Ashutosh Singh

Apache ECharts

How to Build an Apache ECharts Dashboard with Vue 3: A Comprehensive Guide

Quite commonly in our applications, we need to create interactive report builders to let users build custom reports and dashboards. This usually involves selecting the metrics, groupings, date ranges, filters, and chart types. To help developers build such interactive components, we've created a query builder component in Cube client libraries.

We've already covered how to use it in the [React client library](https://cube.dev/blog/react-query-builder-with-cubejs/), and in this blog post, we'll talk about using it with Vue.js. The query builder component uses the [scoped slots](https://vuejs.org/v2/guide/components-slots.html#Scoped-Slots) technique and lets developers implement their own render logic. This way it gives maximum flexibility for building a custom-tailored UI with minimal API. Below you can see the demo of the query builder component with [Vuetify](https://vuetifyjs.com/en/).

You can find the [live demo of the example here](https://vue-query-builder-demo.cube.dev/) and [its source code is available on Github](https://github.com/cube-js/cube.js/tree/master/examples/vue-query-builder).

![Example gif](https://media.graphcms.com/oxRJf1yeRqaKIwWrxR8G)

## Setup a Demo Backend

Let's start by installing the Cube CLI if you don't have it already and creating a new project.

```
$ npm install -g cubejs-cli
$ cubejs create -d postgres vue-query-builder
```

In this tutorial we'll use a remote PostgreSQL database and our example e-commerce dataset. Cube uses environment variables for configuration, which starts with `CUBEJS_`. To configure the connection to our database, we need to specify the DB type, name and several other options. In the Cube project folder replace the contents of `.env` file with the following:

```
CUBEJS_DB_TYPE=postgres
CUBEJS_DB_HOST=demo-db-examples.cube.dev
CUBEJS_DB_PORT=5432
CUBEJS_DB_SSL=true
CUBEJS_DB_USER=cube
CUBEJS_DB_PASS=12345
CUBEJS_DB_NAME=ecom
CUBEJS_DEV_MODE=true
CUBEJS_WEB_SOCKETS=true
CUBEJS_API_SECRET=SECRET
```

Now that we have everything configured, let's start the Cube development server with the following command.

```
$ npm run dev
```

Navigate to [http://localhost:4000](http://localhost:4000/) in your browser to access the Cube Playground. It is a development environment that generates the Cube schema, creates scaffolding for charts, and lets you test your queries and debug them. It also has its own query builder, which lets you generate charts with different charting libraries.

![Backend setup](https://media.graphcms.com/rnfonR0sSdGaUXyhFHDO)

Now let’s move on to building our own query builder with Vue.js! 💻

## Building a Query Builder

We're going to use [Vue CLI](https://cli.vuejs.org/) to generate a new project. Run the following command to install Vue CLI if you don't have it already.

```
$ npm install -g @vue/cli
```

To a create a new project with Vue CLI run the following command inside the Cube project folder. Make sure to select `Vue 2` when asked to choose a preset.

```
$ vue create dashboard-app
```

To render the UI for query builder we are going to use [Vuetify](https://vuetifyjs.com/en/), a Vue UI Library with material components. Let's add it to our project. Run the following command inside the `dashboard-app` folder.

```
$ vue add vuetify
```

To create our color scheme you can open `src/plugins/vuetify.js` and add this code:

```diff
import Vue from 'vue'
import Vuetify from 'vuetify/lib'

Vue.use(Vuetify)

export default new Vuetify({
+  theme: {
+    themes: {
+      light: {
+        primary: '#7A77FF',
+      },
+    },
+  },
})

```

Now we can start our frontend application.

```
$ yarn serve
```

You can check your newly created Vue app at [http://localhost:8080](http://localhost:8080/). Next, let's install dependencies we'll need for building our Query Builder: Cube Vue client, Vue Chartkick, and Chart.js.

```
$ npm install --save vue-chartkick@0.6.1 chart.js@2 core-js @cubejs-client/core @cubejs-client/vue
```

Let's create a first simple Query Builder to allow users to select the metric from the dropdown list and then render it as a line chart over time.

Cube Query Builder component can load the list of available measures based on the data schema from the backend. We can access these measures as an `availableMeasures` slot prop. We'll render that list with the `v-select` component from Vuetify. Then when the user selects the measure, we're going to use a `setMeasures` slot prop to update the measures in our query and finally render the query result as a line chart with Vue Chartkick and Chart.js.

