How to properly connect Nuxt.js with a laravel backend? - laravel

Question

I am starting a new project, Nuxt.js for the frontend and Laravel for the backend.
How can I connect the two?
I have installed a new Nuxt project using create-nuxt-app, and a new laravel project.
As far as I have searched, I figured I need some kind of environment variables.
In my nuxt project, I have added the dotenv package and placed a new .env file in the root of the nuxt project.
And added CORS to my laravel project, as I have been getting an error.
The variables inside are indeed accessible from the project, and im using them
like this:
APP_NAME=TestProjectName
API_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8000
And accessing it like this:
process.env.APP_NAME etc'
To make HTTP calls, I am using the official Axios module of nuxt.js, and to test it i used it in one of the components that came by default.
The backend:
Route::get('/', function () {
return "Hello from Laravel API";
});
and from inside the component:
console.log(process.env.API_URL)//Gives 127.0.0.1:8000
//But this gives undefined
this.$axios.$get(process.env.API_URL).then((response) => {
console.log(response);
});
}
What am I doing wrong here?
I have tried to describe my setup and problem as best as I can. If I overlooked something, please tell me and I will update my question. Thanks.

Answer 1

Taking for granted that visiting https://127.0.0.1:8000/ in your browser you get the expected response, lets see what might be wrong in the front end:
First you should make sure that axios module is initialized correctly. Your nuxt.config.js file should include the following
//inclusion of module
modules: [
'#nuxtjs/axios',
<other modules>,
],
//configuration of module
axios: {
baseURL: process.env.API_URL,
},
Keep in mind that depending on the component's lifecycle, your axios request may be occurring in the client side (after server side rendering), where the address 127.0.0.1 might be invalid. I would suggest that you avoid using 127.0.0.1 or localhost when defining api_uris, and prefer using your local network ip for local testing.
After configuring the axios module as above, you can make requests in your components using just relative api uris:
this.$axios.$get('/').then(response => {
console.log(response)
}).catch(err => {
console.error(err)
})
While testing if this works it is very helpful to open your browser's dev tools > network tab and check the state of the request. If you still don't get the response, the odds are that you'll have more info either from the catch section, or the request status from the dev tools.
Keep us updated!

Answer 2

Nuxt has a routing file stucture to make it easy to set up server side rendering but also to help with maintainability too. This can cause Laravel and Nuxt to fight over the routing, you will need to configure this to get it working correctly.
I'd suggest you use Laravel-Nuxt as a lot of these small problems are solved for you.
https://github.com/cretueusebiu/laravel-nuxt