I have the following component with a slot:
{{ someProp }}
I looked into TypeScript definition files of Vue.js and I found an undocumented function on Vue component instance: $createElement(). My guess is, it is the same function that is passed to render(createElement) function of the component. So, I am able to solve it as:
const Constr = Vue.extend(MyComponent);
const instance = new Constr({
propsData: { someProp: 'My Heading' }
});
// Creating simple slot
const node = instance.$createElement('div', ['Hello']);
instance.$slots.default = [node];
instance.$mount(body);
But this is clearly undocumented and hence questionable approach. I will not mark it answered if there is some better approach available.
I think I have finally stumbled on a way to programmatically create a slot element. From what I can tell, the approach does not seem to work for functional components. I am not sure why.
If you are implementing your own render method for a component, you can programmatically create slots that you pass to child elements using the createElement method (or whatever you have aliased it to in the render method), and passing a data hash that includes { slot: NAME_OF_YOUR_SLOT } followed by the array of children within that slot.
For example:
Vue.config.productionTip = false
Vue.config.devtools = false;
Vue.component('parent', {
render (createElement) {
return createElement('child', [
createElement('h1', { slot: 'parent-slot' }, 'Parent-provided Named Slot'),
createElement('h2', { slot: 'default' }, 'Parent-provided Default Slot')
])
}
})
Vue.component('child', {
template: '<div><slot name="parent-slot" /><slot /></div>'
})
new Vue({
el: '#app',
template: '<parent />'
})
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/vue@2.5.17/dist/vue.js"></script>
<div id='app'>
</div>
I just came across an answer to this in vue forum: slots
The principle is: There is nothing like createElement('slot'..) Instead there is a render function which provides the slotted innerHtml as function: $scopedSlots.default()
Usage:
render: function (createElement) {
const self = this;
return createElement("div", this.$scopedSlots.default());
}
If you want to provide a default in case there is no content given for the slots, you need to code a disctinction yourself and render something else. (The link above holds a more detailed example)
The function returns an array, therefore it can not be used as a root for the render function. It need to be wrapped into single container node like div in the example above.
(This doesn't really answer How to create Vue.js slot programatically?. But it does solve your problem.)
This trick is less hackish compared to using $createElement().
Basically, create a new component that register MyComponent as a local component.
const Constr = Vue.extend({
template: `
<MyComponent someProp="My Heading">
<div>slot here !!!</div>
</MyComponent>
`,
components: {
MyComponent: MyComponent
}
});
const instance = new Constr().$mount('#app');
Demo: https://jsfiddle.net/jacobgoh101/shrn26p1/