As we approach a new year, it is crucial to stay updated on the latest topics and tools to enhance your skills as an engineer. This can be challenging due to the continuously evolving web development landscape and the rapid pace of innovations in the Vue.js ecosystem. To help you stay ahead, let us explore some topics that are a great starting point for becoming a better Vue.js developer in 2024.
Vue 3 Vapor mode 🌬️
If you’ve been following Vue Creator Evan You, you’ve heard him talk a lot recently about Vapor mode. The name is admittedly quite cool, but what does vapor mode mean, after all?
In short, Vapor mode is an alternative compilation strategy aimed at improving the performance of your Vue.js application. It takes the same Vue single file component and compiles it into JavaScript output that is more performant, uses less memory, and requires less runtime support code compared to the current Virtual DOM-based output. It was inspired by Solid.js — a simple and performant reactivity for building user interfaces.
The benefits of using Vapor include:
- More performant
- Uses less memory
- requires less runtime support
It is an experimental feature that was first announced in 2022 and has its own repo. It compiles differently when enabled in a component, resulting in a lighter rendering code and improving performance. To achieve this, it only supports a subset of Vue features, including the Composition API and <script setup>.
As Vapor mode gets closer to its official release, Vue Mastery will be publishing exclusive content on how to use it for its fullest impact.
Vue 2 End of Life 🪦
In 2022, Vue 3.x became the default version for creating new Vue applications. Now, as of December 31 of 2023, Vue 2 reaches its end of life. Evan You recently reminded us of this update and the possible next steps and recommendations for Vue 2 users.
After its EOL, Vue 2 will still be available on all distribution channels and package managers but will no longer receive updates (bug and security fixes).
What does this mean for the community? The following will be deprecated:
- All major and minor versions of Vue 2 core
- vue-router versions exclusively supporting Vue 2 (3.x and below)
- Vuex versions with exclusive support for Vue 2 (3.x and below)
With these updates in mind, developers still working with this version have been presented with a handful of options ranging from migrating to Vue 3 to the proposed v2.7.16, which is the final release of Vue 2. You can also check out this article on LTS and the EOL to help you decide on the best option for your Vue 2 applications.
Keep in mind, we have an entire library of Vue 3 courses here on Vue Mastery to help Vue 2 developers transition.
Nuxt Tools ⛰️
This year, we had the release of several interesting tools that are either powered by Nuxt or aimed at improving the overall developer experience of building with Nuxt.
These updates include:
- Nuxt DevTools
- Nuxt Studio
- Nuxt UI
- Nuxt Icon
Nuxt DevTools
Nuxt DevTools was first announced on the 27th of March 2023 and has received a lot of positive feedback from the community. It was created to help developers understand and improve the overall experience of developing their Nuxt app. In November 2023, Nuxt DevTools v1.0 was released, and with this release, it is enabled by default in new Nuxt projects( from Nuxt v3.8).
Some of the Nuxt DevTools features include:
- In-app devTools - floating panel visible anywhere in the app that opens the devtools.
- Pages view - Shows a list of all the pages registered in your app with easy navigation.
- Module management - allows you to view all the modules registered in your app with the links to their documentation and repositories.
You can find out more about the DevTools by reading this article on Vue Mastery.
Nuxt Studio
Another exciting update that you should pay attention to in 2024 is Nuxt Studio. This is a powerful platform specifically designed for creating, editing, and deploying Nuxt 3 applications that are reliant upon Nuxt Content V2, which is a git-based CMS powered by Markdown.
Nuxt Studio is useful for content-heavy projects like blogs, documentation, and portfolios. With Nuxt Studio, developers have an easier way to collaborate with non-developer members of their team (such as marketing and design) to make contributions to their sites without the need to be technical. It comes with several features including the Studio Editor, which improves the process of making changes and collaboration among teams.
You can find out more about Nuxt Studio in this article.
Nuxt UI
Nuxt UI simplifies the creation of stunning and responsive web applications with its comprehensive collection of fully styled and customizable UI components designed for Nuxt apps. It was created using technologies like Headless UI and Tailwind CSS and was also developed by Nuxt Labs.
It has a collection of over 40 components built for Nuxt that have been beautifully designed and are also fully customizable.
Some of its features include:
- Dark mode support
- Support for LTR and RTL languages
- Bundled icons
- HMR support through Nuxt App Config
You can find out more about Nuxt UI in this article and the official documentation.
Nuxt 3 updates
Nuxt 3 was officially released in November of 2023 and has been well received by the community as it is based on Vite, Vue 3 and Nitro and comes with first-class TypeScript support.
With this release, it set the ball rolling for a series of exciting excitements that came from the Nuxt community in 2023. These updates range from edge-side rendering to several version updates including interactive server components. This feature makes it possible to play around with interactive components within Nuxt server components. Although it is new and experimental, it’s an exciting change
FormKit 📝
Another exciting tool we have seen as a result of Vue 3 and Nuxt 3 is FormKit. As the name implies, FormKit is a comprehensive form-building framework for Vue developers that makes authoring high-quality, production-ready forms faster and more accessible, with better DX, UX, and less code.
The idea behind this tool is for it to be the one-stop shop for everything form. This can range from the several input field UI components that are available to both free and Pro users, to the FormKit Schema that helps you generate and implement forms and other DOM elements.
Some of its features include:
- Validation - FormKit offers configurations and an easily extendable
validationprop that can be used to validate the values of the fields - Plugins - It also ships with plugins like AutoAnimate and Save to localStorage that improve the general user experience while using forms built using FormKit.
- Inputs - Support for up to 20 of the popular inputs that are used when creating forms.
- Internationalization - Support for several languages with multi-language support (you can switch between several languages at a time).
Elevate your code in 2024
It’s clear that Vue 3’s impact on the Vue ecosystem has been vast and still continues to spread into the tools, libraries and conventions that Vue developers use now and into the future.
To help you stay at the top of your game in 2024, Vue Mastery is currently offering 60% off a full year access to our library of 50+ courses and 205 conference talks so that you can learn what you need to succeed as a Vue developer and catapult your career.
