A Step-by-Step Guide to Vue Server-Side Rendering

Vue SSR (Server-Side Rendering) is a powerful concept in web development that allows you to render your Vue application on the server before sending it to the client. This can help with boosting performance, improving SEO, and providing a better user experience. In this tutorial, we will cover the basics of Vue SSR and how to set it up in your Vue application.

1. What is Vue SSR?

Vue SSR is the process of rendering your Vue application on the server before sending it to the client. This means that when a user requests a page from your website, the server will generate the HTML content of the page and send it to the client, rather than having the client render the page with JavaScript in the browser. This can help with improving performance, especially for users with slower devices or connections, as well as providing better SEO by making your content more easily indexable by search engines.

1. Setting up Vue SSR in your Vue application

To set up Vue SSR in your Vue application, you will need to install the Vue CLI and create a new project. If you already have a Vue project, you can skip this step and move on to the next.

First, install the Vue CLI by running the following command in your terminal:

npm install -g @vue/cli

Next, create a new Vue project by running the following command:

vue create my-ssr-app

Follow the prompts to configure your Vue project. Once the project is created, navigate to the project directory and install the necessary dependencies by running the following command:

npm install vue-server-renderer

1. Creating a server.js file

To enable SSR in your Vue application, you will need to create a server.js file in the root of your project directory. This file will be used to set up a Node.js server that will render your Vue application on the server.

In the server.js file, add the following code:

const express = require('express');
const serverRenderer = require('vue-server-renderer');

const app = express();

app.get('*', (req, res) => {
  const renderer = serverRenderer.createRenderer();
  const context = { url: req.url };

  renderer.renderToString(context, (err, html) => {
    if (err) {
      res.status(500).send('Internal Server Error');
    } else {
      res.send(html);
    }
  });
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server is running on http://localhost:3000');
});

1. Adding SSR support to your Vue application

To add SSR support to your Vue application, you will need to modify your main Vue component to make it SSR-friendly. This means removing any browser-specific code and ensuring that your component is rendered correctly on the server.

In your main Vue component, make sure to export it as a function that returns a new instance of Vue:

export default () => {
  return new Vue({
    // Your Vue component options here
  });
};

Next, update your entry point file (usually main.js) to import the main Vue component as a function and render it on the server:

import { createApp } from './main';

createApp().$mount('#app');

1. Running your Vue SSR application

To run your Vue SSR application, start the Node.js server by running the following command in your terminal:

node server.js

Visit http://localhost:3000 in your browser to see your Vue SSR application in action!

That’s it! You have successfully set up Vue SSR in your Vue application. Experiment with adding more features and optimizing your application for better performance. Vue SSR can be a powerful tool for improving the user experience and SEO of your Vue application.