How to integrate Vue with Django Part 2 - Passing data to Vue component

In previous tutorial, we learn how to integrate Vue with Django. In this tutorial, we will learn how to pass data from Django into Vue component, and utilize it

Updating Vue component

Vue component can accept data via Props
Lets update our DemoComponent.vue to add new props called poll

<template>
  <h1>{{ message }}</h1>
</template>

<script>
export default {

  props: {

    poll: {
      type: Object,
      required: true,
    },

  },

  data() {
    return {
      message: "Welcome to Vue!",
    };
  },
};
</script>

Vue component can accept prop with type Object, Array, Boolean and String
We want to use dict data from Django, so we will use Object type
Lets refresh our page, and we should see this error since we havent pass the required poll props yet

Passing dict from Django to Vue

Lets update our views.py to pass simple dict to our html

def index(request):

    # declare a Poll dict. In real life, you should use a Model with Serializer

    poll = dict()

    poll["id"] = 1
    poll["title"] = "Software Engineering Poll"

    return render(request, 'polls/index.html', { "poll": poll })

Since the data already passed into polls/index.html, lets update the file so we can pass the data to the Vue component

{% extends 'polls/base_layout.html' %}

{% block main_content %}

<h1>Hello, world. You're at the polls index.</h1>

<!-- load the Vue component -->

<demo-component :poll="{{ poll }}" ></demo-component>

{% endblock %}

Lets refresh our page to check whether Vue component already received the required data

Poll prop

Utilizing the prop data with Vue

Once the poll data is available to Vue component via props, we can start using the data inside the Vue component
Lets update DemoComponent.vue html to show the poll title. Notice that we wrap under div container to prevent Vue error when using multiple HTML element

<template>
  <div>
    <h1>{{ message }}</h1>

    <h2>{{ poll.id }} - {{ poll.title }}</h2>
  </div>
</template>

<script>
export default {

  props: {

    poll: {
      type: Object,
      required: true,  
    },

  },

  data() {
    return {
      message: "Welcome to Vue!",
    };
  },
};
</script>

Lets refresh our page to preview the changes

Show Poll info

Congratulations! Next we will pass array of data to our Vue component and utilize it

Update Vue component to receive array

Lets edit DemoComponent.vue and add new props called poll_questions

<template>
  <div>
    <h1>{{ message }}</h1>

    <h2>{{ poll.id }} - {{ poll.title }}</h2>
  </div>
</template>

<script>
export default {

  props: {

    poll: {
      type: Object,
      required: true,  
    },

    poll_questions: {
      type: Array,
      required: true
    },

  },

  data() {
    return {
      message: "Welcome to Vue!",
    };
  },
};
</script>

Passing array of dict from Django to Vue

Lets edit views.py again

def index(request):

    # declare a Poll dict. In real life, you should use a Model with Serializer

    poll = dict()

    poll["id"] = 1
    poll["title"] = "Software Engineering Poll"

    # declare array of Poll Questions dict. In real life, you should use a Model with Serializer

    poll_questions = []

    poll_question1 = dict()

    poll_question1["id"] = 1
    poll_question1["title"] = "Your favourite Python framework?"

    poll_questions.append(poll_question1)

    poll_question2 = dict()

    poll_question2["id"] = 2
    poll_question2["title"] = "Your favourite Javascript framework?"

    poll_questions.append(poll_question2)

    return render(request, 'polls/index.html', { "poll": poll, "poll_questions": poll_questions })

Now lets edit polls/index.html to pass the poll_questions data into Vue component

{% extends 'polls/base_layout.html' %}

{% block main_content %}

<h1>Hello, world. You're at the polls index.</h1>

<!-- load the Vue component -->

<demo-component :poll="{{ poll }}" :poll_questions="{{ poll_questions }}"></demo-component>

{% endblock %}

Lets refresh our page to check whether Vue component already received the required data

Poll Questions prop

Lets edit DemoComponent.vue to utilize the array of Poll Questions

<template>
  <div>
    <h1>{{ message }}</h1>

    <h2>{{ poll.id }} - {{ poll.title }}</h2>

    <!--  demo usage of poll_questions -->

    <p>List of questions:</p>

    <p v-for="question in poll_questions" :key="question.id">{{ question.id }} -  {{ question.title }}</p>

  </div>
</template>

<script>
export default {

  props: {

    poll: {
      type: Object,
      required: true,  
    },

    poll_questions: {
      type: Array,
      required: true
    },

  },

  data() {
    return {
      message: "Welcome to Vue!",
    };
  },
};
</script>

Lets refresh our page to preview the changes

Show Poll Questions info

Additional Notes

In real life, you should copy the Vue props into different property to prevent it from being overwrite if new props data coming in
If you are using Serializer, you must convert Serializer data into JSON data before passing into the HTML for Vue to consume

def index(request):

    poll = Poll.objects.get(id=1)

    poll_serializer = PollSerializer(
        poll
    )

    poll_json_data = json.dumps(poll_serializer.data)

    return render(request, 'polls/index.html', { "poll": poll_json_data })

Wrapping Up

Congratulations! We have succesfully learned how to pass data from Django to Vue!
In the next post, we will learn How to implement API with Django and Vue. Stay tuned!

Fathur Rahman

Engineering

Joined April 2020. Experienced web developer with years of experience building enterprise system. Currently enjoys front end development with Vue and React. Loves building products that solve real problems.