best to use development for debugging & dev as it enables vue dev-tools.

Head Management

`layouts/parent.vue`

<template>
    <servue>
        <template slot="head">
            <title><slot name="title"/></title>
            <meta name="og:title" content="This is my Facebook OpenGraph title">
            <slot name="head"/> <!-- Pass slot for head in-case other child vues want to add additional elements to the head -->
        </template>
        <template slot="content">
            <h1>Page: <slot name="title"/></h1>
            <slot name="content"/>
        </template>
    </servue>
</template>

the head template slot is rendered into the <head> tags on the server-side. The head tag can be nested, as shown in parent.vue. This means that home.vue may optionally pass it's own head to the user.

`home.vue`

<template>
    <parent>
        <template slot="title">Home</template>
        <template slot="content">
            Hello
        </template>
        <template slot="head">
            <meta name="meta2">
        </template>
    </parent>
</template>
<script>
import parent from "layouts/parent.vue"

export default {
    components: {
        parent //layouts can be nested, just provide the correct slots
    }
}
</script>

head output

<head>
    <title>Home</title>
    <meta name="meta1">
    <meta name="meta2">
    <!-- Other Servue injections here -->
</head>

Passing data to vue from server-side

Via `asyncData()` in .vue file

asyncData() is a custom feature provided by servue, it allows you to make asynchronous requests like API calls. It is called on the server-side.

Data returned from asyncData is merged into the data() function, and then also passed onto the client.

It only works on the rendered file, and not inside subcomponents or layouts.
router.get((ctx) => {
    ctx.body = await servue.render('pages/home', {ctx})
})

pages/home.vue

export default {
    async asyncData(ssrContext){
        let ctx = ssrContext.ctx

        return {
            url: ctx.url,
            hello: "World"
        }
    }
}

Via `data`

You can simply do this through the context argument

let data = { "hello": "world" }
await servue.render('home', {data})

This data is merged with your vue component's data function (if there is one), and can then be accessed by your vue file:

<template>
    <div>
        {{ hello }}
    </div>
</template>

Output:

<div>
    world
</div>

Merge order

Data merges are shallow (via Object.assign) and have this priority:

asyncData() - If Provided
servue.render('home', {data}) - If Provided
data() - If Provided

Global State / Cross Component Data

To manage state globally (across components) and maintain reactivity, Servue has implemented a feature that easily allows you to do so.

All of your components will have access to a reactive object (including 3rd-party components)

this.$state

Implementing it

In your root-level parent layout which you share across multiple pages, you must implement the following code:

import statizer from "statizer" //this package is provided with Servue, so you don't need to add it as a dependency in package.json

/**
 * You must declare all properties that components will use up-front because
 * of the limitations of Vue's reactivity (which will be fixed in Vue 3.0)
 * 
 * To add new properties, you should be able to use:
 * ```js
 * Vue.set(this.$state, 'name', val)
 * ```
 */
statizer({
    me: {
        firstName: null,
        lastName: null,
        email: null,
        username: null,
        displayPicture: null
    }
})

export default {
    ...
}

Example Use Case

export default {
    async serverPrefetch(){
        // make async api request for user

        let me = {
            firstName: "Steve"
        }

        this.$state.firstName = me.firstName
    }
}

export default {
    async serverPrefetch(){
        // make async api request for user

        let me = {
            firstName: "Steve"
        }

        /**
         * 
         * never reassign this.$state or it will lose reference to the global
         * object, and lose reactivity, if you want to assign a large number of
         * varibles to the global state, use Object.assign(this.$state, obj)
         */

        Object.assign(this.$state, {me})
    }
}

Don't do this

this.$state = {foo: "bar" } // this will lose reference to the original global state

Precompiling Vue Pages

It's a memory intensive process to compile the .vue SFCs. After they are compiled once, they are cached and rerendered at a far greater speed.

This means that the first time a .vue SFC is rendered, it will take a few seconds to do so. You don't want this in a production environment, so we have an option for you to precompile all .vue files so your users get the fastest speeds when visiting your website.

You can do this with the precompile function

/**
 * ----------
 * IMPORTANT:
 * ----------
 * Make sure to only precompile the pages you need, eg: you don't need to
 * precompile header.vue` or footer.vue, only home.vue or about.vue,
 * so seperate the actual full pages into a seperate folder.
 */

/**
 * @param {string} folder - Folder that contains the .vue files to render
 * @returns {Promise<void>}
 */
await servue.precompile('pages')

Future Of This Package

I may be further developing this package into a full MPA (multi-page apps) and SPA (single-page apps) capable application with internal routing using Vue Router.

It does somewhat unalign with the original goals of the project which was to easily integrate with koa and express, but it still will, just in a different way.

To Do List

Implement state management
Reduce RAM usage by deleting virtual memory files after caching the renderers
Make package more applicable for single page applications (SPAs)
Potentially create an option for creating and serving build/dist files (as it takes a lot of ram and CPU to regenerate each SFC)
Add hot-reloading
Improve docs, create website
Alternatively, create a nuxtjs "competitor" with servues head management system and layouts

Package Changelog / Version

2.2

You're no longer required to import the servue component in your master/parent layouts. It's automatically injected into every .vue SFC

<template>
    <servue>
        Your content
    </servue>
</template>
<script>
import servue from "servue.vue"

export default {
    components: {
        servue
    }
}
</script>

Now becomes

<template>
    <servue>
        Your content
    </servue>
</template>

2.x

Passing data from server

We've changed the way data is passed from the server to the vue files

servue.render('home', data)

becomes

servue.render('home', {data})

Instead of passing data through a typical route controller, you can now pass it inside from your .vue files (see asyncData() above)

This was done because req/res or ctx data is often required in .vue files so we have made it easier to pass data like ctx to the views, and allow routing to be simpler.

router.get('home', (ctx)=>{
    let data = {...}
    servue.render('home', {data, ctx})
})

Accessible in asyncData by

export default {
    async asyncData(ssrContext){
        let ctx = ssrContext.ctx
        let url = ctx.url
        return { url }
    }
}

Used for

Future Australia Party Website - Promatia Government Website - Arkovia Government Website

vue express node ssr javascript webpack stream io templating

@babel/core babel-loader css-loader find memory-fs unionfs vue-loader vue-style-loader webpack webpack-merge

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Servue

Installation

What is servue?

Features

Setup

Express Usage

Koa Usage

Layouts & Views

layouts/parent.vue

pages/home.vue

Rendered Result

Setting custom path variables

Custom html body template

Custom Preprocessor/Language Support

Mode

Head Management

layouts/parent.vue

home.vue

Passing data to vue from server-side

Via asyncData() in .vue file

Via data

Merge order

Global State / Cross Component Data

Implementing it

Example Use Case

Precompiling Vue Pages

Future Of This Package

To Do List

Package Changelog / Version

2.2

2.x

Passing data from server

Used for

`layouts/parent.vue`

`pages/home.vue`

`layouts/parent.vue`

`home.vue`

Via `asyncData()` in .vue file

Via `data`