Vue32Blog

Vue32Blog is a simple Blog app written in Vue 3.2. It utilizes Composition API, Pinia, Vite, Axios, Bulma, Marked, and Prismjs.

There are several purposes for Vue32Blog. I wanted to have a simple blog web site, I wanted to write something in the latest Vue framework (When I did this: Vue 3.2), and I did not want to use an external database. Vue32Blog does all of that.

Composition API, Pinia, and Vite

These are the most current and up to date options to use when creating this Vue application. I did not want to use Options API, Vuex, and WebPack. When searching the internet for "Vue...", most of the results are either Vue 2 (Options API and Vuex) or Vue 3.0 (Options API or early Composition API and Vuex). Very little is actually Vue 3.2 (with Composition API and Pinia). When trying to learn Vue, this makes it difficult to understand how to use it in the code we want to write.

Axios, Bulma, Marked, PrismJS

Axios - When we start to get more complex back-end API calls, Axios is what we will want to use, so let's start now. See Axios
Bulma - "Modern CSS framework that just works." See Bulma
Marked - A fast, light-weight markdown compiler. See Marked
PrismJS - Prism is a lightweight, extensible syntax highlighter. See Prismjs

Data

The data is stored in the public folder as static .JSON files. When we create a new blog post, we only need to upload the changed blogs.json and the new newmarkdown.md file. If we use Firebase as our host and when we are ready to publish, we only have to run the commands:

 > npm run build
 > firebase deploy --only hosting

Here is the complete data structue:

Let's take a look at this structure in more detail

Data/Config - The JSON data files (blogs, info, links) and the markdown files for the About and Tools page
Data/Images - The header images that are displayed when the blogs are listed for the user to see
Data/Markdowns - The blogs are located here. They are written in markdown

Download

GitHub - Vue32Blog

Live Demo

Working Blog

Code Examples

Pinia

We are structuring Pinia in the Compostion API. Doing it this way, things are much easier to follow throughout the app. When writing a Pinia Store, just remember:

state: becomes ref()s
getters: becomes computed()s
actions: become function()s

For example, this a partial code from the blogStore.js

import { defineStore } from "pinia";
import axios from "axios";
import { ref } from "vue";

export const useBlogStore = defineStore("blogStore", () => {
  //  ** state ** //
  const myInfo = ref([]);

  // ** actions ** //
  /**
   * Returns the Info data from the public/data/config/info.json file
   */
  async function getMyInfo() {
    try {
      if (myInfo.value.length < 1) {
        await axios
          .get("/data/config/info.json")
          .then((response) => (myInfo.value = response.data.info));
      }
    } catch (error) {
      console.log(error);
    }
  }
  
  // The objects we want available here
  return { myInfo, getMyInfo };
});

Composables (Mixin Replacement)

We are using Composables in this app. It was not needed, but it is a good idea to see a composable in action. This is the useSystem.js

import { computed } from "vue";
import { useBlogStore } from "@/stores/blogStore";

export function useSystem() {
  const { myInfo } = useBlogStore();

  const pageTitle = computed(() => {
    return myInfo.blogTitle;
  });

  const changeTitle = (title) => {
    document.title = `${pageTitle.value} - ${title}`;
  };

  return { changeTitle };
}

Components

An example of a componentand how it is used:

theFooterBar.vue

<script setup>
import { storeToRefs } from "pinia";
import { useBlogStore } from "@/stores/blogStore";

const { myInfo } = storeToRefs(useBlogStore());
</script>

<template>
  <footer class="footer">
    <div class="content has-text-centered">
      <h3>{{ myInfo.blogTitle }}</h3>
      <p>
        <i>{{ myInfo.description }}</i>
      </p>
      <br />
      <p>&copy; {{ myInfo.blogStartYear }} {{ myInfo.name }}.&nbsp;</p>
    </div>
  </footer>
</template>

App.vue

<script setup>
import { RouterView } from "vue-router";
import TheNavBar from "@/components/theNavBar.vue";
import TheFooterBar from "@/components/theFooterBar.vue";
</script>

<template>
  <header>
    <TheNavBar />
  </header>
  <RouterView />
  <TheFooterBar />
</template>

Markdown

To display the markdown files in the app, we use Marked and Prismjs. There is a post about how to use them here: Markdown Highlighting and the download for the project is Vue32-Markdown

Other Examples

router.beforeEach

This will be called before the router loads the next page. the async and await will allow the getMyInfo to get the data needed.

router/index.js

router.beforeEach(async () => {
  const { getMyInfo } = useBlogStore();
  await getMyInfo();
});

The above code is really for when the user reloads or goes directly to a page from a bookmark they created. To make sure we are not having to load the data each time, we can check to see if the dataset has already been loaded with if (myInfo.value.length < 1). If this statement is true, meaning the object is empty, then get the data.

blogStore.js

async function getMyInfo() {
    try {
      if (myInfo.value.length < 1) {
        await axios
          .get("/data/config/info.json")
          .then((response) => (myInfo.value = response.data.info));
      }
    } catch (error) {
      console.log(error);
    }
  }

Install and run Vue32Blog

Install

npm install

Compile and Hot-Reload for Development

npm run dev

Compile and Minify for Production

npm run build

Deploy to FireBase

firebase deploy --only hosting

Lowell130 / Vue32Blog