unplugin-vue-components

What is unplugin-vue-components?

unplugin-vue-components is a plugin for Vue.js that automatically imports Vue components on demand. It helps to reduce the boilerplate code by eliminating the need to manually import components in your Vue files. This plugin supports various component libraries and can be configured to work with custom components as well.

What are unplugin-vue-components's main functionalities?

Automatic Component Import

This feature allows you to automatically import Vue components without having to manually import them in each file. The plugin scans your project and imports the components as needed.

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    require('unplugin-vue-components/webpack')({
      /* options */
    })
  ]
}

Support for Multiple Component Libraries

This feature allows you to use components from multiple libraries like Element Plus, Vant, etc., without manually importing them. The plugin provides resolvers for various popular libraries.

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    require('unplugin-vue-components/webpack')({
      resolvers: [
        require('unplugin-vue-components/resolvers').ElementPlusResolver(),
        require('unplugin-vue-components/resolvers').VantResolver()
      ]
    })
  ]
}

Custom Component Directories

You can configure the plugin to automatically import components from custom directories. This is useful for organizing your components in a way that suits your project structure.

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    require('unplugin-vue-components/webpack')({
      dirs: ['src/components', 'src/custom-components']
    })
  ]
}

Other packages similar to unplugin-vue-components

vite-plugin-components

vite-plugin-components is a Vite plugin that automatically imports Vue components on demand. It is similar to unplugin-vue-components but is specifically designed for Vite, a build tool that aims to provide a faster and leaner development experience for modern web projects.

babel-plugin-import

babel-plugin-import is a Babel plugin for importing components on demand. It is not limited to Vue and can be used with other libraries like Ant Design. It requires more configuration compared to unplugin-vue-components but offers similar functionality.

README

unplugin-vue-components

On-demand components auto importing for Vue.

Features

• 💚 Supports both Vue 2 and Vue 3 out-of-the-box.
• ✨ Supports both components and directives.
• ⚡️ Supports Vite, Webpack, Vue CLI, Rollup, esbuild and more, powered by unplugin.
• 🏝 Tree-shakable, only registers the components you use.
• 🪐 Folder names as namespaces.
• 🦾 Full TypeScript support.
• 🌈 Built-in resolvers for popular UI libraries.
• 😃 Works perfectly with unplugin-icons.

Installation

npm i unplugin-vue-components -D

vite-plugin-components has been renamed to unplugin-vue-components, see the migration guide.

Vite

// vite.config.ts
import Components from 'unplugin-vue-components/vite'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    Components({ /* options */ }),
  ],
})

Rollup

// rollup.config.js
import Components from 'unplugin-vue-components/rollup'

export default {
  plugins: [
    Components({ /* options */ }),
  ],
}

Webpack

// webpack.config.js
module.exports = {
  /* ... */
  plugins: [
    require('unplugin-vue-components/webpack')({ /* options */ }),
  ],
}

Nuxt

You might not need this plugin for Nuxt. Use @nuxt/components instead.

Vue CLI

// vue.config.js
module.exports = {
  configureWebpack: {
    plugins: [
      require('unplugin-vue-components/webpack')({ /* options */ }),
    ],
  },
}

esbuild

// esbuild.config.js
import { build } from 'esbuild'

build({
  /* ... */
  plugins: [
    require('unplugin-vue-components/esbuild')({
      /* options */
    }),
  ],
})

Usage

Use components in templates as you would usually do, it will import components on demand, and there is no import and component registration required anymore! If you register the parent component asynchronously (or lazy route), the auto-imported components will be code-split along with their parent.

It will automatically turn this

<template>
  <div>
    <HelloWorld msg="Hello Vue 3.0 + Vite" />
  </div>
</template>

<script>
export default {
  name: 'App'
}
</script>

into this

<template>
  <div>
    <HelloWorld msg="Hello Vue 3.0 + Vite" />
  </div>
</template>

<script>
import HelloWorld from './src/components/HelloWorld.vue'

export default {
  name: 'App',
  components: {
    HelloWorld
  }
}
</script>

TypeScript

To get TypeScript support for auto-imported components, there is a PR to Vue 3 extending the interface of global components. Currently, Volar has supported this usage already. If you are using Volar, you can change the config as following to get the support.

Components({
  dts: true, // enabled by default if `typescript` is installed
})

Once the setup is done, a components.d.ts will be generated and updates automatically with the type definitions. Feel free to commit it into git or not as you want.