[You can learn more about other slot props in the Query Builder component in the docs.](https://cube.dev/docs/@cubejs-client-vue#query-builder)

Replace the content of the `src/HelloWord.vue` file with the following.

```jsx
<template>
  <v-container fluid class="text-center background pa-0">
    <query-builder :cubejs-api="cubejsApi" :query="query" :disableHeuristics="true" css="width: 100%">
      <template v-slot:builder="{measures,setMeasures,availableMeasures}">
        <v-container fluid class="pa-4 pa-md-8 pt-6 background-white">
          <v-row>
            <v-col cols="12" md="2">
              <v-select
                multiple
                label="Measures"
                outlined
                hide-details
                :value="measures.map(i => (i.name))"
                @change="setMeasures"
                :items="availableMeasures.map(i => (i.name))"
              />
            </v-col>
          </v-row>
        </v-container>
      </template>
      <template v-slot="{ resultSet }">
        <div class="pa-4 pa-md-8" v-if="resultSet">
          <div class="border-light pa-4 pa-md-12">
            <line-chart legend="bottom" :data="series(resultSet)"></line-chart>
          </div>
        </div>
      </template>
    </query-builder>
  </v-container>
</template>

<script>
import cubejs from '@cubejs-client/core'
import { QueryBuilder } from '@cubejs-client/vue'

const cubejsApi = cubejs("CUBEJS-TOKEN", {
  apiUrl: `http://localhost:4000/cubejs-api/v1`
});

export default {
  name: 'HelloWorld',

  components: {
    QueryBuilder
  },
  data: () => {
    const query = {
      limit: 100,
      timeDimensions: [
        {
          dimension: 'LineItems.createdAt',
          granularity: 'day',
          dateRange: 'Last 30 days'
        }
      ],
    }

    return {
      cubejsApi,
      query
    }
  },
  methods: {
    series (resultSet) {
      return resultSet.series().map(series => ({
        name: series.key,
        data: series.series.map(row => [row.x, row.value])
      }))
    }
  }
}
</script>

<style scopped>
  .background {
    background: #F3F3FB;
    min-height: 100vh;
  }
  .background-white {
    background: #fff;
  }
  .border-light {
    background: #FFFFFF;
    border-radius: 8px;
  }
</style>

```

Now we can use updated `HelloWorld` component in our `App` component. Replace the content of the `src/App.vue` with the following.

```jsx
<template>
  <v-app>
    <v-app-bar
      app
      color="#43436B"
      dark
    >
      <div class="d-flex align-center">
        <v-img
          alt="Vuetify Logo"
          class="shrink mr-2"
          contain
          src="https://cube.dev/downloads/logo-full.svg"
          transition="scale-transition"
        />
      </div>
    </v-app-bar>

    <v-main>
      <HelloWorld/>
    </v-main>
  </v-app>
</template>

<script>
import HelloWorld from './components/HelloWorld'

export default {
  name: 'App',

  components: {
    HelloWorld
  }
}
</script>

```

The last small change we need to make is to register the `VueChartkick` plugin. Update the `src/main.js` file.

```diff
import Vue from 'vue'
import App from './App.vue'
import vuetify from './plugins/vuetify'
+ import Chart from 'chart.js'
+ import VueChartkick from 'vue-chartkick'

Vue.config.productionTip = false
+ Vue.use(VueChartkick, { adapter: Chart })

new Vue({
  vuetify,
  render: h => h(App)
}).$mount('#app')

```

We've just built our first simple query builder 🎉. Navigate to [http://localhost:8080/](http://localhost:8080/) in your browser and you should be able to test it out.

![Measures example](https://media.graphcms.com/K94cVJSyR4iQ4Hiyqhy3)

We can already plot the count of orders over time. But what if we want to see the breakdown of orders by the status? To do so, we'd need to introduce the dimensions dropdown to let users select the grouping option.

We'll use more slot props for this: `dimensions`, `availableDimensions` and `setDimensions`. They work they same as slot props for measures allowing us to list the available dimensions and update the list of selected ones.

