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Building a Vue 3 Application with JSON Server and Axios

Jan 2, 2022

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Vue is a front-end JavaScript framework used to create single-page apps that run on the client-side. It can also be used to create full-stack applications by making HTTP requests to a backend server. It is popular with Node.js and the Express(MEVN stack).

JSON server is an npm package that lets you create mock REST APIs with zero coding. It is used to create a simple JSON file that can be used as a database and responds to HTTP requests.

Axios is the HTTP client that we will use to make HTTP requests to the JSON server.

In this article, we will build a shopping list application. We will start with a blank Vue.js application, then add the JSON server for local data storage, and Axios for making HTTP requests:

shopping-list

Prerequisites

To follow along with this tutorial, you are required to have the following:

  • Node.js installed.
  • Some JavaScript knowledge.

Creating a new Vue.js application

Assuming you have installed Node on your computer, run the following commands in your terminal to install Vue CLI:

$ npm install -g @vue/cli

After the installation, create a new project using:

$ vue create shopping-list

Navigate to the shopping-list folder and open the project in your preferred code editor. If you are using VS Code, run the following command to open the project in VS Code:

$ cd shopping-list
$ code .

Then run the following command to start the Vue.js application:

$ npm run serve

The application will run on http://localhost:8080/ in the browser. You should now see the default Vue homepage running in your browser.

Setting up the JSON server

Let’s now create a simple JSON file that will be used as a database.

Inside our shopping-list directory, create a file named data.json:

$ touch data.json

Let’s add the following data in the file:

{
  "items":[
      {
      "id":0,
      "name":"Carrots"
      },
      {
      "id":1,
      "name":"Cabbage"
      },
      {
      "id":2,
      "name":"Banana"
      },
      {
      "id":0,
      "name":"Cakes"
      }
  ]
}

We have created a shopping list object containing a list of items together with their IDs. To use this data in our application, we need to use json-server. Run the following command to install the package:

# Install json-server globally
$ npm install json-server -g 
$ json-server data.json

The command json-server will start a server using the data in our data.json file.

By default, the server runs on localhost port 3000. If you navigate to http://localhost:3000/items in your browser, you should get the JSON response from the server.

Getting HTTP data within our application

To access the data in our application, we need to use the HTTP client Axios.

Let’s install the package:

$ npm install axios

After the installation, we can now import axios in our application.

In our App.vue, let’s remove everything inside the template, script, and style tags. Add the following code:

<template>
  <div id="app">
    <h1>Shopping List</h1>
  </div>
  <ul>
    <li v-for="item of items" :key="item.id">
      {{ item.name }}
    </li>
  </ul>
</template>
<script>
import axios from "axios";
export default {
  name: "App",
  data() {
    return {
      items: [],
    };
  },
  async created() {
    try {
      const res = await axios.get(`http://localhost:3000/items`);
      this.items = res.data;
    } catch (error) {
      console.log(error);
    }
  },
};
</script>
<style>
#app {
  text-align: center;
  color: #2c3e50;
  margin-top: 60px;
}
li {
  list-style: none;
}
</style>

Let’s explain the code above.

import axios from "axios";

Here, we have imported Axios that will help us access the data in the data.json file.

We have utilized the async and await mechanism, which builds on promises and allows you to construct asynchronous code.

async created() {
    // ...
}

Here, we have used the created() hook which will be used for fetching data from backend API and setting it to data properties. The async keyword is pre-pended on the created() function to show that the function will make use of promises and we’ll be using it to wait and pause execution until data from the server is resolved.

try {
   const res = await axios.get(`http://localhost:3000/items`);
}

We have used try/catch blocks to catch errors. The try block is used to get the data from the server while catch is used to handle the error if one occurs.

Adding data using a POST request

You can make POST, PUT, PATCH or DELETE requests to the database using Axios.

POST is an HTTP method used to create or add data to the database. In our methods, let’s add the addItem function to add an item to our shopping list:

<template>
  <div id="app">
    <h1>Shopping List</h1>
    <input v-model="itemName" type="text" /><br />
    <button @click="addItem()">Add Item</button>
  </div>
  <ul>
    <li v-for="item of items" :key="item.id">
      {{ item.name }}
    </li>
  </ul>
</template>
<script>
import axios from "axios";
export default {
  name: "App",
  data() {
    return {
      items: [],
      itemName: "",
    };
  },
  async created() {
    try {
      const res = await axios.get(`http://localhost:3000/items`);
      this.items = res.data;
    } catch (error) {
      console.log(error);
    }
  },
  methods: {
    async addItem() {
      const res = await axios.post(`http://localhost:3000/items`, {
        name: this.itemName,
      });
      this.items = [...this.items, res.data];
      this.itemName = "";
    },
  },
};
</script>

adding input area and a button

Here, we have added an input area and a button. We have also added addItem() method that is called once you click the button to add the item. The JSON server handles the id property by incrementing it by 1 automatically. We are then setting the new items to contain every item element, and then adding the item to the end of the list.

