What is it?

A minimal guide to publish vue component to npm.

Publish Vue component as NPM Package in 5 minutes.

• What is it?
• Publish Vue component as NPM Package in 5 minutes.
• Expected Usage
• Steps
  • Folder strcture
  • package.json
  • ./src/index.js
  • ./build/rollup.config.js
  • ./src/my-component.vue
• Serve
• Build
• Publish

Expected Usage

In your Vue app

<template>
    <MyComponent></MyComponent>
</template>

<script>
import MyComponent from '@ansonhkg/my-component'
default export {
    components:{
        MyComponent
    }
}
</script>

Steps

Folder strcture

Generate the following directory structure in your project folder.

package.json
build/
    rollup.config.js
src/
    index.js
    my-component.vue
dist/

package.json

• Minimum setup for package.json. Replace my-component with your component name.
• "name": "my-component" is referring to your npm package name that you are going to publish. It has to be unique, so normally I would prepend it with my username eg. "name": "@ansonhkg/my-component".

{
  "name": "@ansonhkg/my-component", // <== CHANGE THIS
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "main": "dist/my-component.umd.js", // <== CHANGE THIS
  "module": "dist/my-component.esm.js", // <== CHANGE THIS
  "unpkg": "dist/my-component.min.js", // <== CHANGE THIS
  "browser": {
    "./sfc": "src/my-component.vue" // <== CHANGE THIS
  },
  "scripts": {
    "build": "npm run build:umd & npm run build:es & npm run build:unpkg",
    "build:umd": "rollup --config build/rollup.config.js --format umd --file dist/my-component.umd.js", // <== CHANGE THIS
    "build:es": "rollup --config build/rollup.config.js --format es --file dist/my-component.esm.js", // <== CHANGE THIS
    "build:unpkg": "rollup --config build/rollup.config.js --format iife --file dist/my-component.min.js" // <== CHANGE THIS
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "rollup": "^1.17.0",
    "rollup-plugin-buble": "^0.19.8",
    "rollup-plugin-commonjs": "^10.0.1",
    "rollup-plugin-vue": "^5.0.1",
    "vue": "^2.6.10",
    "vue-template-compiler": "^2.6.10"
  }
}

./src/index.js

This file provides an install function for Vue to detect if this indeed a Vue application, then install the component automatically.

// Import vue component
import component from './my-component.vue'; // <== CHANGE THIS

// Declare install function executed by Vue.use()
export function install(Vue) {
	if (install.installed) return;
	install.installed = true;
	Vue.component('MyComponent', component); // <== CHANGE THIS
}

// Create module definition for Vue.use()
const plugin = {
	install,
};

// Auto-install when vue is found (eg. in browser via <script> tag)
let GlobalVue = null;
if (typeof window !== 'undefined') {
	GlobalVue = window.Vue;
} else if (typeof global !== 'undefined') {
	GlobalVue = global.Vue;
}
if (GlobalVue) {
	GlobalVue.use(plugin);
}

// To allow use as module (npm/webpack/etc.) export component
export default component; 

./build/rollup.config.js

Minimum setup for Rollup configuration.

import commonjs from 'rollup-plugin-commonjs'; // Convert CommonJS modules to ES6
import vue from 'rollup-plugin-vue'; // Handle .vue SFC files
import buble from 'rollup-plugin-buble'; // Transpile/polyfill with reasonable browser support
export default {
    input: 'src/index.js', // Path relative to package.json
    output: {
        name: 'MyComponent', // CHANGE THIS
        exports: 'named',
    },
    plugins: [
        commonjs(),
        vue({
            css: true, // Dynamically inject css as a <style> tag
            compileTemplate: true, // Explicitly convert template to render function
        }),
        buble(), // Transpile to ES5
    ],
};

./src/my-component.vue

A sample component for the sake of demonstration.

<template>
  <div class="container">This is an example component.</div>
</template>

<script>
export default {
  mounted() {
    console.log("Example component is mounted!");
  }
};
</script>

<style>
.container {
  background-color: red;
  padding: 10px;
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  position: absolute;
}
</style>

Serve

Install @vue/cli if you haven't done so.

vue serve --open src/my-component.vue

Build

yarn && yarn build

Publish

# initial publish
npm publish --access public

# ...then bump patch version and publish
yarn version --patch && yarn publish

If you don't have a NPM package account, you will need to sign one up. Once you have signed up, you can use the npm adduser command to login from the terminal.