Nuxt Laravel

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Disclaimer: I failed to tag previous versions of this module as a prerelease, please do not consider the api as stable.
Once the stable release is cut this disclaimer will be removed and the module will be versioned correctly.

Looking for the old CLI extension? nuxt-laravel.

This module makes it easy to integrate a NuxtJS SPA into a Laravel application.
The implementation is based on laravel-nuxt-js by skyrpex.

Hint: Use his composer extension laravel-nuxt if you want to forward multiple specific routes to nuxt.

Features

• Easily deploy an existing Nuxt app inside a Laravel application or vice versa
• Test your Nuxt app with live reloading, HMR and the auto-configured Laravel test server
• Seamlessly integrate Nuxt into the URL resolution of Laravel
• Share cookies and session state between frontend (Nuxt) and backend (Laravel) without the need for an API token

Setup

Installation

Hint: If your stating fresh consider cloning nuxt-laravel-starter

Install this package and its peer dependencies.

npm install --save-dev @nuxtjs/axios @nuxtjs/proxy nuxt-laravel@next

or

yarn add --dev @nuxtjs/axios @nuxtjs/proxy nuxt-laravel@next

Typescript

To have code completion/type checking on the Configuration interface from @nuxt/types, include the package in your tsconfig.json.

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    // ...
    "types": [
        "@nuxt/types",
        // ...
        "nuxt-laravel"
    ]
  }
}

Configuration

Simply include nuxt-laravel in modules and set the mode setting to 'spa' in your nuxt.config.js

export default {
  mode: 'spa',
  modules: [
    // Include it first, so that configuration alterations are propagated to other modules
    'nuxt-laravel'
    // ... other modules
  ]
}

If your package.json lives in the Laravel root folder you are done.

Otherwise set the path to your Laravel root folder through the configuration.

export default {
  mode: 'spa',
  modules: [
    'nuxt-laravel'
  ],
  laravel: {
    root: './path/to/laravel'
  }
}

Module Options

option	type	description	default
root	string	Path to laravel directory (is resolved relative to process.cwd())	process.cwd()
publicDir	string	The folder where laravel serves assets from (is resolved relative to root)	'public'
outputPath	string	File location to which an additional index route will be rendered, useful if you want to store it in a folder outside of Laravels public dir (is resolved relative to root)	null
server	boolean or object	Settings for the Laravel testserver	(see below)
swCache	boolean or object	Settings for a cache endpoint workbox extensions using @nuxtjs/pwa	(see below)
dotEnvExport	boolean	Whether the NUXT_OUTPUT_PATH varibale should be written to the .env file in the laravel root directory	false

The module loads the .env file from your laravel root, so you can set the NUXT_OUTPUT_PATH environment variable from there.

The server setting

If this setting is set to false the module will be disabled for development.
Setting this to true is equivalent to omitting it and will simply use the default configuration.

option	type	description	default
host	string	Hostname for the testserver	nuxtConfig.server.host
port	number	Port for the testserver	nuxtConfig.server.port + 1

The swCache setting

To use this setting you have to install the optional dependency @nuxtjs/pwa.

npm install --save-dev @nuxtjs/pwa

or

yarn add --dev @nuxtjs/pwa

If this setting is set to true the caching endpoint will be added with the default configuration.

option	type	description	default
name	string	The name for the cache to which values are written	'__nuxt_laravel'
fileName	string	The name for the file generated in the nuxt buildDir	'workbox.cache.js'
endpoint	string	The endpoint to which values can be posted/from which values can be gotten (get) from	'/__nuxt_laravel_cache'

Path resolution inside publicDir

If nuxtConfig.router.base is not set the SPA will be generated in the publicDir root with an index file name of spa.html.
If nuxtConfig.router.base is set the SPA will be generated in a corresponding location inside publicDir with the default index file name index.html.

Laravel integration

Laravel integration is accomplished through two environment variables.

• APP_URL:
  Laravel uses this to generate asset URLs.

  • When the Laravel test server is started through this module this variable is overwritten with the nuxt test server URL origin via putenv.

• NUXT_OUTPUT_PATH:
  Use this variable to redirect all web traffic to, which you want handled by nuxt.

  • When the Laravel test server is started through this module this variable is overwritten with a special index route on the nuxt test server via putenv.
  • When nuxt is build through this module (and dotEnvExport is truthy) this variable will be written to the .env file in laravels root directory, containing the resolved outputPath (see above).

❗❗❗ Attention ❗❗❗:
You have to use PHPs native getenv() function, instead of Laravels env() helper to retrieve these varaibles,
because the Laravel helper ignores putenv vars.

