Working with Vue CLI

What You’ll Learn 📚

• Understanding Vue CLI and its benefits
• Setting up your first Vue project
• Exploring key commands and features
• Troubleshooting common issues

Introduction to Vue CLI

Vue CLI is a command-line interface tool that provides a standard tooling baseline for Vue.js development. It helps you quickly scaffold new projects and manage them efficiently. Think of it as your personal assistant that takes care of the setup and configuration, so you can focus on building amazing apps!

Key Terminology

• CLI (Command Line Interface): A tool that allows you to interact with your computer’s operating system through text commands.
• Scaffold: Automatically generating the basic structure of a project.
• Node.js: A JavaScript runtime built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine, required for running Vue CLI.

Getting Started with Vue CLI

Step 1: Install Node.js and npm

Before we can use Vue CLI, we need to have Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager) installed on our machine. You can download them from nodejs.org. Once installed, verify the installation by running:

node -v

npm -v

v16.13.0 (or similar for node)
8.1.0 (or similar for npm)

Step 2: Install Vue CLI

Now that Node.js and npm are set up, let’s install Vue CLI globally on your system:

npm install -g @vue/cli

+ @vue/cli@4.5.13
added 273 packages from 129 contributors in 45.123s

💡 Tip: The ‘-g’ flag installs Vue CLI globally, so you can use it from any directory.

Step 3: Create Your First Vue Project

Let’s create a new Vue project called ‘my-first-vue-app’. Navigate to the directory where you want to create your project and run:

vue create my-first-vue-app

Vue CLI v4.5.13
✨ Creating project in /path/to/my-first-vue-app.
...

Exploring Your Vue Project

Once your project is created, navigate into the project directory:

cd my-first-vue-app

Now, let’s start the development server to see your app in action:

npm run serve

App running at:
- Local:   http://localhost:8080/
- Network: http://192.168.1.2:8080/
...

Note: Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080 to see your Vue app running! 🎉

Common Questions and Answers

1. What is Vue CLI?

   Vue CLI is a tool that helps you set up and manage Vue.js projects with ease.

2. Why do I need Node.js for Vue CLI?

   Node.js provides the runtime environment for running JavaScript on your server, and npm is used to install Vue CLI.

3. What is a preset in Vue CLI?

   A preset is a set of configurations and plugins that determine how your Vue project is set up.

4. How do I update Vue CLI?

   To update Vue CLI, run npm update -g @vue/cli.

5. What if I encounter an error during installation?

   Ensure you have the latest version of Node.js and npm, and try running the command with administrative privileges.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Issue: ‘vue’ is not recognized as an internal or external command

Ensure that Vue CLI is installed globally and that your PATH environment variable includes npm’s global bin directory.

Issue: Installation fails with permission errors

Try running the installation command with ‘sudo’ on Unix systems or as an administrator on Windows.

Practice Exercises

• Create a new Vue project with a custom preset and explore its structure.
• Modify the default Vue component and observe the changes in your browser.
• Experiment with different Vue CLI plugins and see how they affect your project.

Congratulations on completing this tutorial! 🎉 You’ve taken a big step in your Vue.js journey. Keep experimenting and building, and soon you’ll be a Vue expert. Happy coding! 💻