Developing software and websites is an in-demand skill. According to research, more than 547,200 websites are created worldwide daily, which is a huge number. Creating this number of websites seems impossible if the developers do everything themselves. So, to speed up the process, developers use different frameworks to manage the front end and back end. This article will teach you about Vue.js and how to get started with it. Here is the topic list covered in this article:

What is Vue.js?

Vue.js is a frontend JavaScript framework widely used to create user interfaces. It is a modern framework that facilitates you to make progressive enhancements. Vue.JS uses HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create beautiful, attractive, and interactive interfaces. It mainly focuses on the View part of your applications. You can create sophisticated single-page applications (SPAs) with Vue.js, one of the three most popular JavaScript frameworks, i.e., Angular and React.

Vue.js is relatively easy to learn and fairly straightforward when it comes to coding. It allows you to enhance the existing HTML and provides a component-based and declarative model to help you create simple or complex interfaces more efficiently. Vue.js is a modular framework that allows you to split the code into reusable components.

Features of Vue.js

• Virtual DOM: Vue.js uses the virtual DOM to implement the changes to the JavaScript data structures and compare them with the original structures. Only the final changes are applied to the actual DOM.
• Data Binding: This feature lets you assign the values to HTML elements, change styles, and apply classes using v-bind.
• CSS Transitions and Animations: Vue.js allows developers to use third-party libraries and apply different transitions while adding, updating, or removing the DOM elements.
• Templates: Vue.js offers many built-in HTML-based templates that can be binded with DOM. You can compile the templates in Virtual DOM before implementing them directly into actual DOM.
• Computed Properties: Vue.js can listen to the changes made to the elements and perform the necessary logic operations, so you do not have to write additional code.
• Watchers: Watchers are used for the data elements that frequently change to take care of the data changes making the code simple and fast. When using watchers, the developers do not need to do additional events.
• Optimization: This feature of Vue.js keeps track of components that require re-rendering when a form changes. It tracks component dependencies during rendering.

Why Vue.js?

In the presence of so many frameworks available, you may ask why you should use Vue.Js, so here are the reasons:

• Vue.JS is a lightweight framework of only 18 KB.
• Fast to install
• Virtual DOM rendering and high performance
• Declarative rendering that allows you to describe HTML output based on JavaScript state
• The JavaScript changes are tracked down automatically, and changes are made to the DOM accordingly.
• Its component-based model allows you to build reusable components
• Due to modularity, the code becomes more manageable, readable, and testable
• Vue.js is compatible with all the previous technologies and can be easily integrated into existing applications using JavaScript only.
• Vue.js has a powerful set of tools to work with, such as browser debugging tools, server-side rendering mechanism, the state management library, etc
• Vue.js has a smooth learning curve meaning that if you know JavaScript, it will not be difficult for you to get started with Vue.js.
• Concise documentation and colossal community support are also significant benefits of using vue.js

Getting Started with Vue.js

To get started with Vue.js, you do not need to make much effort. If you know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you can quickly get started with it and start using it to build beautiful, attractive, user-friendly, and functional applications. In this section, you will see how to install Vue.js and create your first project using it:

Installation

To start working with Vue.js on your computer, you will first have to install the NodeJS and NPM. NodeJS allows you to run JavaScript code outside the browser, and NPM (Node Package Manager) is used to install required packages and dependencies in the project.

Installing NodeJS and NPM

You can download and install Node from their official website. The process of installation is pretty straightforward. Once the installation process completes, open the CLI and run the following commands respectively and press Enter after each:

$ node -v

$ npm -v

If the commands return the version numbers of Node and NPM, you can be sure that both are installed properly on your machine. Now, you are all set to install Vue.js.

Installing Vue.js

You can install vue.js directly through the terminal by running the following command:

$ npm install -g @vue-cli

After the command has run, check if Vue is installed correctly or not by running the following command:

$ vue --version

Another way to install Vue.js is by going to https://vuejs.org/v2/guide/installation.html and downloading the Vue.js library as per your choice. You will see two options, i.e., the development and production versions. The development version is uncompressed and intended for learners and beginners, whereas the production version is compressed and intended for professional use. After downloading the appropriate file, call the vue.js file in the <head> section of your HTML page using the <script> tags as follows:

<html>
<head>
  <script type = "text/javascript" src = "vue.min.js"></script>
</head>
</html>

Conclusion

Working with Vue.js is not a difficult task, and you can quickly get started with it if you have command over HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This article discusses Vue.js, its features, and why you should choose it over other front-end frameworks. Lastly, we have seen different ways to install it. Thank you for reading!