Custom Directives#

Introduction#

In addition to the default set of directives shipped in core (like v-model or v-show), Vue also allows you to register your own custom directives.

We have introduced two forms of code reuse in Vue: components and composables. Components are the main building blocks, while composables are focused on reusing stateful logic. Custom directives, on the other hand, are mainly intended for reusing logic that involves low-level DOM access on plain elements.

A custom directive is defined as an object containing lifecycle hooks similar to those of a component. The hooks receive the element the directive is bound to. Here is an example of a directive that adds a class to an element when it is inserted into the DOM by Vue:

<script setup>
// enables v-highlight in templates
const vHighlight = {
  mounted: (el) => {
    el.classList.add('is-highlight')
  }
}
</script>

<template>
  <p v-highlight>This sentence is important!</p>
</template>

const highlight = {
  mounted: (el) => el.classList.add('is-highlight')
}

export default {
  directives: {
    // enables v-highlight in template
    highlight
  }
}

<p v-highlight>This sentence is important!</p>