Vue 2.0 boilerplate for ProcessWire 3.0

[microcipcip]

Hi, I have created a site profile that shows how to integrate ProcessWire 3.0 with Vue 2.0. See repository here.

 

How this site profile works

This ProcessWire site profile is loosely based on the REST API tutorial by @gebeer. Here are the most important steps to reproduce it:

 

Admin settings

• Create an api template with default settings and just the title field assigned to it. Refer to @gebeer tutorial for further details

• Create a pages and nav templates with just the title field, for both template tick “Allow URL Segments” in the “URLs” tab (see attachment)

• Create a home template, this is going to be the single php file that will load your Vue SPA. Assign this template to the root of your website

• Any other template you create should have the “Alternate Template Filename” field in the “Files” tab set as home (see attachment), in this way if a user enter the website from any url that is not the root, ProcessWire will always redirect to the home template, Vue router will handle the url and call the right data through the REST API

• Under the root, create an api page and assign the api template to it (you can set “hidden” to this page so doesn't show up in the menu)

• Under the api page, create the pages nav and pages (see attachment), and assign the templates nav and pages to them. Now you have the www.sitename.com/api/pages and www.sitename.com/api/nav urls that you can use to fetch the JSON data

 

PHP template setup

• In the templates folder, create home.php file and leave it empty, the HTML will be generated by webpack

• Now create pages.php and nav.php files. On these files is where we return the JSON data, based on the right url segment. Again, refer to @gebeer tutorial for further details on this matter. Note that I wrote a PageFields class that I use on these templates to fetch ProcessWire fields. The fields that are supported are text, textarea, repeater, img. Other fields may work but I haven't tested them. See the REST API setup for further details about how to use the PageFields class

REST API setup

You can decide what fields are included and what fields are excluded by passing a configuration array to the PageFields class. You can find here a list of the available configuration settings. See examples below.

 

• Show only selected core fields:

  $pageFields = new PageFields($p, [
    'fld_core_included' => ['url', 'httpUrl', 'template']
  ]);

   

• Show no global fields, and only selected custom fields:

  $pageFields = new PageFields($p, [
    'fld_core_included' => [],
    'fld_include_all' => false,
    'fld_included' => ['title', 'gallery'],
  ]);

   

• On a gallery image field, hide breakpoint listing and show only httpUrl field:

  $pageFields = new PageFields($p, [
    'img_fld_overrides' => [
      'gallery' => [ 'fields' => ['httpUrl'], 'bp_list' => false ]
    ],
  ]);

   

Webpack setup

The most important file of all Webpack setup is config/index.js. On line 33 you need to provide your domain name so that Webpack can proxy the ProcessWire REST API to the Webpack dev server. Without this you wouldn't be able to take advandage of the Webpack hot module replacement feature which allows you to reload a vue module without refreshing the page, it also allows you to keep the state of the app.

 

Notes

My REST API may have bugs, this is just an example of an integration with ProcessWire, I suggest you either build your own REST API or use the awesome GraphQL module by @Nurguly Ashyrov.

Todo

Replace REST API with the GraphQL module. This requires vue-apollo, the Apollo/GraphQL integration with Vue, and vue-supply for integration with Vuex.

 

 

[bmacnaughton]

Very helpful - thank you.

[Ivan Gretsky]

Cool stuff, @microcipcip!

Please do write a tutorial when you have time. I am sure it will be useful to many of us in the community. Surely it will be for me .

It seems like your boilerplate is not in a site profile format. Is there a reason for that? If not, consider using it, as it is a common way to distribute site boilerplate code and could make your work easier to reuse for PW people.

[microcipcip]

@Ivan Gretsky ooops....I am a beginner PW user I didn't even know it was possible to do that! I'll check it out when I have the time, thanks

[microcipcip]

@Ivan Gretsky Is there a way to customize the export or should I just edit the zip file and remove /node_modules/ and add all the config files that start with a dot that have been removed?

[Ivan Gretsky]

Hey, @microcipcip! I actually do not know if it is possible to do with the profile exporter via setting . Though I am sure it should be.

