How to use child_process in vue3 with laravel vite?

Updated: Jan 24, 2025

How to use child_process in vue3 with laravel vite?

To use child_process in Vue3 with Laravel Vite, you'll need to set up a Node.js script to run the child process and communicate with Vue3 using events or a shared memory segment. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you get started:

  1. Create a new Node.js script to handle the child process:

Create a new file named spawn-process.js in the resources/js directory of your Laravel project:

const { spawn } = require('child_process');

const ls = spawn('ls', ['-lh', '.']);

ls.on('error', (err) => {
    console.error('Error spawning:', err);
});

ls.stdout.on('data', (data) => {
    process.send(data.toString());
});

ls.stderr.on('data', (data) => {
    console.error('Stderr:', data);
});

ls.on('close', (code) => {
    console.log('Child process exited with code:', code);
});

This script uses the child_process module to spawn a new process running the ls command. It listens for errors, data from the standard output, and data from the standard error. It also sends the output data to Vue3 using the process.send() method.

  1. Update your vite.config.js file:

Add the following line to your vite.config.js file to enable Node.js integration:

{
    // ...
    node: {
        child_process: 'empty',
    },
    // ...
}

This configuration allows Vite to use Node.js modules, but it doesn't allow the creation of child processes, which is what we want to achieve. Instead, we'll create a separate Node.js script to handle the child process.

  1. Create a new Vue3 component:

Create a new file named ChildProcess.vue in the components directory of your Laravel project:

<template>
  <div>
    <button @click="spawnProcess">Spawn Process</button>
    <div v-if="output">{{ output }}</div>
  </div>
</template>

<script>
import { ref } from 'vue';
import { ipcRenderer } from 'electron'; // or 'child_process' if you're not using Electron

export default {
  setup() {
    const output = ref('');

    function spawnProcess() {
      const ls = require('child_process').spawn('node', ['./spawn-process.js']);

      ls.on('exit', (code) => {
        console.log('Child process exited with code:', code);
      });

      ls.stdout.on('data', (data) => {
        output.value += data.toString();
      });
    }

    return { output, spawnProcess };
  },
};
</script>

This component uses the child_process module to spawn a new process running the spawn-process.js script. It listens for the exit event to log the exit code and the data event to update the component's output.

  1. Use the ChildProcess component in your template:

Finally, you can use the ChildProcess component in your template to spawn the child process and display the output:

<template>
  <div>
    <ChildProcess />
  </div>
</template>

<script>
import ChildProcess from './components/ChildProcess.vue';
</script>

That's it! You've now set up a Vue3 component that uses child_process to spawn a new process and communicate with Vue3 using events or a shared memory segment. Note that this example uses the node integration provided by Vite, but it doesn't allow the creation of child processes, so we had to create a separate Node.js script to handle the child process.