LiveVue v0.6.0 was released!

Hey everyone!

I’m excited to announce the release of LiveVue v0.6.0 - this is by far the biggest update since the initial release, with many months of development packed into it. If you’ve been waiting for LiveVue to mature, this is the release that takes it to the next level!

What’s New?

Massive Performance Boost with JSON Patch Diffs

LiveVue now uses JSON Patch operations to send only the minimal differences when props change. Instead of sending entire prop objects over the WebSocket, only the specific fields that changed are transmitted. This dramatically reduces payload sizes (in many cases over 90%), especially for complex nested structures and lists. Performance of diffing is carefully optimized to be a non-issue.

It works seamlessly with custom structs through the LiveVue.Encoder protocol, designed to be compatible with Jason.Encoder. You can easily implement custom encoders for your own types - for example, here’s how we hide sensitive fields from User struct:

defimpl LiveVue.Encoder, for: MyApp.Accounts.User do
  def encode(%MyApp.Accounts.User{} = user, _opts) do
    user 
    |> Map.take([:first_name, :last_name]) 
    |> LiveVue.Encoder.encode(opts)
  end
end

Pulling it of required changes to LiveView and multiple PRs to Jsonpatch library.

Complete Documentation Overhaul

The docs have been completely rewritten with comprehensive guides, API reference, and examples. Much easier to get started and go deeper!

Client-side utilities

• useLiveNavigation - programmatic navigation with live_patch and live_redirect
• useLiveEvent - simplified server-pushed event handling with automatic lifecycle management
• <Link> component - Vue component for LiveView navigation
• $live available globally in Vue templates - you can now write @click="$live.pushEvent('click')"

TypeScript by Default

The client-side setup is now TypeScript out of the box, with full type safety and autocompletion. The $live property is now automatically available in all Vue templates and fully typed.

Testing Utilities

New LiveVue.Test module provides helpers to inspect Vue component configuration within your LiveView tests.

Migration

If you have an existing setup, there’s a small migration to move from assets/vue/index.js to assets/vue/index.ts and use the new TypeScript setup. The migration guide in the changelog has all the details - it’s straightforward!

What’s Next?

This release really solidifies LiveVue as a mature solution for Vue + LiveView integration. The performance improvements and developer experience enhancements should make it even more enjoyable to work with.

As always, I’d love to hear your feedback and experiences with the new release! And if you find LiveVue useful, a on the GitHub repo would be much appreciated

Full Release Notes

I seem to be in a minority that thinks that this name is fine. We have LiveSvelte, I’m sure we will soon have LiveReact, LiveSolid, LiveQwik and whatnot. It will hurt the discoverability of this one project and the phonetic similarity is less of a problem when the distinction in written text is clear.

A small update about the project. It’s still growing, both when it comes to adoption and features

Recently I’ve added a roadmap to the readme of the project. I’m posting it here as well:

Roadmap

• Add a default handler for Vue emits to eg. automatically push them to the server without explicit v-on handlers.
• try to use Igniter as a way of installing LiveVue in a project
• usePushEvent - an utility similar to useFetch making it easy to get data from &handle_event/3 -> {:reply, data, socket} responses
• useLiveForm - an utility to efforlessly use Ecto changesets & server-side validation, similar to HEEX
• useEventHandler - an utility automatically attaching & detaching handleEvent
• optimize payload - send only json_patch diffs of updated props
• VS code extension higlighting ~V sigil

useLiveForm

I’m working currently on the early version of useLiveForm utility. I’ve posted more details on Twitter, you can find it here.

Me again! Just finished a big internal cleanup & migration to TS, fixed some bugs along the way and prepared for further development.

Excerpt from the changelog:

0.5.1 - 2024-10-08

Fixed

• Fixed a bug where the server was not preloading the correct assets for the Vue components. It happened because CursorAI “skipped” important part of the code when migrating to the TypeScript

0.5.0 - 2024-10-08

Changed

• Migrated the project to TypeScript #32
• Added createLiveVue entrypoint to make it easier to customize Vue app initialization

Deprecations

• assets/vue/index.js should export app created by createLiveVue(), not just available components. See migration below.

Migration

In assets/js/app.js, instead of:

export default {
  ...import.meta.glob("./**/*.vue", { eager: true }),
  ...import.meta.glob("../../lib/**/*.vue", { eager: true }),
}

use:

// polyfill recommended by Vite https://vitejs.dev/config/build-options#build-modulepreload
import "vite/modulepreload-polyfill"
import { h } from "vue"
import { createLiveVue, findComponent } from "live_vue"

export default createLiveVue({
  resolve: name => {
    const components = {
      ...import.meta.glob("./**/*.vue", { eager: true }),
      ...import.meta.glob("../../lib/**/*.vue", { eager: true }),
    }

    // finds component by name or path suffix and gives a nice error message.
    // `path/to/component/index.vue` can be found as `path/to/component` or simply `component`
    // `path/to/Component.vue` can be found as `path/to/Component` or simply `Component`
    return findComponent(components, name)
  },
  setup: ({ createApp, component, props, slots, plugin, el }) => {
    const app = createApp({ render: () => h(component, props, slots) })
    app.use(plugin)
    app.mount(el)
    return app
  },
})

then, in assets/js/app.js, instead of:

import components from "./vue"

simply do

import { getHooks } from "live_vue"
import liveVueApp from "./vue"
// ...

const hooks = { ...getHooks(liveVueApp) }

If you had any custom initialization code, you have to move it to createLiveVue().setup() function.

