What Is Vue CLI?

Vue CLI, or Vue Command Line Interface, is a powerful tool developed by the Vue.js team to facilitate the rapid development of Vue.js applications. It provides a standardized system for scaffolding new projects, adding plugins, and managing various aspects of the application lifecycle, from development to production. By automating tedious setup processes, Vue CLI allows developers to focus on building their applications. Integrating concepts such as “project scaffolding,” “plugin management,” “build tooling,” and “SPA (Single Page Application) development,” this article explores Vue CLI’s features, benefits, and how it empowers developers to create complex applications efficiently.

Understanding Vue CLI

Vue CLI is built upon the premise that modern web development workflows need to be streamlined to be efficient and effective. It offers a complete set of tools and utilities for the rapid development of Vue.js applications, including a powerful GUI (Graphical User Interface) for project management, a plugin system for extending the framework’s capabilities, and presets for configuring projects according to specific needs.

Benefits of Using Vue CLI

• Rapid Project Scaffolding: Quickly generates the boilerplate code necessary for a new Vue.js project, including configurations for webpack, Babel, and ESLint.
• Extensible Plugin System: Allows for the seamless addition of new features and capabilities to your project through plugins, such as Vue Router, Vuex, and various third-party plugins.
• Environment Agnostic Build Tooling: Provides pre-configured build setups for development, testing, and production environments, supporting features like hot module replacement, code splitting, and tree shaking out of the box.
• GUI for Project Management: The Vue CLI GUI makes it easy to create new projects, manage dependencies, and perform tasks without directly interacting with the CLI, enhancing the developer experience.

How to Use Vue CLI

Installing Vue CLI

To get started with Vue CLI, you first need to install it globally on your machine using npm (Node Package Manager):

npm install -g @vue/cli<br>

Creating a New Project

Once Vue CLI is installed, you can create a new Vue.js project by running:

vue create my-project-name<br>

This command prompts you to select a preset (a pre-defined set of plugins and configurations) or manually select features for your project.

Adding Plugins

You can extend your project with additional Vue CLI plugins by running:

vue add plugin-name<br>

This automatically installs the plugin and invokes it, integrating it into your project.

Serving and Building the Project

• To launch a development server with hot-reload at localhost:8080, use:shCopy codevue serve
• To build your project for production, use:shCopy codevue build

Vue CLI and Single Page Application (SPA) Development

Vue CLI is particularly suited for developing SPAs. It comes with Vue Router integration, enabling developers to easily set up client-side routing. Its build tooling is optimized for SPAs, ensuring efficient code splitting, lazy loading routes, and performance optimization out of the box.

Frequently Asked Questions Related to Vue CLI