Update `src/HelloWorld.vue` file.

```diff
<template>
  <v-container fluid class="text-center background pa-0">
    <query-builder :cubejs-api="cubejsApi" :query="query" :disableHeuristics="true" css="width: 100%">
+    <template 
+       v-slot:builder="{
+    <template 
+       v-slot:builder="{
+       measures,
+       setMeasures,
+       availableMeasures,
+       dimensions,
+       setDimensions,
+       availableDimensions
+       }"
+     >
        <v-container fluid class="pa-4 pa-md-8 pt-6 background-white">
            <v-row>
	          <v-col cols="12" md="2">
	            <v-select
	              multiple
	              label="Measures"
	              outlined
		          hide-details
	              :value="measures.map(i => (i.name))"
	              @change="setMeasures"
	              :items="availableMeasures.map(i => (i.name))"
	            />
	          </v-col>
+             <v-col cols="12" md="2">
+               <v-select
+                 multiple
+                 label="Dimensions"
+                 outlined
+                 hide-details
+                 :value="dimensions.map(i => (i.name))"
+                 @change="setDimensions"
+                 :items="availableDimensions.map(i => (i.name))"
+               />
+             </v-col>
	        </v-row>
          </v-container>
        </template>
        <template v-slot="{ resultSet }">
	        <div class="pa-4 pa-md-8" v-if="resultSet">
	          <div class="border-light pa-4 pa-md-12">
	            <line-chart legend="bottom" :data="series(resultSet)"></line-chart>
	          </div>
	        </div>
	      </template>
      </query-builder>
  </v-container>
</template>
```

Refresh your browser and now you should be able to select the dimensions for grouping as well!

![Dimension exmaple](https://media.graphcms.com/OXyr0XjQymZObzKqfHNo)

That's all for this tutorial. Congratulations on completing it! 🎉

There are other controls you can add to your query builder like filters, date range, and granularity, as well as chart type selector. You can find [a more complicated example with all these controls here](https://vue-query-builder-demo.cube.dev/) and [its source code here on Github.](https://github.com/cube-js/cube.js/tree/master/examples/vue-query-builder)

Please send any comments or feedback you might have to this [Slack Community](http://slack.cube.dev/). Thank you and I hope you found this tutorial helpful!

Leonid Yakovlev

Vue 2 Query Builder with Cube

_Originally published at [Qualibrate Blog](https://qualibrate.com/blog/data-science/our-path-towards-advanced-quality-reporting-analytics/)_

Here at [Qualibrate](https://qualibrate.com) we’ve been trying to manage the best way to give users the flexibility of
advanced reporting and simplicity in generating great dashboards, and while Kibana, Grafana, et al.
are great products, we wanted to give our users a seamless experience when they’re using our platform.

After discussing the variety of options available versus the case of building our own,
we found [Cube](https://cube.dev) from [Statsbot.co](https://statsbot.co). We thought that their offering was perfect for our use case,
but there was a big caveat—our current platform uses the Vue.js for which there was no implementation.
That’s when the spark ignited; why should we reinvent the wheel by trying to copy an incredible product,
when instead we could take advantage of what a great community gives us and try to work on this together.
We started using Cube in our workflow when we saw there was a opportunity to make an
improvement on the MongoDB connector. That moment, our relationship with the community began.

Once we were able to map our database schemas and curate our relationships, our work began.
We tried to match the React components as closely as possible in Vue.js.
This is the result.

## Set up a demo backend

_If you already have Cube Backend up and running you can skip this step._

Since we’re using MongoDB for our product, we’ll use it for our tutorial as well.
Please follow [this guide](https://cube.dev/blog/building-mongodb-dashboard-using-nodejs) to set up the Cube backend.

## Using the Vue.js library

Let’s create a new Vue CLI project using @vue/cli and navigate into it.

```sh
$ vue create cubejs-mongo-example && cd cubejs-mongo-example
```

Next, install the `@cubejs-client/vue` dependency.

```sh
$ npm install --save @cubejs-client/core @cubejs-client/vue
```

Also, we're going to add `vue-multiselect`, `vue-chartkick` and `Chart.js` for this example

```sh
$ npm install --save vue-multiselect vue-chartkick chart.js
```

Now we can start the development server

```sh
$ npm run serve
```

Voila! Your application will be launched and is available at http://localhost:8080
and should look like this:
![Screen 1](https://media.graphcms.com/nNGn515PRT25o6f0iGNw)

## Environment Variables

Vue applications configuration variables can be loaded through a .env file and
will be available if using the `VUE_APP_` convention ([More information available here]( https://cli.vuejs.org/guide/mode-and-env.html#environment-variables ))

```sh
VUE_APP_CUBEJS_API_TOKEN=<YOUR-API-TOKEN>
VUE_APP_CUBEJS_API_URL=<YOUR-API-URL>
```
Whenever your application is running, this configuration will be accessible through
the `process.env` object.

