I have been using Vue and Vuetify quite a bit and absolutely loving it. The combination alongside some of the backend Javascript frameworks (like AdonisJS, Strapi) make web app building fast and fun.

In this post let’s take a look at how we can dynamically style elements by using data to drive styling.

An Example with Data tables

One of the common factors in all my data-driven applications is the data table. Looking back one of the primary factors for choosing Vuetify may be its powerful data table. I just need to supply a dataset and with the power of Vue, I have a super user-friendly table.

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24

<template>
  <div>
    <v-toolbar flat dense>
      <v-spacer></v-spacer>
      <v-btn outline small @click="viewItemDetail({})">View</v-btn>
    </v-toolbar>
    <v-data-table
      :headers="headers"
      :items="records['data']"
      :loading="loading"
      hide-actions
    >
      <template slot="items" slot-scope="props">
        <tr @click="setActiveRecord(props.item)">
          <td>{{ props.item.id }}</td>
          <td>{{ props.item.created_at }}</td>
          <td>{{ props.item.name }}</td>
          <td>{{ props.item.status_cd }}</td>
          <td>{{ props.item.description }}</td>
        </tr>
      </template>
    </v-data-table>
  </div>
</template>

A typical requirement in a data table is the ability to show users the record that they select for an action.

For e.g. click on record and click ‘Print Report’ button to print a report, or click on record to view details in a detail tab.

Calling an action is quite straight-forward. In the example you will see -

1

<tr @click="setActiveRecord(props.item)"></tr>

setActiveRecord may be a mutation in vuex.

1
2
3

setActiveRecord(state, value) {
   state.activeServiceReq = value;
}

If it is a variable within the component, you could simply do a

1

<tr @click="this.activeRecord = props.item"></tr>

When user clicks and the activeRecord is set, we want to highlight the record. Change the tr tag to -

1
2
3
4

<tr
  @click="setActiveRecord(props.item)"
  :class="{activeRow:activeRecord['id'] == props.item.id}"
></tr>

Include the following style in the component..

1
2
3
4
5

<style scoped>
  .activeRow {
    background-color: rgb(240, 240, 240);
  }
</style>

Now click away on the record to glory.

Backgrounds in ‘technicolour’

If you want to change the background color of a row in a data table or for another element, we can make the class name dynamic.

1
2
3

<div :class="`background-${status}.toLowerCase()`">
  <td>{{ status }}</td>
</div>

And, the style will be -

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

<style scoped>
  .background-inactive {
    background-color: rgb(240, 240, 240);
  }
  .background-inactive {
    background-color: rgb(120, 120, 120);
  }
</style>

Conclusion

Oh colours.. you just can’t hate them for long.