Updating data using a PATCH request

We can use the PATCH method to update one value in an object. We will be striking out the items we already bought by adding the following function to our methods:

async boughtItem(id) {
    try {
        await axios.patch(`${`http://localhost:3000/items`}/${id}`, {
            boughtItem: true
        });
        this.items = this.items.map(item => {
            if (item.id === id) {
                item.boughtItem = true;
            }
            return item;
        });
    } catch (error) {
        console.error(error);
    }
}

Deleting data using a DELETE request

The DELETE method is a request used to delete specific data in an HTTP server.

We can add the delete functionality by adding the following function to our methods:

removeItem(id) {
    axios.delete(`http://localhost:3000/items/${id}`)
    this.items = this.items.filter(item => item.id !== id)
}

After adding the two methods to our App.vue, we should have the following code:

<template>
  <div class="container">
    <div id="app">
      <h1>Shopping List</h1>
      <input v-model="itemName" @keyup.enter="addItem" type="text" /><br />
      <button @click="addItem()">Add Item</button>
    </div>
    <ul>
      <li
        v-for="item of items"
        :class="{ bought: item.bought }"
        :key="item.id"
        @click="boughtItem(item.id)"
        @dblclick="removeItem(item.id)"
      >
        {{ item.name }}
      </li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</template>
<script>
import axios from "axios";
export default {
  name: "App",
  data() {
    return {
      items: [],
      itemName: "",
    };
  },
  async created() {
    try {
      const res = await axios.get(`http://localhost:3000/items`);
      this.items = res.data;
    } catch (error) {
      console.log(error);
    }
  },
  methods: {
    async boughtItem(id) {
      await axios.patch(`http://localhost:3000/items/${id}`, {
        bought: true,
      });
      this.items = this.items.map((item) => {
        if (item.id === id) {
          item.bought = true;
        }
        return item;
      });
    },
    //on double clicking the item, it will call removeItem(id) method
    removeItem(id) {
      axios.delete(`http://localhost:3000/items/${id}`);
      this.items = this.items.filter((item) => item.id !== id);
    },
    //method for adding items in the list
    async addItem() {
      const res = await axios.post(`http://localhost:3000/items`, {
        name: this.itemName,
      });
      this.items = [...this.items, res.data];
      this.itemName = "";
    },
  },
};
</script>

Let’s explain the code above.

<li
    v-for="item of items"
    :class="{ bought: item.bought }"
    :key="item.id"
    @click="boughtItem(item.id)"
    @dblclick="removeItem(item.id)"
>

Here, we have used the @click and @dblclick directives to listen to DOM events and run some JavaScript when they’re triggered. When the user clicks on an item, the boughtItem function is called. This will update the done property of the selected item to true in the API. When the user double clicks on an item, the removeItem method is called, removing the item.

To make our application a little less bare, add the following style to your App.vue file:

<style>
#app {
  text-align: center;
  color: #2c3e50;
}
.container {
  background-color: #24e02dd2;
  max-width: 400px;
  margin: 0 auto;
  border-radius: 8px;
}
li {
  font-size: 1.5rem;
  list-style: none;
}
button {
  margin-top: 5px;
  background-color: #3498db;
  border: none;
  color: #ffffff;
  padding: 10px 20px;
  font-size: 14px;
  cursor: pointer;
  border-radius: 4px;
}
input {
  margin-top: 5px;
  padding: 10px 20px;
  font-size: 14px;
  border-radius: 4px;
}
.bought {
  text-decoration: line-through;
}
</style>

In your browser, you should see the application with the list of items. The items should be struck out when you click on them and deleted when you double click on them. shopping-list

Here is my GitHub repo containing fully working code.

Conclusion

In this article, we used json-server to create an API that you can consume using Axios and Vue 3.0. We used GET, POST, PATCH, DELETE HTTP methods to interact with the API. Axios is recommended for more sophisticated requests since it enables different settings of numerous requests in one location.

Further reading

Happy coding!

EngEd Author Bio
author-photo

Terrypha Wamaitha

Terrypha is an undergraduate computer science student at Meru university. She is passionate about computer programing, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. She is open to research and collaborations.

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