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Dynamically show a Vue component

2019-05-15 23:57 Posted in Learn with Vue

Using Vue you define the application layout using components. In the beginning you manually place components where you want, but at some point you need to have a more flexible way to show or hide components based on the application state

Using conditional directives

The simplest option is to use the v-if and v-else directives.

Here’s an example. The v-if directive checks the noTodos computed property, which returns false if the state property todos contains at least one item:

<template>
  <main>
    <AddFirstTodo v-if="noTodos" />
    <div v-else>
      <AddTodo />
      <Todos :todos=todos />
    </div>
  </main>
</template>

<script>
export default {
  data() {
    return {
      todos: [],
    }
  },
  computed: {
    noTodos() {
      return this.todos.length === 0
    }
  }
}
</script>

This allows to solve the needs of many applications without reaching for more complex setups. Conditionals can be nested, too, like this:

<template>
  <main>
    <Component1 v-if="shouldShowComponent1" />
    <div v-else>
      <Component2 v-if="shouldShowComponent2" />
      <div v-else>
        <Component3 />
      </div>
    </div>
  </main>
</template>

Using the component Component and is

Instead of creating v-if and v-else structures, you can build your template so that there’s a placeholder that will be dynamically assigned a component.

That’s what the component component does, with the help of the v-bind:is directive.

<component v-bind:is="componentName"></component>

componentName is a property of the state that identifies the name of the component that we want to render. It can be part of the state, or a computed property:

<script>
export default {
  data() {
    return {
      componentName: 'aComponent',
    }
  }
}
</script>