Exclusive tips every week

We made it to 200!

Thanks for reading and supporting me over the last few years, it means a lot to me.

Tomorrow is the last day of the Composable Design Patterns course launch and the 35% off discount. If you were hoping to pick it up, don't forget to check it out!

As always, I've got some tips and links for you, and a new podcast episode.

Enjoy, and have a great week!

— Michael

🔥 Default Content with Slots

You can provide fallback content for a slot, in case no content is provided:

<!-- Child.vue -->
<template>
  <div>
    <slot>
      Hey! You forgot to put something in the slot!
    </slot>
  </div>
</template>

This content can be anything, even a whole complex component that provides default behaviour:

<!-- Child.vue -->
<template>
  <div>
    <slot name="search">
      <!-- Can be overridden with more advanced functionality -->
      <BasicSearchFunctionality />
    </slot>
  </div>
</template>

🔥 Debugging Templates

If you ever need to debug what’s happening inside of a template, you can just throw in a function:

<template>
  <div v-for="i in 4" :key="i">
    {{ log(i) }}
    {{ i + 1 }}
  </div>
</template>

Vue will execute anything within the curly braces as Javascript, so this function is called normally.

It can be whatever you want. Set it to console.log if you just want to log out some values:

const log = console.log;

Or add in a debugger statement so you can step through the code one line at a time and inspect the variables more closely:

const log = (val) => {
  debugger;
};

If we want global access to a debugging utility, we can use the globalProperties field on our app config:

app.config.globalProperties.$log = console.log;

Now, we can use this $log method in whatever component we want:

🔥 Reactive CSS

In Vue 3 we can use reactive values in our <style> block just like we can in the <template> block:

<style scoped>
  .button {
    color: v-bind(buttonColor);
  }
</style>

Behind the scenes, Vue uses CSS computed properties (aka CSS variables) scoped to each component.

The CSS remains static, but we can dynamically update the CSS variables whenever the reactive value changes.

More info can be found in the docs.

🔥 List Component Pattern

Large lists in components can lead to cluttered and unwieldy templates. The solution is to abstract the v-for loop logic into a child component.

This simplifies the parent and encapsulates the iteration logic in a dedicated list component, keeping things nice and tidy.

<!-- Before: Direct v-for in the parent component -->
<template>
  <div v-for="item in list" :key="item.id">
    <!-- Lots of code specific to each item -->
  </div>
</template>

<!-- After: Abstracting v-for into a child component -->
<template>
  <NewComponentList :list="list" />
</template>

To learn more about this pattern and 20 more, check out Clean Components Toolkit.

🎙️ #042 — Creating Technical Content (with Adam Jahr)

In this episode, Michael talks with Adam Jahr, Founder of Vue Mastery, all about creating technical content - and how this is relevant for you as a developer.

Tune in and figure out how Adam founded Vue Mastery, what his biggest learnings from his Coding Bootcamp times were and learn key tips that can set your content apart from others!

And as a bonus - learn what creating content, regardless the format, has to do with Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.

Watch on YouTube.

Chapters:

• Welcome to DejaVue
• Why creating technical content is key
• What is Vue Mastery?
• Biggest learnings from Coding Bootcamp times
• Getting in touch early with the Vue community
• Splitting time between marketing and creating content
• Importance of different Creators and learning Formats
• How to reach and teach developers
• The same framework applied to sales
• Applying it to your own stuff
• A glimpse down the rabbit hole
• Creating an open loop
• Music Production and Sourdough
• Show them the "Why"
• Isolating focus
• Magic Move and Animations

In case you missed them:

• #041 — The Quadruple Migration (with Rijk van Zanten)
• #040 — Composition API vs Options API Special
• #039 — Migrating a SaaS from Nuxt 2 to Nuxt 3 (with Sumit Kumar)

📜 Adding Drag and Drop (video)

In this video from LearnVue, we see how easy it can be to add a powerful drag and drop system in to your app.

Check it out here: Adding Drag and Drop (video)

📜 Nuxt State Management: Pinia vs useState

In Nuxt we get a new useState composable.

But how does it compare to Pinia?

In this article for Vue Mastery, I discuss the main differences and when to use each.

Check it out here: Nuxt State Management: Pinia vs useState

📅 Upcoming Events

Here are some upcoming events you might be interested in. Let me know if I've missed any!

Vuejs Amsterdam 2025 — (March 12, 2025 to March 13, 2025)

The biggest Vue conference in the world! A two-day event with workshops, speakers from around the world, and socializing.

Check it out here

VueConf US 2025 — (May 13, 2025 to May 15, 2025)

A great Vue conference, this year held in Tampa. Two days of conference talks, plus a day for workshops.

Check it out here

💬 Chaos

"Automating chaos just gives faster chaos." — Mark Fewster

🧠 Spaced-repetition: Inline Composables

The best way to commit something to long-term memory is to periodically review it, gradually increasing the time between reviews 👨‍🔬

Actually remembering these tips is much more useful than just a quick distraction, so here's a tip from a couple weeks ago to jog your memory.

You can define composables inline, keeping them in your SFC file:

<script setup>
const useCount = (i) => {
  const count = ref(0);

  const increment = () => count.value += 1;
  const decrement = () => count.value -= 1;

  return {
    id: i,
    count,
    increment,
    decrement,
  };
};

const listOfCounters = [];
for (const i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  listOfCounters.push(useCount(i));
}
</script>
<template>
  <div v-for="counter in listOfCounters" :key="counter.id">
    <button @click="counter.decrement()">-</button>
    {{ counter.count }}
    <button @click="counter.increment()">+</button>
  </div>
</template>

But is there any point to doing this?

If you’re keeping your components focused on a specific task (and you should be), then it stands to reason that the logic is also focused on a single task.

This means that if you wrap up all relevant logic into an inline composable, you’ve wrapped up all — or nearly all — the logic that this component has:

<script setup>
// Create an inline composable
const useStuff = () => {
  <all_our_logic>
};

// ...only to destructure most of it to use in our template
const {
  value,
  anotherValue,
  eventHandler,
  anotherEventHandler
} = useStuff();
</script>

At which point, we might as well write our logic without that unnecessary wrapper:

<script setup>
const value = ...
const anotherValue = ...
const eventHandler = ...
const anotherEventHandler = ...
</script>

However, if you have do have logic that can be encapsulated nicely within this inline composable, it could make your code cleaner and easier to use.

Using lexical scoping to create more boundaries within your files helps you to understand and think through your code, which is always helpful.

🔗 Want more Vue and Nuxt links?

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Sign up for it here.