Make sure you also add components.d.ts to your tsconfig.json under includes.

Importing from UI Libraries

We have several built-in resolvers for popular UI libraries like Vuetify, Ant Design Vue, and Element Plus, where you can enable them by:

Supported Resolvers:

• Ant Design Vue
• Arco Design Vue
• Element Plus
• Element UI
• Headless UI
• IDux
• Inkline
• Naive UI
• Prime Vue
• Vant
• VEUI
• Varlet UI
• View UI
• Vuetify
• VueUse Components
• Quasar
• TDesign

// vite.config.js
import Components from 'unplugin-vue-components/vite'
import {
  AntDesignVueResolver,
  ElementPlusResolver,
  VantResolver,
} from 'unplugin-vue-components/resolvers'

// your plugin installation
Components({
  resolvers: [
    AntDesignVueResolver(),
    ElementPlusResolver(),
    VantResolver(),
  ],
})

You can also write your own resolver quickly:

Components({
  resolvers: [
    // example of importing Vant
    (name) => {
      // where `name` is always CapitalCase
      if (name.startsWith('Van'))
        return { importName: name.slice(3), path: 'vant' }
    },
  ],
})

If you successfully configured other UI libraries, please feel free to contribute and help others using them out-of-box. Thanks!

Types for global registered components

Some libraries might register some global components for you to use anywhere (e.g. Vue Router provides <RouterLink> and <RouterView>). Since they are global available, there is no need for this plugin to import them. However, those are commonly not TypeScript friendly, and you might need to register their types manually.

Thus unplugin-vue-components provided a way to only register types for global components.

Components({
  dts: true,
  types: [{
    from: 'vue-router',
    names: ['RouterLink', 'RouterView'],
  }],
})

So the RouterLink and RouterView will be presented in components.d.ts.

By default, unplugin-vue-components detects supported libraries automatically (e.g. vue-router) when their are installed in the workspace. If you want to disable it completely, you can pass an empty array to it:

Components({
  // Disable type only registration
  types: [],
})

Migrate from vite-plugin-components

package.json

{
  "devDependencies": {
-   "vite-plugin-components": "*",
+   "unplugin-vue-components": "^0.14.0",
  }
}

vite.config.json

- import Components, { ElementPlusResolver } from 'vite-plugin-components'
+ import Components from 'unplugin-vue-components/vite'
+ import { ElementPlusResolver } from 'unplugin-vue-components/resolvers'

export default {
  plugins: [
    /* ... */
    Components({
      /* ... */

      // `customComponentsResolvers` has renamed to `resolver`
-     customComponentsResolvers: [
+     resolvers: [
        ElementPlusResolver(),
      ],

      // `globalComponentsDeclaration` has renamed to `dts`
-     globalComponentsDeclaration: true,
+     dts: true,

      // `customLoaderMatcher` is depreacted, use `include` instead
-     customLoaderMatcher: id => id.endsWith('.md'),
+     include: [/\.vue$/, /\.vue\?vue/, /\.md$/],
    }),
  ],
}

Configuration

The following show the default values of the configuration

Components({
  // relative paths to the directory to search for components.
  dirs: ['src/components'],

  // valid file extensions for components.
  extensions: ['vue'],
  // search for subdirectories
  deep: true,
  // resolvers for custom components
  resolvers: [],

  // generate `components.d.ts` global declarations,
  // also accepts a path for custom filename
  // default: `true` if package typescript is installed
  dts: false,

  // Allow subdirectories as namespace prefix for components.
  directoryAsNamespace: false,
  // Subdirectory paths for ignoring namespace prefixes
  // works when `directoryAsNamespace: true`
  globalNamespaces: [],

  // auto import for directives
  // default: `true` for Vue 3, `false` for Vue 2
  // Babel is needed to do the transformation for Vue 2, it's disabled by default for performance concerns.
  // To install Babel, run: `npm install -D @babel/parser @babel/traverse`
  directives: true,

  // filters for transforming targets
  include: [/\.vue$/, /\.vue\?vue/],
  exclude: [/[\\/]node_modules[\\/]/, /[\\/]\.git[\\/]/, /[\\/]\.nuxt[\\/]/],
})

Example

See the Vitesse starter template.

Thanks

Thanks to @brattonross, this project is heavily inspired by vite-plugin-voie.

License

MIT License © 2020-PRESENT Anthony Fu