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Basic functionality

For now we can forget the fancy environment setup we have already done. We can use a simple web editor to learn the basics functionalities of Vue. The web editor makes it easy for us to freely try out stuff by trial and error.

You can open up an example codesandbox session here: https://codesandbox.io/s/github/vuejs/vuejs.org/tree/master/src/v2/examples/vue-20-hello-world

If you prefer something more interactive, you can also check out this tutorial series on Scrimba, which gives you a mix of screencast and code playground that you can pause and play around with anytime.

Declarative Rendering

At the core of Vue.js is a system that enables us to declaratively render data to the DOM using straightforward template syntax:

<div id="app">
  {{ message }}
</div>

var app = new Vue({
  el: '#app',
  data: {
    message: 'Hello Vue!'
  }
})

We have already created our very first Vue app! This looks pretty similar to rendering a string template, but Vue has done a lot of work under the hood. The data and the DOM are now linked, and everything is now reactive.

Note that we no longer have to interact with the HTML directly. A Vue app attaches itself to a single DOM element (#app in our case) then fully controls it. The HTML is our entry point, but everything else happens within the newly created Vue instance.

In addition to text interpolation, we can also bind element attributes like this:

<div id="app-2">
  <span v-bind:title="message">
    Hover your mouse over me for a few seconds
    to see my dynamically bound title!
  </span>
</div>

Here we are encountering something new. The v-bind attribute you are seeing is called a directive. Directives are prefixed with v- to indicate that they are special attributes provided by Vue, and as you may have guessed, they apply special reactive behavior to the rendered DOM. Here, it is basically saying “keep this element’s title attribute up-to-date with the message property on the Vue instance.”

Conditionals and Loops

It’s easy to toggle the presence of an element, too:

<div id="app-3">
  <span v-if="seen">Now you see me</span>
</div>

var app3 = new Vue({
  el: '#app-3',
  data: {
    seen: true
  }
})

This example demonstrates that we can bind data to not only text and attributes, but also the structure of the DOM. Moreover, Vue also provides a powerful transition effect system that can automatically apply transition effects when elements are inserted/updated/removed by Vue.

There are quite a few other directives, each with its own special functionality. For example, the v-for directive can be used for displaying a list of items using the data from an Array:

<div id="app-4">
  <ol>
    <li v-for="todo in todos">
      {{ todo.text }}
    </li>
  </ol>
</div>

var app4 = new Vue({
  el: '#app-4',
  data: {
    todos: [
      { text: 'Learn JavaScript' },
      { text: 'Learn Vue' },
      { text: 'Build something awesome' }
    ]
  }
})

Handling User Input

To let users interact with your app, we can use the v-on directive to attach event listeners that invoke methods on our Vue instances:

<div id="app-5">
  <p>{{ message }}</p>
  <button v-on:click="reverseMessage">Reverse Message</button>
</div>

var app5 = new Vue({
  el: '#app-5',
  data: {
    message: 'Hello Vue.js!'
  },
  methods: {
    reverseMessage: function () {
      this.message = this.message.split('').reverse().join('')
    }
  }
})

Note that in this method we update the state of our app without touching the DOM - all DOM manipulations are handled by Vue, and the code you write is focused on the underlying logic.

Vue also provides the v-model directive that makes two-way binding between form input and app state a breeze:

<div id="app-6">
  <p>{{ message }}</p>
  <input v-model="message">
</div>

var app6 = new Vue({
  el: '#app-6',
  data: {
    message: 'Hello Vue!'
  }
})

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