Example scaffolding in existent Laravel application

1. Create a new nuxt app in resources/nuxt

   npx create-nuxt-app resources/nuxt

2. Migrate all dependencies and scipts (most importantly dev and build) from resources/nuxt/package.json into package.json in Laravel root and delete it

3. Move all configuration files from resources/nuxt to Laravel root (or merge where appropiate, e.g. .editorconfig)

4. Install the module and it's peer dependencies

   npm i -D nuxt-laravel@next @nuxtjs/axios @nuxtjs/proxy

5. Update nuxt.config.js

   module.exports = {
     srcDir: 'resources/nuxt',
     mode: 'spa',
     // ... other config
     modules: [
       'nuxt-laravel',
       // ... other modules
     ]
   }

6. (Optional) If you use jest, or other tools that reference the Nuxt root independently, you have to update thier respective configuration to make them work correctly.
   Example jest.config.js:

   module.exports = {
     rootDir: 'resources/nuxt',
     // ... other configurtion
   }

Example Laravel configuration

config/app.php:

    // ...
    /*
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | Application URL
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | This URL is used by the console to properly generate URLs when using
    | the Artisan command line tool. You should set this to the root of
    | your application so that it is used when running Artisan tasks.
    |
    */

    'url' => getenv('APP_URL') ?: 'http://localhost:8000',

    // ...

Forwarding all undefined routes to nuxt

routes/web.php:

// ...
// Add this route last as a catch all for undefined routes.
Route::get(
    '{path?}',
    function($request) {
      // ...
      // If the request expects JSON, it means that
      // someone sent a request to an invalid route.
      if ($request->expectsJson()) {
          abort(404);
      }

      // Fetch and display the page from the render path on nuxt dev server or fallback to static file
      return file_get_contents(getenv('NUXT_OUTPUT_PATH') ?: public_path('spa.html'));
    }
)->where('path', '.*')
 // Redirect to Nuxt from within Laravel
 // by using Laravels route helper
 // e.g.: `route('nuxt', ['path' => '/<nuxtPath>'])`
 ->name('nuxt');

Forward multiple specific routes to nuxt (using laravel-nuxt)

Make sure nuxt path resolution of nuxt router corresponds to the defined routes.
This example assumes option nuxtConfig.router.base to have been set to '/app/'

❗❗❗ Attention ❗❗❗:
Nuxt router has problems resolving the root route without a trailing slash.
You will have to handle this in your server configuration:

• Nginx: rewrite ^/app$ /app/ last;

• Apache: RewriteRule ^/app$ /app/ [L]

• Artisan: In server file:

  // ...
  
  // This file allows us to emulate Apache's "mod_rewrite" functionality from the
  // built-in PHP web server. This provides a convenient way to test a Laravel
  // application without having installed a "real" web server software here.
  if ('/app' === $uri) {
      header('Status: 301 Moved Permanently', false, 301);
      header('Location: '.$uri.'/');
  
      return true;
  } elseif ('/' !== $uri && file_exists(__DIR__.'/public'.$uri)) {
      return false;
  }
  
  // ...

config/nuxt.php:

return [
    /**
     * In production, the SPA page will be located in the filesystem.
     * The location can be set by env variable NUXT_OUTPUT_PATH or falls back to a static file location
     *
     * In development, the SPA page will be fetched from the nuxt development server.
     * The nuxt server URL will be passed by overwriting the env variable NUXT_OUTPUT_PATH.
     */
    'page' => getenv('NUXT_OUTPUT_PATH') ?: public_path('app/index.html')
];

routes/web.php:

/**
 * Forward specific route to nuxt router
 *
 * This route is redered by `<nuxtRoot>/pages/index.vue`
 */
Route::get(
    'app',
    '\\'.Pallares\LaravelNuxt\Controllers\NuxtController::class
)->name('nuxt');

/**
 * Forward all paths under a specific URI to nuxt router
 *
 * These routes are rendered by:
 * - if `{path} = '/'`
 *   `<nuxtRoot>/pages/subpage.vue`
 *    or
 *   `<nuxtRoot>/pages/subpage/index.vue`
 *
 * - if `{path} = '/<path>'` (`<path>` may contain slashes '/')
 *   `<nuxtRoot>/pages/subpage/<path>.vue`
 *   or
 *   `<nuxtRoot>/pages/subpage/<path>/index.vue`
 */
Route::get(
    'app/subpage{path?}',
    '\\'.Pallares\LaravelNuxt\Controllers\NuxtController::class
)->where('path', '.*')
 // Redirect to a spcific subpage/<path> from within Laravel
 // by using Laravels route helper
 // e.g.: `route('nuxt.subpage', ['path' => '/<path>'])`
 ->name('nuxt.subpage');