## Configure the dependencies

`src/main.js` is the default entrypoint to any generated `@vue/cli` project;
it’s where the Vue app is mounted. In this case, we’re putting global components
so that they’re available everywhere.

```js
import Vue from 'vue';
import VueChartkick from 'vue-chartkick';
import Chart from 'chart.js';
import App from './App.vue';

Vue.config.productionTip = false;
// Add ChartKick components with Chart.js Adapter
Vue.use(VueChartkick, { adapter: Chart });

new Vue({
  render: h => h(App),
}).$mount('#app');
```

## Using the QueryRenderer

The `<query-renderer/>` component takes a Cube object and a formulated query
in order to fetch the data and return a `resultSet`. It handles the request asynchronously
and renders the slot once it’s been resolved.

```js
<template>
  <div class="hello">
	// Query Renderer component
	<query-renderer :cubejs-api="cubejsApi" :query="query">
  	<template v-slot="{ loading, resultSet }">
      	<chart-renderer
        	v-if="!loading"
        	:result-set="resultSet" />
  	</template>
	</query-renderer>
  </div>
</template>

<script>
import cubejs from '@cubejs-client/core';
import { QueryRenderer } from '@cubejs-client/vue';
import ChartRenderer from './ChartRenderer.vue';

const cubejsApi = cubejs(
  process.env.VUE_APP_CUBEJS_API_TOKEN,
  { apiUrl: process.env.VUE_APP_CUBEJS_API_URL },
);

export default {
  name: 'HelloWorld',
  components: {
	QueryRenderer,
	ChartRenderer,
  },
  data() {
	const query = {
  	measures: ['Orders.count'],
  	timeDimensions: [
    	{
      	dimension: 'LineItems.createdAt',
      	granularity: 'month',
    	},
  	],
	};

	return {
  	cubejsApi,
  	selected: undefined,
  	query,
	};
  },
  methods: {
	customLabel(a) {
  	return a.title;
	},
  },
};
</script>
```

Here is a simple example of a `<chart-renderer/>` component for displaying information
coming from `resultSet` mapping the result into an object that is compatible with the
`vue-chartkick` `line-chart` data series:

```js
<template>
  <div class="chart-renderer">
	<line-chart :data="series"></line-chart>
  </div>
</template>

<script>
export default {
  name: 'ChartRenderer',
  props: {
	resultSet: {
  	type: Object,
  	required: true,
	},
  },
  computed: {
	series() {
  	const seriesNames = this.resultSet.seriesNames();
  	const pivot = this.resultSet.chartPivot();
  	const series = [];
  	seriesNames.forEach((e) => {
    	const data = pivot.map(p => [p.x, p[e.key]]);
    	series.push({ name: e.key, data });
  	});
  	return series;
	},
  },
};
</script>
```

Up until this point it should look something like this:

![Screen 2](https://media.graphcms.com/soafIs2dTGGJGWf2PG5n)

## Using the QueryBuilder

The `<query-builder/>` component is a utility that gets the schema information
from the API and allows you to generate the query with some helper methods.
Some of these include `setMeasures` and `addMeasures`, which change the underlying query
and update the `resultSet` on the background. Every available method is part of the
[scoped slots](https://vuejs.org/v2/guide/components-slots.html#Scoped-Slots) object.
The only required prop is `cubejsApi`. It expects an instance of your Cube API client returned by the Cube method.

[Here you can find more detailed reference of the `QueryBuilder` component](https://cube.dev/docs/@cubejs-client-vue)

```js
<template>
  <div class="hello">
	<query-builder :cubejs-api="cubejsApi">
  	<template v-slot="{ measures, setMeasures, availableMeasures, loading, resultSet }">
    	// Render whatever content
  	</template>
	</query-builder>
  </div>
</template>

<script>
import cubejs from '@cubejs-client/core';
import { QueryBuilder } from '@cubejs-client/vue';

const cubejsApi = cubejs(
  process.env.VUE_APP_CUBEJS_API_TOKEN,
  { apiUrl: process.env.VUE_APP_CUBEJS_API_URL },
);

export default {
  name: 'HelloWorld',
  components: {
	QueryBuilder,
  },
  data() {
	return {
  	cubejsApi,
	};
  },
};
</script>
```

