nuxt-isomorphic-fetch

Isomorphic access to server-side API in Nuxt.js asyncData, working uniformly in client-side and server-side environment.

Currently supported backends:

• client-side: window.fetch
• server-side: Koa middleware
• simple API to plug implementations for any other technology (Express, axios, etc.)

Current limitations:

• Supports JSON only (for both request and response data).

Rationale

Each Nuxt.js page accepts asyncData callback, which is used to pull page data.

Without nuxt-isomorphic-fetch

Normally, pulling server-side data in Nuxt.js pages will look more or less like this:

<template>
  <section>
    <div v-for="post in posts" :key="post.id">
      {{ post.title }}
    </div>
  </section>
</template>

<script>
import serverSideApi from '../server/api'

export default {
  async asyncData (context) {
    let posts
    if (context.isClient) {
      const res = window.fetch("/api/v1/posts")
      posts = await res.json()
    } else {
      posts = await serverSideApi.getPosts()
    }
    return {posts}
  }
}

Each API method will be put into its own function:

export async function getPosts() {
  return await db.fetch('posts')
}

Then each API method will be called from the router:

import api from './api'

router.get('/api/v1/posts', async ctx => {
  ctx.body = await api.getPosts()
})

With nuxt-isomorphic-fetch

nuxt-isomorphic-fetch allows to reduce the boilerplate.

There is no more if/else for each API call in Vue components:

<template>
  <section>
    <div v-for="post in posts" :key="post.id">
      {{ post.title }}
    </div>
  </section>
</template>

<script>
import fetch from '../utils/fetch'

export default {
  async asyncData (context) {
    return {
      posts: await fetch.isomorphic(context, "posts")
    }
  }
}

There's no duplication of API methods and router rules:

router.get('/posts', async ctx => {
  ctx.body = await db.fetch('posts')
})

Installation

npm install nuxt-isomorphic-fetch

Usage

Configure fetch once in your app (e.g. in utils/fetch.js):

import * as fetchers from 'nuxt-isomorphic-fetch'

// use any Koa middleware
import routerMiddleware from '../server/router'

// provide polyfill for window.fetch
import 'whatwg-fetch'

const prefix = '/api/v1/'

export default fetchers.nuxt({
  client: fetchers.fetch({
    prefix,
    opts: {
      credentials: 'same-origin', // Send cookies
    },
  }),
  server: fetchers.koa({
    middleware: router.middleware(),
    prefix,
  })
})

Use fetch.isomorphic in asyncData component callbacks:

export default {
  async asyncData (context) {
    return {
      posts: await fetch.isomorphic(context, "posts")
    }
  }
}

In pure-client cases (e.g. submit handlers, or store actions), just call fetch:

const res = await fetch("login", {username, password})