Removing node_modules should be easy - you can do it before the export (or temporary prefix the folder with a dot ). Adding .config type files is probably only possible the way you suggest.

But as I said I think all those things should be eventually possible to do with the module options, as it is very powerful way to share one's work in PW. Please list the issues you cannot overcome in the module support board or even better on github.

Edit: Seems like a .file issue is already present. I am going to add my voice to it. Please do too if you think it deserves it.

Edited March 13, 2017 by Ivan Gretsky

[microcipcip]

I have edited the github repository, now ProcessVue is a site profile and you can install it easily. Just note that the REST API may have bugs...I don't even remember how it works

[partounian]

Just wanted to say thanks for your work. You and @Nurguly Ashyrov are the people with projects who made me interested in ProcessWire. This outdated website doesn't give the best impression, but after a few FAQs and your threads, man am I interested. 

[microcipcip]

I am glad that this project is helping ProcessWire getting more devs on board :). I just want to say that I wouldn't have been able to finish ProcessVue if it wasn't for the amazing ProcessWire community. I believe that the community truly is the biggest selling point for new users (like me). Before trying ProcessWire I used OctoberCMS for a while but when I was stuck I got 0 support from the forums, so...althought the CMS is based on the amazing Laravel framework, I just left!

I think that ProcessWire is extremely powerful and flexible and with time will become the tool of choice for frontend developers, the new GraphQL module will also help on this direction. Droves of frontend developers are looking for a CMS like this, they just don't know it exists! The usual keywords they use when looking for a SPAs CMS is "Decoupled CMS" or "Headless CMS", and I believe that that's exactly what ProcessWire is for!

Some frontend developers prefer to use NodeJS, but the learning curve is huge if you need it for a non trivial project, and the worst thing of all is that after two weeks ANY js tool you may have used is outdated. See for example how Angular has been replaced with React or Vue, and Gulp with Webpack. That doesn't mean that I am against improvements in this regard, I just feel that it's just too much for us poor frontend devs to cope with! ProcessWire is stable, easy to use and won't change API every week.

BTW, after that I migrate ProcessVue to GraphQL I am also planning to add Auth0 login integration with JWT, as I think that login/signup is a common feature in SPAs. I am sure I'll have to annoy @Nurguly Ashyrov and the rest of ProcessWire community for getting it in sync with ProcessWire users, but the result should be quite useful

[adrian]

Hi @microcipcip - thanks for a really great commentary on PW, what frontend devs are looking for, and how PW can fit those needs.

I am really excited to see your integration of GraphQL into your ProcessVue site profile - definitely planning on using it on an upcoming project.

Thanks again for all your great work on this.

[thomasaull]

Awesome site profile. I'm about to integrate it with Fast Route (https://github.com/nikic/FastRoute) and would love to see an integration with GraphQL and an example with JWT Login

[microcipcip]

Thanks @thomasaull ATM I am waiting for GraphQL module support for RepeaterFields before I integrate it in processvue. I'll implement the JWT login later on because I haven't used it before so I need to learn how it works, but it is definitely on my list of things to do. I don't know how JWT should integrate with GraphQL too, I'll probably ask @Nurguly Ashyrov if he has any idea of how I should integrate it.

There's also the problem that GraphQL allows you way too much freedom on what kind of query you can perform on the client, to prevent that I've got to implement persisted queries.

[thomasaull]

Sounds good. I recently read some stuff about JWT, maybe I'm gonna give it a shot trying to implement it with a default REST Api… Not sure if I got the time though…

This articles has some overview info: https://www.sitepoint.com/php-authorization-jwt-json-web-tokens/
And this is a library for doing the stuff in PHP: https://github.com/firebase/php-jwt

[microcipcip]

Thanks @thomasaull that would be great! There is an amazing new tutorial https://auth0.com/blog/vuejs2-authentication-tutorial/ if you don't mind having the users saved on Auth0. After all, Auth0 is the company behind the JWT website so they should implement it properly and you can obviosuly still keep all users in sync with ProcessWire db. But regarding Rest API I'd rather use GraphQL instead because that seems more flexible.