Fixed

• Nicely formatted JS error stracktraces during SSR commit
• Previously initializeVueApp was not working in SSR mode, since it was declared in app.js which couldn’t be imported by server bundle. Now it’s in a separate file as createLiveVue().setup() and can be imported by both client and server bundles.

LiveVue 0.7.0 - File Upload Composable & Comprehensive Testing Suite!

Hey everyone!

I’m excited to announce the release of LiveVue v0.7.0! This release focuses on making file uploads seamless and establishing a robust testing foundation for the library. If you’ve been waiting for better file upload support or wondering about LiveVue’s reliability, this release addresses both!

What’s New?

New useLiveUpload Composable

The biggest new feature in this release is the new useLiveUpload() composable that makes Phoenix LiveView file uploads feel native in Vue! Let’s take a look at how it works:

Backend (LiveView):

defmodule MyAppWeb.UploadLive do
  use MyAppWeb, :live_view

  def render(assigns) do
    ~H"""
    <.vue
      upload={@uploads.documents}
      uploaded_files={@uploaded_files}
      v-component="FileUploader"
      v-socket={@socket}
    />
    """
  end

  def mount(_params, _session, socket) do
    {:ok,
     socket
     |> assign(:uploaded_files, [])
     |> allow_upload(:documents,
       accept: ~w(.pdf .txt .jpg .png),
       max_entries: 3,
       auto_upload: true
     )}
  end

  def handle_event("validate", _params, socket), do: {:noreply, socket}

  def handle_event("save", _params, socket) do
    uploaded_files =
      consume_uploaded_entries(socket, :documents, fn %{path: path}, entry ->
        dest = Path.join("uploads", entry.client_name)
        File.cp!(path, dest)
        {:ok, %{name: entry.client_name, size: entry.client_size}}
      end)

    {:noreply, update(socket, :uploaded_files, &(&1 ++ uploaded_files))}
  end
end

Frontend (Vue):

<template>
  <div>
    <button @click="showFilePicker">Select Files</button>
    <button v-if="entriesCount > 0" @click="cancel()">Cancel All</button>

    <div v-for="entry in entries" :key="entry.ref">
      <span>{{ entry.client_name }} ({{ entry.client_size }} bytes)</span>
      <span>{{ entry.progress || 0 }}%</span>
      <span>{{ entry.done ? 'done' : 'pending' }}</span>
      <button @click="cancel(entry.ref)">×</button>
    </div>

    <div v-if="uploadedFiles.length">
      <h3>Uploaded Files</h3>
      <div v-for="file in uploadedFiles" :key="file.name">
        {{ file.name }} ({{ file.size }} bytes)
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</template>

<script setup lang="ts">
import { computed } from "vue"
import { useLiveUpload, UploadConfig } from "live_vue"

interface Props {
  upload: UploadConfig
  uploadedFiles: { name: string; size: number }[]
}

const props = defineProps<Props>()

const { entries, showFilePicker, submit, cancel } = useLiveUpload(() => props.upload, {
  changeEvent: "validate",
  submitEvent: "save"
})

const entriesCount = computed(() => entries.value?.length || 0)
</script>

Key features:

• Reactive upload state - Progress tracking, metadata, and validation status
• Automatic DOM management - File inputs are handled seamlessly
• Drag-and-drop support - Built-in drag-and-drop file handling
• LiveView integration - Works perfectly with Phoenix’s upload validation and submission
• Full TypeScript support - Complete type definitions for all upload configurations
• Declarative API - Vue-friendly approach to complex upload workflows

Comprehensive Testing Foundation

This release establishes LiveVue as a thoroughly tested library with multiple testing layers:

Frontend Test Suite with Vitest:

• 36 test cases covering JSON Patch functionality with edge cases
• Tests for escaped characters, deep cloning, and complex patch sequences
• jsdom environment for DOM testing
• Full coverage of the TypeScript codebase

End-to-End Testing with Playwright:

• 5 comprehensive test suites covering all major functionality
• Tests for Vue component rendering, props passing, event emission
• LiveView/Vue synchronization testing
• File upload workflow testing
• Navigation and prop diffing validation

Improved CI/CD:

• E2E CI: Automatically runs E2E tests on every PR
• Frontend CI: Tests across Node.js 20, 22, and 24 (LTS and current)
• Elixir CI: Focused Elixir/OTP matrix testing

New Mix Commands:

mix assets.test          # Run frontend tests
npm test                 # Run tests once
npm run test:watch       # Run tests in watch mode
npm run test:ui          # Interactive test UI
npm run e2e:test         # E2E tests
npm run e2e:test:headed  # E2E with browser UI
npm run e2e:test:debug   # E2E debug mode

Why This Matters

File uploads have always been one of the trickier aspects of web development, especially when bridging server-side frameworks like Phoenix with client-side reactive frameworks. The useLiveUpload composable eliminates this complexity entirely, giving you a Vue-native way to handle uploads while leveraging all of Phoenix LiveView’s powerful upload features.

The comprehensive testing suite ensures LiveVue’s reliability and gives confidence for production use. With both unit tests for the TypeScript code and E2E tests covering real-world scenarios, you can trust that LiveVue will work as expected.

What’s Next?

With file uploads now seamlessly integrated and a solid testing foundation in place, LiveVue continues to mature as the go-to solution for Vue + Phoenix LiveView applications. The testing infrastructure also sets us up for more confident development of future features.

Next step: useLiveForm() composable for seamless form handling

As always, I’d love to hear your feedback and experiences with the new release! And if you find LiveVue useful, a on the GitHub repo would be much appreciated

Happy coding!