kirbyuse

A collection of Vue Composition utilities and type hints to improve the DX for writing Kirby Panel plugins. It is intended for the Composition API, but also works with the Options API.

[!NOTE] When Kirby migrates to Vue 3, this package will adapt accordingly.

Features

• 🧃 IntelliSense support for Kirby's global window.panel object
• 🍿 Helpers like usePanel to write future-proof Kirby plugins
• 🚀 Aliases for Composition API functions like ref and computed

Setup

# pnpm
pnpm add -D kirbyuse

# npm
npm i -D kirbyuse

# yarn
yarn add -D kirbyuse

Kirby Panel Type Augmentation

[!NOTE] This works for Vue components written in the Options API as well as the Composition API. TypeScript is not required. The type hints are provided by the package itself.

Kirby's window.panel global object provides the main Panel instance, including all methods and props. This package augments the window.panel object to provide type hints out of the box.

Type augmentations are generated based on the Kirby Panel JavaScript build. Especially types of function arguments and return types cannot be inferred. But for working with the Panel API, this should be sufficient.

Depending on the component type, you can choose how to import the type hints:

Panel Access with usePanel

In order to benefit from type completions, you can import the usePanel function from this package. This function returns a typed window.panel object. This works both in the Options API and the Composition API.

For example, the notification service is available on the panel object. With each method call, you get IntelliSense support in your editor:

import { usePanel } from "kirbyuse";

const panel = usePanel();
panel.notification.success("Kirby is awesome!");
//                 ^? (property) PanelNotification.success: (arg1: any) => any

If you are writing a Vue component in the Options API, you can use the panel instance in methods like created:

import { usePanel } from "kirbyuse";

export default {
  mounted() {
    const panel = usePanel();
    panel.notification.success("Guten Tag!");
  },
};

Augmenting the window.panel Object

Instead of the explicit usePanel import, you can also augment the window.panel object directly. In this case, you have to import the kirbyup package once in your main entry file:

import "kirbyuse";

window.panel.notification.success("Kirby is awesome!");
//                        ^? (property) PanelNotification.success: (arg1: any) => any

The import will provide global type augmentations for the window.panel object. Every time you access the panel object, you get IntelliSense support for all available methods and services.

Examples

Panel Section

<script setup>
import { computed, ref, usePanel, useStore, watch } from "kirbyuse";

const panel = usePanel();
const store = useStore();

const label = ref("");
const currentContent = computed(() => store.getters["content/values"]());

watch(currentContent, (content) => {
  console.log("Content changed:", content);
});

function handleClick() {
  panel.notification.success("Composition API is awesome!");
}
</script>

<template>
  <k-section :label="label">
    <k-text>
      <h1 @click="handleClick()">My Section</h1>
    </k-text>
  </k-section>
</template>

<script>
import { ref, useSection, watch } from "kirbyuse";
import { section } from "kirbyuse/props";

// Define the component props
const propsDefinition = {
  ...section,
};

export default {
  inheritAttrs: false,
};
</script>

<script setup>
const props = defineProps(propsDefinition);

const label = ref("");

// Async components are not supported in Vue 2, so we use
// a self-invoking async function as `created` replacement
(async () => {
  const { load } = useSection();
  const response = await load({
    parent: props.parent,
    name: props.name,
  });

  label.value = response.label || "My Section";
})();
</script>

<template>
  <k-section :label="label">
    <k-text>
      <h1>My Section</h1>
    </k-text>
  </k-section>
</template>

Background

Kirby CMS uses Vue 2 and provides the Vue constructor via the UMD build in the global scope. The main Kirby Panel instance is accessible at window.panel.app.

Before Vue reached EOL, the Composition API was backported in Vue 2.7. In ESM builds, these APIs are provided as named exports:

import Vue, { ref } from "vue";

Vue.ref; // `undefined`, use named export instead

Since Kirby uses the UMD build, these APIs are not available. Instead, in the UMD build, these APIs are exposed as properties on the global Vue object:

import Vue from "vue";

Vue.ref; // `function`

When writing Vue components for Kirby with the Composition API, you have to import the Vue constructor from the global scope and use the Composition API from there:

import Vue from "vue";

const label = Vue.ref("");

This approach gets tedious quickly, especially when you have to write a lot of components. It also makes it harder to upgrade to Vue 3 in the future.

This is where this package comes in. It provides aliases to the Composition API that are compatible with the UMD build of Vue. Additionally, some helpers are provided to make working with Kirby easier:

// Inside `<script setup>`
import { computed, ref, usePanel } from "kirbyuse";

const label = ref("");

const panel = usePanel();
panel.notification.success("Composition API is awesome!");

Composition API in Panel Plugins

The following open source plugins are written with the Vue Composition API:

• Kirby Content Translator
• Kirby SERP Preview

License

MIT License © 2024-PRESENT Johann Schopplich