Global API: General | Vue.js

Global API: General
​
version
​

Exposes the current version of Vue.

Type: string

Example

js
import { version } from 'vue'

console.log(version)
nextTick()
​

A utility for waiting for the next DOM update flush.

Type

ts
function nextTick(callback?: () => void): Promise<void>

Details

When you mutate reactive state in Vue, the resulting DOM updates are not applied synchronously. Instead, Vue buffers them until the "next tick" to ensure that each component updates only once no matter how many state changes you have made.

nextTick() can be used immediately after a state change to wait for the DOM updates to complete. You can either pass a callback as an argument, or await the returned Promise.

Example

vue
<script setup>
import { ref, nextTick } from 'vue'

const count = ref(0)

async function increment() {
  count.value++

  // DOM not yet updated
  console.log(document.getElementById('counter').textContent) // 0

  await nextTick()
  // DOM is now updated
  console.log(document.getElementById('counter').textContent) // 1
}
</script>

<template>
  <button id="counter" @click="increment">{{ count }}</button>
</template>

See also this.$nextTick()

defineComponent()
​

A type helper for defining a Vue component with type inference.

Type

ts
// options syntax
function defineComponent(
  component: ComponentOptions
): ComponentConstructor

// function syntax (requires 3.3+)
function defineComponent(
  setup: ComponentOptions['setup'],
  extraOptions?: ComponentOptions
): () => any

Type is simplified for readability.

Details

The first argument expects a component options object. The return value will be the same options object, since the function is essentially a runtime no-op for type inference purposes only.

Note that the return type is a bit special: it will be a constructor type whose instance type is the inferred component instance type based on the options. This is used for type inference when the returned type is used as a tag in TSX.

You can extract the instance type of a component (equivalent to the type of this in its options) from the return type of defineComponent() like this:

ts
const Foo = defineComponent(/* ... */)

type FooInstance = InstanceType<typeof Foo>
Function Signature 
​

defineComponent() also has an alternative signature that is meant to be used with Composition API and render functions or JSX.

Instead of passing in an options object, a function is expected instead. This function works the same as the Composition API setup() function: it receives the props and the setup context. The return value should be a render function - both h() and JSX are supported:

js
import { ref, h } from 'vue'

const Comp = defineComponent(
  (props) => {
    // use Composition API here like in <script setup>
    const count = ref(0)

    return () => {
      // render function or JSX
      return h('div', count.value)
    }
  },
  // extra options, e.g. declare props and emits
  {
    props: {
      /* ... */
    }
  }
)

The main use case for this signature is with TypeScript (and in particular with TSX), as it supports generics:

tsx
const Comp = defineComponent(
  <T extends string | number>(props: { msg: T; list: T[] }) => {
    // use Composition API here like in <script setup>
    const count = ref(0)

    return () => {
      // render function or JSX
      return <div>{count.value}</div>
    }
  },
  // manual runtime props declaration is currently still needed.
  {
    props: ['msg', 'list']
  }
)

In the future, we plan to provide a Babel plugin that automatically infers and injects the runtime props (like for defineProps in SFCs) so that the runtime props declaration can be omitted.

Note on webpack Treeshaking
​

Because defineComponent() is a function call, it could look like that it would produce side-effects to some build tools, e.g. webpack. This will prevent the component from being tree-shaken even when the component is never used.

To tell webpack that this function call is safe to be tree-shaken, you can add a /*#__PURE__*/ comment notation before the function call:

js
export default /*#__PURE__*/ defineComponent(/* ... */)

Note this is not necessary if you are using Vite, because Rollup (the underlying production bundler used by Vite) is smart enough to determine that defineComponent() is in fact side-effect-free without the need for manual annotations.

See also Guide - Using Vue with TypeScript

defineAsyncComponent()
​

Define an async component which is lazy loaded only when it is rendered. The argument can either be a loader function, or an options object for more advanced control of the loading behavior.

Type

ts
function defineAsyncComponent(
  source: AsyncComponentLoader | AsyncComponentOptions
): Component

type AsyncComponentLoader = () => Promise<Component>

interface AsyncComponentOptions {
  loader: AsyncComponentLoader
  loadingComponent?: Component
  errorComponent?: Component
  delay?: number
  timeout?: number
  suspensible?: boolean
  onError?: (
    error: Error,
    retry: () => void,
    fail: () => void,
    attempts: number
  ) => any
}

See also Guide - Async Components

defineCustomElement()
​

This method accepts the same argument as defineComponent, but instead returns a native Custom Element class constructor.

Type

ts
function defineCustomElement(
  component:
    | (ComponentOptions & { styles?: string[] })
    | ComponentOptions['setup']
): {
  new (props?: object): HTMLElement
}

Type is simplified for readability.

Details

In addition to normal component options, defineCustomElement() also supports a special option styles, which should be an array of inlined CSS strings, for providing CSS that should be injected into the element's shadow root.

The return value is a custom element constructor that can be registered using customElements.define().

Example

js
import { defineCustomElement } from 'vue'

const MyVueElement = defineCustomElement({
  /* component options */
})

// Register the custom element.
customElements.define('my-vue-element', MyVueElement)

See also

Guide - Building Custom Elements with Vue

Also note that defineCustomElement() requires special config when used with Single-File Components.