[thomasaull]

Thx for the hint to this tutorial @microcipcip and sry for my late reply. No progress so far… ? Storing the users at an external server is no option in this case, but maybe there's usefull stuff in there anyway

GraphQL seems to be really nice, but I'm not sure if it's to early to adopt it. If, the way to go seems to use the Vue-Apollo: https://github.com/Akryum/vue-apollo
Any other pointers from your side?

[microcipcip]

On 30/05/2017 at 11:27 AM, thomasaull said:

Any other pointers from your side?

No, whichever way you choose I think that a login process with Vue will be greately appreciated by the community

[joer80]

I get an error with a clean install when I run "npm i"

Error: Cannot find module '/home/goac/mywebsitehere/site/templates/client/node_modules/node-sass/scripts/install.js'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:469:15)

 

[microcipcip]

17 hours ago, joer80 said:

I get an error with a clean install when I run "npm i"

Error: Cannot find module '/home/goac/mywebsitehere/site/templates/client/node_modules/node-sass/scripts/install.js'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:469:15)

 

That is unlikely an error with the ProcessVue template. Are you using Ubuntu? I found this thread with a similar problem where they fixed it by using the "--unsafe-perm" flag during "npm i", so basically you'd have to run it with this command: "npm --unsafe-perm i". Edit: from that thread it seems that the user you're using may not have the right write permissions.

[joer80]

6 hours ago, microcipcip said:

That is unlikely an error with the ProcessVue template. Are you using Ubuntu? I found this thread with a similar problem where they fixed it by using the "--unsafe-perm" flag during "npm i", so basically you'd have to run it with this command: "npm --unsafe-perm i". Edit: from that thread it seems that the user you're using may not have the right write permissions.

 

When I login as root and run npm i it says:

npm WARN prefer global node-gyp@3.6.2 should be installed with -g

> node-sass@4.5.3 install /home/goac/vue.greggorrauto.com/site/templates/client/node_modules/node-sass
> node scripts/install.js

module.js:471
    throw err;
    ^

Error: Cannot find module '/home/goac/websitehere/site/templates/client/node_modules/node-sass/scripts/install.js'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:469:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:417:25)
    at Module.runMain (module.js:604:10)
    at run (bootstrap_node.js:389:7)
    at startup (bootstrap_node.js:149:9)
    at bootstrap_node.js:504:3

 

On Centos

[joer80]

Its working now!  I think the "npm --unsafe-perm" i did it!

[microcipcip]

12 hours ago, joer80 said:

Its working now!  I think the "npm --unsafe-perm" i did it!

Glad you got it working

[rocket]

Is this thread still active? I have developed a couple of Processwire sites, and I use Npm, Stylus, Webpack, and Wamp64 for development. However, I cannot make sense of your Github installation directions. Here is my first stop point:

Quote

Load the URL to your ProcessWire installation in your browser to initiate the installer. Select the "ProcessVue" profile from the dropdown when prompted to do so. The installer will take care of the rest.

My browser loads my Processwire installation from only two places, my site directory, or the PW admin site. How do you get it to load somewhere else? What "dropdown"?

I am relatively new to PW. I like it, but I must be missing something. A lot of the docs are like " How to draw an owl: First draw two circles. Then draw the rest of the owl. Congratulations."

[abdus]

1 hour ago, rocket said:

Select the "ProcessVue" profile from the dropdown when prompted to do so. The installer will take care of the rest.

He means the initial setup & configuration. Even before you set up your database. Like this one

https://processwire.com/docs/tutorials/installation-moving-and-troubleshooting/page4

 

[rocket]

Thanks. I thought the OP was talking about some self-installer in the site-processvue folder. I didn't realize it required a whole re-install of Processwire.

[microcipcip]

On 08/09/2017 at 2:41 PM, rocket said:

Thanks. I thought the OP was talking about some self-installer in the site-processvue folder. I didn't realize it required a whole re-install of Processwire.

AFAIK this is the way ProcessWire theme install works. If you want you can install it manually but it will require more time, you have to follow the instructions in the first post of this thread.