What is Nuxt.js?

Nuxt.js is a free and open-source framework based on Vue.js for creating server-side rendered (SSR) and statically generated applications. It provides developers with a set of powerful features and conventions, including automatic code splitting, server-side rendering, and static site generation. These features make it easier to build fast and scalable web applications with Vue.js, without needing to spend time on configuring and setting up the infrastructure. Nuxt.js also includes a powerful CLI tool and a large ecosystem of plugins and modules, making it easy to extend and customize the framework to suit your needs.

Why use Nuxt.js?

Universal Application

Nuxt.js allows developers to create universal applications, which means that the same codebase can be used to render the application on both the client-side and the server-side. This is achieved through server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG), which can greatly improve the performance and SEO of web applications.

To create a universal application with Nuxt.js, you can follow these steps:

1. Install Nuxt.js by running npm install nuxt or yarn add nuxt in your terminal.
2. Create a new Nuxt.js project by running npx create-nuxt-app <project-name> and follow the prompts to configure your project.
3. Write your application code using Vue.js components and the Nuxt.js framework conventions. You can use the pages/ directory to define the routes of your application, and the components/ directory to define reusable components.
4. Add data to your application by fetching it from an API or using Nuxt.js's built-in asyncData hook, which allows you to fetch data asynchronously before rendering the component.
5. Build and test your application by running npm run dev or yarn dev in your terminal. This will start a development server and allow you to preview your application in the browser.
6. When you're ready to deploy your application, you can build it for production by running npm run build or yarn build, and then start the production server by running npm run start or yarn start.

By following these steps, you can create a universal application with Nuxt.js that can be rendered on both the client-side and the server-side, providing a fast and SEO-friendly user experience.

Server side rendering

Server-side rendering (SSR) is the process of generating HTML on the server and sending it to the client, as opposed to generating the HTML on the client using JavaScript. This approach can greatly improve the initial load time and SEO of web pages.

Nuxt.js provides built-in support for server-side rendering, allowing developers to easily create universal applications that can be rendered on both the server and the client. When a user requests a page from a Nuxt.js application, the server generates the HTML for the page and sends it to the client, along with the necessary JavaScript and CSS assets. Once the page is loaded, the client takes over and handles any user interaction using JavaScript.

To enable server-side rendering in Nuxt.js, you can use the mode configuration option and set it to universal. This tells Nuxt.js to generate both server-side and client-side code for your application. You can also use the asyncData hook to fetch data asynchronously on the server before rendering the component, which can further improve the performance and SEO of your application.

Overall, server-side rendering with Nuxt.js can provide a fast and SEO-friendly user experience, and is a powerful feature for building universal applications.

Static rendering

Static rendering (also known as pre-rendering) is the process of generating the HTML of your application's pages all at once, during the build process of the application, instead of generating HTML on demand on the server or client. This can bring advantages in terms of performance, scalability, and security.

Nuxt.js allows for static rendering of applications, which means that the HTML pages are pre-generated during the build process and are served directly by the web server, without the need for a Node.js server running. This can result in very fast load times, as the pages are already ready to be displayed, and can also improve the scalability and security of the application.

To statically render an application with Nuxt.js, you can use the nuxt generate command to generate the HTML of your application's pages. This will create a set of static files that can be served by the web server. You can also use the target: 'static' option in your application's configuration to indicate that you want to statically render the application.

In summary, static rendering with Nuxt.js can be a great option for applications with static content or that don't require constant updating, as it can significantly improve the performance and scalability of the application.

Code splitting

Nuxt.js offers automatic code splitting, which is the technique of splitting code into smaller chunks that can be loaded on demand as needed. This can significantly improve initial load times and overall performance of your application.

When you use Nuxt.js to build an application, it will analyze your code and determine which parts of it can be automatically split. This includes components, pages, and modules. Nuxt.js will then automatically generate multiple JavaScript files, one for each part of your application that can be split, and include a lazy loading mechanism to load these files as needed.

This is especially useful for larger applications where load time can be an issue. With automatic code splitting, you can ensure that only the code necessary to render the current page is loaded, significantly reducing the size of code bundles and improving load time.

Nuxt.js also offers support for data prefetching and module preloading, which can further improve the performance of your application. With data prefetching, you can prefetch data needed for a page before it is displayed, and with module preloading, you can preload necessary modules before they are requested.

In summary, automatic code splitting with Nuxt.js is a powerful tool for improving the performance of your application, ensuring that only necessary code is loaded, and keeping load time as low as possible.

Starter template

Just like Vue.js, we have an initial template that helps us a lot and saves time in the initial stages of a project.

But particularly, I prefer the Nuxt template where you have more objective folders and all directly in the index, without many subfolders.

Great default structure

Nuxt.js is known for its excellent project structure, which makes creating Vue.js web applications even easier and more efficient. This structure is based on conventions that define the organization of the project files, and includes a set of standard features and resources to help with development.

The directory structure of Nuxt.js follows a clear and consistent convention that is easy to understand and use. Files are organized in specific folders, such as the pages folder which contains the application's pages, and the components folder which contains reusable components for the application.

Additionally, Nuxt.js includes a range of standard features such as page routing, state management with Vuex, server integration, static file generation, and more. This means that you don't need to manually configure these features, and can instead focus on developing the application itself.

Another powerful feature of the Nuxt.js structure is the ability to create custom modules, which can be used to extend Nuxt.js's standard functionality or add new features to your application. This allows you to create customized solutions for specific problems that may arise during development.

In summary, the Nuxt.js structure is one of the main reasons why many developers choose this tool for creating Vue.js web applications. The clear file organization and inclusion of standard features make development faster and more efficient, allowing you to focus on creating the application itself rather than configuring basic features and functionalities.

Compilation ES6/ES7

Nuxt.js makes it easy to compile Vue.js applications that use ES6/ES7 features. It includes a set of features that simplify the transpilation of code to versions compatible with older browsers, as well as enabling the use of advanced JavaScript language features, such as async/await and modules.

Nuxt.js uses Babel as the default compiler to convert ES6/ES7 code into code compatible with older browsers. It also uses Webpack to bundle the code and generate output files.

When building an application with Nuxt.js, you can use advanced JavaScript language features without worrying about compatibility with older browsers. Additionally, Nuxt.js also makes it easy to use libraries and modules that require ES6/ES7 features.

The compilation process is transparent to the developer and happens automatically during the build process. This means you can focus on writing modern JavaScript code without worrying about compatibility with older browsers.

In summary, Nuxt.js simplifies the compilation of Vue.js applications with ES6/ES7 features, allowing you to use advanced JavaScript language features without headaches. It uses industry-standard tools such as Babel and Webpack to manage the transpilation and bundling of code, making the compilation process transparent to the developer.

Multiples modules

Nuxt has many modules to explore.