Getting started creating a Single Page Application (SPA) can be a difficult task. There are
a lot of choices that have to be made up front with most frameworks. Some frameworks
make those choices for you when you decide to go with them. Others require you to make
those choices. Either way, those choices probably need to be decided at the beginning of a
project, since changing them later in the development process will incur a greater cost.
It’s a lot to process and decide, all before you do any “real” work that can you can
show to your boss/client/stakeholder that they will perceive as valuable. What’s a
developer to do?
One option is to choose a preset way to build your SPA that someone else had some
luck with or go with what is recommended by the framework creators.
Another option to is to go with a framework that lets you start small and make
choices for your app as the need arises.
And you can do that with Vue.js.
Vue.js is called a progressive framework by its creators. This is because it allows you
to start building your app with minimal effort as the core Vue.js library focuses only on
the view layer. Over time as the requirements grow, you can adapt additional libraries for
functionality.
The idea of adding features to the app you are creating over time doesn’t limit the
use of more complex development tools. Need to add a router? No problem; use the
Vue-Router, a third-party option, or roll your own (see Chapter 11). Looking to manage
in memory state? You can use a Plain Old JavaScript Object, a store pattern, or the Vue.js
specific Vuex (see Chapter 6). By now you get the idea.