Render [object HTMLTableElement] in VueJS

Question

for those of you that have tried jsdifflib know that this plugin returns an HTMLTableElement. Right now I want to try to render/display this on my VueJS component.

I've tried the following:

TEMPLATE

<div class="diff-container" v-html="dynamicHtmlContent" ref="auditContainer"></div>

COMPONENT

export default {
    name: 'AuditView',
    data() {
      return {
        dynamicHtmlContent: null
      }
    },
    created() {
      // code logic here and there
      this.processDataDiff(results, 0);
    },
    methods: {
      processDataDiff: function (data, index) {
        // code logic here and there
        this.displayDiff(
          JSON.stringify(object1, null, 4).replace(/\\n/g, '\n'),
          JSON.stringify(object2, null, 4).replace(/\\n/g, '\n'),
          versionId1,
          versionId2
        );
      },
      displayDiff: function (baseDoc, newDoc, baseVersion, newVersion) {
        this.dynamicHtmlContent = auditService.getDiff(baseDoc, newDoc, baseVersion, newVersion);
      }
    }
}

ES6 service

 getDiff(baseTextRaw, newTextRaw, baseVersion, nextVersion) {
   // build the diff view and return a DOM node
   return difflib.buildView({
     baseText: baseTextRaw,
     newText: newTextRaw,
     // set the display titles for each resource
     baseTextName: 'Version ' + baseVersion,
     newTextName: 'Version ' + nextVersion,
     contextSize: 10,
     // set inine to true if you want inline
     // rather than side by side diff
     inline: false
   });
 }

I've skipped the code logic but I already checked the dynamicHtmlContent and this returns to as an HTML Object as seen on the screenshot below:

Somehow this isn't possible using v-html as it only renders an object {} as said on console.log(typeof this.dynamicHtmlContent); So how do I render this to my Vue Component? I also find this hard to convert into a plain string. Please help me on this.

Answer 1

You can still use v-html you just have to change what you are accessing. Since what you get back is going to end up being an actual DOM element you can do a couple of things.

The first is to simply change v-html to access the outerHTML property of your element

v-html="dynamicHtmlContent.outerHTML"

Or save outerHTML directly to dynamicHtmlContent instead of the DOM element

this.dynamicHtmlContent = auditService.getDiff().outerHTML

The other thing you can do is directly append the DOM element by accessing your auditContainer reference through this.$refs

displayDiff: function (baseDoc, newDoc, baseVersion, newVersion) {
  var table = auditService.getDiff(baseDoc, newDoc, baseVersion, newVersion);
  this.$refs.auditContainer.appendChild( table );
}

Note though this would have to be done after the component has been mounted as the auditContainer will not have been created yet. Meaning:

created() {
  // code logic here and there
  this.processDataDiff(results, 0);
},

would be changed to:

mounted() {
  // code logic here and there
  this.processDataDiff(results, 0);
},

v-html Demo

var table = document.createElement('table');
var body = table.createTBody();
var row = body.insertRow();
var cell = row.insertCell();
cell.innerHTML = "A test table";

var vm = new Vue({
  el: '#app',
  data() {
    return {
      dynamicHtmlContent: null
    }
  },
  created() {
    this.displayDiff();
  },
  methods: {
    displayDiff: function() {
      this.dynamicHtmlContent = table;
    }
  }
});

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/vue.js"></script>
<div id="app">
  <div class="diff-container" v-html="dynamicHtmlContent.outerHTML" ref="auditContainer"></div>
</div>

DOM append Demo

var table = document.createElement('table');
var body = table.createTBody();
var row = body.insertRow();
var cell = row.insertCell();
cell.innerHTML = "A test table";

var vm = new Vue({
  el: '#app',
  data() {
    return {
      dynamicHtmlContent: null
    }
  },
  mounted() {
    this.displayDiff();
  },
  methods: {
    displayDiff: function() {
      this.$refs.auditContainer.appendChild(table);
      
    }
  }
});

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/vue.js"></script>
<div id="app">
  <div class="diff-container" ref="auditContainer"></div>
</div>