vue-snip

Vue.js directive that clamps the content of a text element if it exceeds specified number of lines.

Key features:

• no need to specify line heights
• no dependencies (small and fast)
• two snipping approaches (CSS / JavaScript) (on a per-element basis)
• re-snipping on element resize and reactive data change

Installation

# install with npm
npm install vue-snip

# or with yarn
yarn add vue-snip

import Vue from 'vue'
import VueSnip from 'vue-snip'

Vue.use(VueSnip)

Usage

The most basic usage looks like this:

<template>
  <p v-snip> ... </p>
</template>

Most of the time, you would probably pass in the explicit maxLines value:

<template>
  <p v-snip="3"> ... </p>
</template>

On top of that, you can pass in the snipping method too:

<template>
  <p v-snip:js="3"> ... </p>
</template>

Both of these are reactive, so you can do even this:

<template>
  <p v-snip:[method]="maxLines"> ... </p>
</template>

<script>
  export default {
    data () {
      return {
        method: 'js',
        maxLines: 3
      }
    }
  }
</script>

Options

Passing options is not required - if you don't pass options, the default options are used. Passed options get merged with the defaults, so just define what you want to change (no need to redefine all properties).

import Vue from 'vue'
import VueSnip from 'vue-snip'

const options = {
  // your setup
}

Vue.use(VueSnip, options)

The options object can have the following properties:

IE11 Support

IE11 does not support -webkit-line-clamp (falls back to the JS method), and the ResizeObserver API. This API needs to be polyfilled (recommended: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@juggle/resize-observer), otherwise the elements will not get re-snipped when they get resized.

import { ResizeObserver as Polyfill } from '@juggle/resize-observer';
 
window.ResizeObserver = window.ResizeObserver || Polyfill;

How it works

Two snipping approaches:

• CSS approach based on the -webkit-line-clamp.
• JavaScript approach based on the progressive cutting of element's innerText in a loop.

Note: CSS approach is faster (preferred), but does not work in older browsers / in all situations (f.e. does not work in IE11, or when you need the text to flow around a floated element).

Global default is the CSS approach (falls back to the JavaScript for the non-supporting browsers), but you can freely switch snipping approach on a per-element basis as needed.

Element snipping:

Directive uses the selected snipping approach to snip elements in several scenarios:

• when inserted into the document
• when horizontally resized (detected via the ResizeObserver API - needs polyfill for IE11)
• when directive's reactive data change

Caveats

Element style attribute

The directive internally operates on the element's style attribute. You should not modify the style attribute of elements you are snipping. Use classes instead.

Element height

For the directive to be able to properly determine the number of lines at any given time, the height of the element should reflect the height of the text. Be wary of any CSS steps that will affect the height of the element. Some of the common examples:

• vertical paddings
• fixed height / fixed min height
• making the element a flex-item (align-items defaults to stretch)

Note: You can use the directive with flexbox, just make sure to change the default align-items / align-self value to flex-start or whatever fits your case.