Access template refs in Composition API in Vue.js 3

You've seen in the last tip "Use old instance properties in Composition API in Vue.js 3" how to access instance properties in the new syntax.

However, our beloved this.$refs wasn't included in the setup context object as you realized if you read the tip.

So, how can you work with template refs in Composition API?

It might be more simple than you think! The thing is, Vue.js unifies the concept of refs, meaning that you just need to use the ref() function you already know for declaring reactive state variables in order to declare a template ref as well.

Only keep in mind that the ref name must be the same as the variable's one. Let me illustrate it. For the template:

<template>
  <div>
    <h2 ref="titleRef">{{ formattedMoney }}</h2>
    <input v-model="delta" type="number" />
    <button @click="add">Add</button>
  </div>
</template>

I've set titleRef on the <h2> tag. That's all in the template level. Now in the setup function, you need to declare a ref with the same titleRef name, initialized to null for instance:

export default {
  setup(props) {
    // Refs
    const titleRef = ref(null);

    // Hooks
    onMounted(() => {
      console.log("titleRef", titleRef.value);
    });

    return {
      titleRef
      // ...
    };
  }
};

You access the ref value just like any other reactive ref, by accessing the .value property. If you do so as shown in the example you should see in the console the result titleRef

10.00

Don't believe me? Check it out with your own eyes this CodeSandbox!

That's it for today's tip!