Then we’re going to add the capability to select some dimensions and measures.
It will update the query and render the content accordingly. The `setMeasures` and
`setDimensions` methods set the collection directly to the query since these multiselect
controls make it a bit easier. `availableMeasures` and `availableDimensions` get the information
from the schema to show allowed inputs.

```html
<template>
  <div class="hello">
	<query-builder :cubejs-api="cubejsApi" :query="query">
  	<template v-slot="{ measures, setMeasures, availableMeasures, dimensions, setDimensions, availableDimensions, loading, resultSet }">
    	<div class="selects">
      	<multiselect
        	:multiple="true"
        	:customLabel="customLabel"
        	@input="setMeasures"
        	:value="measures"
        	:options="availableMeasures"
        	placeholder="Please Select"
        	label="Title"
        	track-by="name"/>
      	<multiselect
        	:multiple="true"
        	:customLabel="customLabel"
        	@input="setDimensions"
        	:value="dimensions"
        	:options="availableDimensions"
        	placeholder="Please Select"
        	label="Title"
        	track-by="name"/>
    	</div>
      	<chart-renderer
        	v-if="!loading && measures.length > 0"
        	:result-set="resultSet" />
  	</template>
	</query-builder>
  </div>
</template>
```

This is a fully working example and should look like this.

![Screen 3](https://media.graphcms.com/i9IR7fkNShqcxAOCqxfk)

```js
<template>
  <div class="hello">
	<query-builder :cubejs-api="cubejsApi" :query="query">
  	<template v-slot="{ measures, setMeasures, availableMeasures, dimensions, setDimensions, availableDimensions, loading, resultSet }">
    	<div class="selects">
      	<multiselect
        	:multiple="true"
        	:customLabel="customLabel"
        	@input="setMeasures"
        	:value="measures"
        	:options="availableMeasures"
        	placeholder="Please Select"
        	label="Title"
        	track-by="name"/>
      	<multiselect
        	:multiple="true"
        	:customLabel="customLabel"
        	@input="setDimensions"
        	:value="dimensions"
        	:options="availableDimensions"
        	placeholder="Please Select"
        	label="Title"
        	track-by="name"/>
    	</div>
      	<chart-renderer
        	v-if="!loading && measures.length > 0"
        	:result-set="resultSet" />
  	</template>
	</query-builder>
  </div>
</template>

<script>
import cubejs from '@cubejs-client/core';
import Multiselect from 'vue-multiselect';
import { QueryBuilder } from '@cubejs-client/vue';
import ChartRenderer from './ChartRenderer.vue';

const cubejsApi = cubejs(
  'eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.e30.K9PiJkjegbhnw4Ca5pPlkTmZihoOm42w8bja9Qs2qJg',
  { apiUrl: 'https://awesome-ecom.gcp-us-central1.cubecloudapp.dev/cubejs-api/v1' },
);

export default {
  name: 'HelloWorld',
  components: {
	Multiselect,
	QueryBuilder,
	ChartRenderer,
  },
  data() {
	const query = {
  	measures: [],
  	timeDimensions: [
  	],
	};

	return {
  	cubejsApi,
  	selected: undefined,
  	query,
	};
  },
  methods: {
	customLabel(a) {
  	return a.title;
	},
  },
};
</script>
<style src="vue-multiselect/dist/vue-multiselect.min.css"></style>

<style scoped>
.hello {
  padding: 0 10rem;
}

.selects {
  display: flex;
}

.selects .multiselect {
  margin: 0.5rem;
}
</style>
```

Similar to measures, `availableMeasures`, and `updateMeasures`, there are properties
to render and dimensions, segments, time, filters, and chart types to manage.
You can find the full list of properties [in the documentation](https://cube.dev/docs/@cubejs-client-vue#query-builder).

Ricardo Tapia

User Stories

Qualibrate started using Cube to give their users the flexibility of advanced reporting and generating great dashboards. While implementing Cube to the workflow, Qualibrate improved the MongoDB connector and filled the gap with Vue supporting in Cube.

Vue

How to Build an Apache ECharts Dashboard with Vue 3: A Comprehensive Guide

Vue 2 Query Builder with Cube

How We Build Analytics at Qualibrate Using Cube and Vue

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