The Vue.js 2.0 release was held back in 2016, but many owners of technology companies and Javascript developers still hesitate to use it in their projects. In this article, we will consider the key points of this solution.
Most Vue JS reviews are pretty positive. According to surveys by Monterail, 81% of developers note the easy integration as the main advantage of the Vue framework as well as integration with backend frameworks. Most experts believe that learning Vue is much easier than learning other popular Javascript frameworks. The documentation is another strength of Vue — this is the opinion of 60% of polled developers. A similar number of respondents (56%) state that the performance of this solution was one of its strongest points. So, what is Vue.js? Let’s find out.
Vue.js Framework Description
Vue.js is a JavaScript library for creating web interfaces using the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) template.
Since Vue only works at the «presentation level» and is not used for middleware and backend, it can easily integrate with other projects and libraries. Vue.js contains extensive functionality for the presentation layer and can be used to create powerful single-page web applications.
Vue.js Functions:
- Jet Interfaces;
- Declarative rendering;
- Linking Data;
- Directives (all directives have the prefix «V-.» A state value is passed to the directive, and HTML attributes or Vue JS events are used as arguments);
- Logic templates;
- Components;
- Event Handling;
- Properties;
- CSS transitions and animations;
- Filters.
The main Javascript library of Vue 2 is very small (only 17 KB). This ensures that the load on your project, developed with Vue.js, is minimal, and your website will work fast. You can download the corresponding .js file by following this link.
Vue.js Application
Vue is suitable for small projects that require adding a bit of reactivity, submitting a form using AJAX, and displaying values when entering user data, authorization, or other similar tasks. Vue easily scales and it’s suitable for large projects that’s why it’s called a progressive framework.
Vue is also great for large single-page applications due to its main components, such as Router and Vuex. With Vue, you can both use public APIs to create applications and implement applications running on the server. Though, Vue is best suited for developing solutions that use external APIs for data processing.
With Vue, you can also create a frontend blog on popular CMS. Vue.js is also great for developing dynamic interfaces that adapt to users.
Vue.js Examples: the Best Projects
Let’s consider some large projects based on the Vue framework. We will also list the difficulties that their developers have encountered during the development process and what they’ve achieved due to Vue.js.
Chess.com
Chess.com is the most visited chess game website in the world with more than 19 million users. The resource contains a news section, blog, communities, lessons, puzzles and the ability to play chess in real time.
Its legacy code was in PHP and Angular 1, so there were certain difficulties when working with such code. The project team moved from AngularJS to Vue. Thanks to the simplicity and speed of Vue.js, for a founder of Chess.com, it was easier to collaborate with his remote team, and it took little time to create new functionality.
Codeship
Codeship is a platform for continuous integration based on cloud technology. It allows users to store web applications in the cloud. Numerous giant companies, such as Red Bull, CNN, and Product Hunt, use this platform.
Before Codeship moved from jQuery to Vue, their users often faced freezes and crashes when working with the web application. They had a long list of users who were unhappy with the work of the application. Their history is an excellent example of how Vue can help create software with reliable and easy-to-maintain code.
Vue.js helped the Codeship team correctly organize their code and improve user interface.
Livestorm
Livestorm is a web application for webinars creating. It helps companies, such as Workable, Pipedrive and Instapage, to sell their services or educate customers using webinars.
Livestorm is an example of a Vue JS application created from scratch. Thanks to Vue and its reusable components, their development process was quick and simple.
Vue.js Comparison with Angular and React
Let’s consider the main differences between Vue.js, Angular, and React.
Components
All these frameworks are based on components. It’s worth noting that React and Vue are well suited for processing mute components — small, stateless functions that receive input data and return elements as the output. Vue JS components have no special requirements for naming, but you should adhere to W3C rules for custom components, such as using lowercase letters and hyphens instead of spaces.
Framework vs. Library
Angular is a framework rather than a library because it contains clear instructions for the app structure and it has a wide functionality. Angular is a complete solution for enterprise applications it does not oblige you to analyze any other libraries or use additional tools. React and Vue, on the other hand, are universal. Their libraries can be interfaced with all types of packages, although Vue has few of them, as it is quite young.
Flexibility
You can work with React or Vue by simply adding the Javascript library to the source code. This is not possible in case of Angular since it is designed for more complex tasks. When it comes to microservices and micro applications, React and Vue provide more control over the applications size allowing you to select only those elements that are necessary in specific cases. They also offer great flexibility for migrating from single-page applications to microservices allowing you to use parts of the previous application. Due to its wide functionality, Angular is best suited for single-page applications development.
Performance and File Size
The Angular framework is quite large. Due to its wide functionality, the size of the zipped file is about 143k compared to a simpler Vue and React with 23K and 43k respectively. React and Vue have a Virtual Document Object Model (DOM) that creates an object representation copy of the structured document and allows you to work with a visual copy, rather than with the presentation itself. This approach helps you improve the performance of frameworks and thus your application will work faster. Vue, in particular, has an excellent performance and a deep memory allocation, but all these frameworks have similar characteristics.
To conclude, it’s worth noting that the main advantages of Vue JS are its simplicity and ease of learning. Instead of learning complex terminology and tools for creating a simple application, as in the case of React, you can immediately start developing your app. This makes Vue JS a perfect choice for startups or any development team that want to quickly create high-performance web applications with an easy-to-read code.
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