Vue.js (spelled “view”.js) is just what it says on the proverbial box: It controls the View and it’s Javascript. Vue.js is what is called a Javascript Framework, that is, a collection of ready-made, pre-written Javascript code that helps people build websites or web apps by covering routine features and tasks.
Evan You created the core of what would become Vue.js in June 2013. While still in grad school, he worked on interactive projects, for example creating a clone of the iOS Clear App using HTML5. That brought him a lot of attention and an unsolicited recruitment call from Google. Feeling that existing Javascript frameworks like Backbone and Angular didn’t give him what he needed to be more efficient, Evan started creating a framework for himself, based on his needs. Since it is a view library, he thought about naming it view, and chose the french translation, because “it’s just three letters” and “it looked cool”.
Evan You once explained Vue as a sort of extract of the parts he really liked about Angular, and building something really lightweight, originally just syncing “some DOM with some Javascript objects”. Vue.js is speedy and small, and it seems to be less of an effort to grasp for many people than the popular Javascript Frameworks React or Angular.
One particular characteristic of Vue is its international reach. As a Chinese native speaker, Evan You could write the chinese language documentation so as to avoid losing important meaning in translation. This helps explain the widespread adoption in mainland China, and its use by companies like Baidu and Alibaba.
There is not one company that steers the direction of or maintains Vue – unlike with other frameworks, like Angular and Google or React and Facebook.
At ownCloud, we chose Vue.js for our new web interface that will support both the upcoming ownCloud Infinite Scale and ownCloud 10 – because of its simplicity, elegance, and the flexibility it affords us. The learning curve is more gentle than for other frameworks. That also makes it easier for developers to quickly create extensions and customizations of the new ownCloud web interface. As an example, we created a markdown editor.
Vue.js also powers our pattern library called ownCloud design system. Through Vue.js and reusable components, we also try to substantially increase the accessibility of the new web interface.
Learn more about the story of Vue.js in this fine documentary, commissioned by Honeypot.
