Nuxt/examples/plugins-vendor/README.md

Using external modules and plugins with nuxt.js

Configuration: build.vendor

Nuxt.js allows you to add modules inside the vendor.bundle.js file generated to reduce the size of the app bundle. It's really useful when using external modules (like axios for example)

To add a module/file inside the vendor bundle, add the build.vendor key inside nuxt.config.js:

const { join } = require('path')

module.exports = {
  build: {
    vendor: [
      'axios', // node module
      join(__dirname, './js/my-library.js') // custom file
    ]
  }
}

Configuration: plugins

Nuxt.js allows you to define js plugins to be ran before instantiating the root vue.js application

I want to use vue-notifications to validate the data in my inputs, I need to setup the plugin before launching the app.

File plugins/vue-notifications.js:

import Vue from 'vue'
import VueNotifications from 'vue-notifications'

Vue.use(VueNotifications)

Then, I add my file inside the plugins key of nuxt.config.js:

const { join } = require('path')

module.exports = {
  build: {
    vendor: ['vue-notifications']
  },
  plugins: [ '~plugins/vue-notifications' ]
}

I use ~plugins here because nuxt.js create an alias for the plugins/ folder, it's equivalent to: join(__dirname, './plugins/vue-notifications.js')

I added vue-notifications in the vendor key to make sure that it won't be included in any other build if I call require('vue-notifications') in a component.

Only in browser build

Some plugins might work only in the browser, for this, you can use the process.BROWSER_BUILD variable to check if the plugin will run from the server or from the client.

Example:

import Vue from 'vue'
import VueNotifications from 'vue-notifications'

if (process.BROWSER_BUILD) {
  Vue.use(VueNotifications)
}

Only in server build

In case you need to require some libraries only for the server, you can use the process.SERVER_BUILD variable set to true when webpack is creating the server.bundle.js file.

Demo

npm install
npm start

Go to http://localhost:3000 and navigate trough the pages.