How to set up Laravel, Vue.js, and Inertia.js
What does this tutorial explain?
In this quick tutorial I'll guide you through setting up Laravel 11, Vue.js and Inertia.js - so that you can build Single Page Applications.
Though the process is not very complicated, it requires jumping from different projects docs, so I thought it'll be useful to have a complete guide in one place.
What if you're just starting with Laravel?
If you're just starting with Laravel, read Laravel 11 and MVC Architecture first and if you need a quick intro to Vue, read Vue 3 and Composition API Cheat Sheet.
How to create a fresh Laravel 11 project?
If you don't have a fresh Laravel project created yet, here's how to do that:
composer create-project laravel/laravel:^11.0 laravel-spa
You'll need PHP and Composer installed on your machine for this to work. This command creates a new PHP project, based on laravel/laravel package, version >= 11.0, and the directory of the project will be laravel-spa.
How to add Vue to Laravel?
Once you have a Laravel project, you need to add Vue and Inertia to the stack.
We're gonna use frontend tool called Vite for that.
What is Vite?
Let the Laravel docs speak:
Vite is a modern frontend build tool that provides an extremely fast development environment and bundles your code for production.
So yeah, essentially Vite was created by the Vue authors. It's the standard and most popular way to bundle JavaScript assets.
Also used in React, so using Vite is good. If you used Laravel for longer, Vite has replaced Webpack. Read more about Vite.
How to add Vue by installing a Vite plugin?
- First step is to add Vue plugin to Vite. We need to add the plugin first (source):
npm install --save-dev @vitejs/plugin-vue
- Next up let's configure the Vite config file,
vite.config.jsat the root directory of your project:
- First make sure to add the import
import vue from '@vitejs/plugin-vue' - Then configure the Vue plugin
vue({...})as below:
import { defineConfig } from 'vite';
import laravel from 'laravel-vite-plugin';
// Add the import below
import vue from '@vitejs/plugin-vue';
export default defineConfig({
plugins: [
laravel({
input: ['resources/css/app.css', 'resources/js/app.js'],
refresh: true,
}),
// Add this vue plugin configuration here
vue({
template: {
transformAssetUrls: {
base: null,
includeAbsolute: false,
},
},
})
],
});
Just installing this Vite Vue plugin is enough to also install the Vue library. You don't need to install it separately!
How to add Inertia.js to Laravel?
You're doing great. Now, let's also add Inertia shall we? Inertia needs to be configured both for Laravel, and for Vue. Let's do the backend config first (source).
Install the Inertia.js Composer package
Just run this in the Terminal to get the Inertia.js package for Laravel:
composer require inertiajs/inertia-laravel
Configure the root template
Next let's configure the root template. It's the main Blade template that Inertia will use to render the Vue app. By default it's assumed the file is called app.blade.php. When creating the Laravel project, you'll get the welcome.blade.php file, let's rename it and change the contents:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="{{ str_replace('_', '-', app()->getLocale()) }}">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<title>Laravel</title>
@vite('resources/js/app.js')
@inertiaHead
</head>
<body>
@inertia
</body>
</html>
Adding Inertia.js directives to the root template
Inside the file you need to add 3 directives:
@viteto add your app source JavaScript file@inertiaHeadto add all Inertia scripts@inertiathat let's Inertia render the Vue application
Adding Inertia.js middleware
- Publish the Inertia.js middleware by running:
php artisan inertia:middleware
- Modify the
bootstrap/app.phpfile, adding this Inertia.js middleware to the web group:
// Add this line at the top
use App\Http\Middleware\HandleInertiaRequests;
// Find the line starting with ->withMiddleware and modify the contents
->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
$middleware->web(append: [
HandleInertiaRequests::class,
]);
})
How to add Inertia.js to Vue?
Next, we also need to create the Vue app in a specific way (source).
Install the Inertia.js Vue package
Install the Inertia.js Vue package by running:
npm install @inertiajs/vue3
How to initialize the Inertia.js application with Vue?
Modify the resources/js/app.js as follows:
import { createApp, h } from 'vue'
import { createInertiaApp } from '@inertiajs/vue3'
createInertiaApp({
resolve: name => {
const pages = import.meta.glob('./Pages/**/*.vue', { eager: true })
return pages[`./Pages/${name}.vue`]
},
setup({ el, App, props, plugin }) {
createApp({ render: () => h(App, props) })
.use(plugin)
.mount(el)
},
})
How to create a Vue page inside Laravel?
Next, let's start adding pages powered by Vue from now now, instead of Blade. You can pass the data to that Vue pages the same way as you were passing the data to blade templates.
Adding a Laravel route that will render a Vue page
Add the following route to routes/web.php file.
- Notice, we're using an
inertiafunction instead of typicalviewto render the view. - The Vue pages should be placed in
resources/js/Pages.
<?php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
Route::get('/', function () {
return inertia('Index/Index');
});
Creating the Vue page file
Now, let's create the resources/js/Pages/Index/Index.vue file, and use the following contents:
<template>Hello {{ counter }}!</template>
<script setup>
import {ref} from 'vue'
const counter = ref(0)
setInterval(() => counter.value++, 1000)
</script>
If you see a counter, changing every second it means you're good to go. You can now build your SPA application using Laravel, Vue and Inertia!
How to run the application locally?
To run the app locally, run php artisan serve to start Laravel and npm run dev in another terminal tab, to start the Vite local dev server. Then navigate to the URL displayed when you ran php artisan serve. You should see the counter ticking!