Loading D3 with Nuxt/Vue - d3.js

Question

I am trying to implement D3 in an app I am building with Nuxt. I have successfully imported it into a view in the <script> section with import * as d3 from 'd3' however because the app is being rendered server-side D3's functionality doesn't work (i.e. d3.select(...)) due to the lack of browser. In the Nuxt plugin documentation it suggests a pattern for client-only external plugins:
module.exports = {
plugins: [
{ src: '~plugins/vue-notifications', ssr: false }
]
}
I attempted to implement the pattern in the nuxt.config.js of my project:
module.exports = {
head: {
title: 'My Demo App',
meta: [...],
link: [...]
},
loading: {...},
plugins: [
{ src: '~node_modules/d3/build/d3.js', ssr: false}
]
}
However D3 throws a ReferenceError while looking for document and Nuxt throws a SyntaxError in the console pointing to something in the plugins field of nuxt.config.js.
For reference, demo.vue:
<template>
<div class="demo-container"></div>
</template>
<script>
import * as d3 from 'd3';
d3.select('.demo-container');
</script>
Would someone be able to point to what I'm doing wrong?

Answer 1

For anyone coming to this page looking for a solution,
these suggestions from piyushchauhan2011 here on GitHub sent me in the right direction.
All I needed to do:
import d3 in my single-file component, and then
do any DOM manipulation with d3 only within mounted()
Before all this, I had to of course add d3 to my project with yarn add d3 (or npm install d3).
[Edit: removed link that no longer works. It wasn't that relevant anyway.]

Answer 2

I was getting an error:
Must use import to load ES Module: .../node_modules/d3/src/index.js require() of ES modules is not supported. require() of .../node_modules/d3/src/index.js from .../node_modules/vue-server-renderer/build.dev.js is an ES module file as it is a .js file whose nearest parent package.json contains "type": "module" which defines all .js files in that package scope as ES modules. Instead rename index.js to end in .cjs, change the requiring code to use import(), or remove "type": "module" from .../node_modules/d3/package.json.
I solved it by reading this: https://github.com/nuxt/nuxt.js/issues/9223
which indicates you can add this to your nuxt.config.js file:
build: {
standalone: true,
}
This allowed the d3 import to work.
import * as d3 from "d3";

Answer 3

Here's a simple step-by-step tutorial:
Create a new NuxtJS project (Skip this step if you have an existing project)
npm init nuxt-app nuxtjs-d3js-example
Install D3JS
npm install d3
npm install #types/d3 --save-dev
Import D3JS and add a target
HTML:
<p id="d3-target"></p>
JavaScript:
import * as d3 from 'd3'
export default {
name: 'NuxtTutorial',
mounted: function() {
d3.select("#d3-target").text("This text is manipulated by d3.js")
},
}
Fix ES Module error (mentioned by #agm1984)
Error:
require() of ES Module /home/johnson/projects/nuxtjs-d3js-example/nuxtjs-d3js-example/node_modules/d3/src/index.js from /home/johnson/projects/nuxtjs-d3js-example/nuxtjs-d3js-example/node_modules/vue-server-renderer/build.dev.js not supported. Instead change the require of index.js in /home/johnson/projects/nuxtjs-d3js-example/nuxtjs-d3js-example/node_modules/vue-server-renderer/build.dev.js to a dynamic import() which is available in all CommonJS modules.
nuxt.config.js:
build: {
standalone: true,
}
A minimal project example can be found at: https://github.com/j3soon/nuxtjs-d3js-example, with each step detailed in the Git commit history.