How to include a CDN to VueJS CLI without NPM or Webpack?

I don't know if this is still a concern, but you could also give vue-meta a look. I'm using it to create a better SEO implementation, but with it, you can include CSS, and/or JS files for specific components. You can even set the individual files to preload if you wanted. Here's a pretty good write-up. https://alligator.io/vuejs/vue-seo-tips/

In there it says that vue-meta isn't stable, but the article was written in February of 2018, and the version as of today, is 2.2.1.

1. add this line to your package.json file within the dependencies object: "vue-meta": "^2.2.1",

note - omit the trailing comma if it's to be the last line of the dependencies object

2. open a terminal and cd to the dir which contains above mentioned package.json file. (BTW, this is all super easy if you use the vue ui).
3. in the terminal run: npm install

Then add the following to your main.js file.

import Meta from "vue-meta";
Vue.use(Meta);

Now you can freely load static CSS/JS assets. This works for local, or from cdn. Below is my example. Disregard my imports, components and methods... they aren't related to vue-meta and may differ from yours. I just wanted to show you a working version.

<script>
import { page } from "vue-analytics";
import Header from "@/components/Header.vue";
import Footer from "@/components/Footer.vue";
export default {
  components: {
    Header,
    Footer
  },
  data: function() {
    return {};
  },
  methods: {
    track() {
      page("/");
    }
  },
  metaInfo: {
    link: [
      {
        rel: "preload",
        as: "style",
        href: "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/bootstrap-vue.min.css"
      },
      {
        rel: "preload",
        as: "style",
        href: "https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cinzel|Great+Vibes|Montserra"
      },
      {
        rel: "preload",
        as: "style",
        href: "/content/css/site.css"
      },
      {
        rel: "stylesheet",
        href:
          "https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cinzel|Great+Vibes|Montserra"
      },
      {
        rel: "stylesheet",
        href: "https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.3.1/css/bootstrap.min.css",
        integrity:
          "sha384-ggOyR0iXCbMQv3Xipma34MD+dH/1fQ784/j6cY/iJTQUOhcWr7x9JvoRxT2MZw1T",
        crossorigin: 'anonymous"'
      },
      {
        rel: "stylesheet",
        href: "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/bootstrap-vue.min.css",
        async: true,
        defer: true
      },
      {
        rel: "stylesheet",
        href: "https://use.fontawesome.com/releases/v5.8.1/css/all.css",
        integrity:
          "sha384-50oBUHEmvpQ+1lW4y57PTFmhCaXp0ML5d60M1M7uH2+nqUivzIebhndOJK28anvf",
        crossorigin: 'anonymous"',
        async: true,
        defer: true
      },
      {
        rel: "stylesheet",
        href: "/content/css/site.css",
        async: true,`enter code here`
        defer: true
      },
      { rel: 'favicon', href: 'favicon.ico' }
    ],
    script: [{ src: "https://unpkg.com/axios/dist/axios.min.js", async: true, defer: true }],
  }
};
</script>

Unfortunately, no, you can't add a <script> tag to a specific component via template.

In your case you have some options:

1: Use NPM

Propertly install the dependency using npm

• Pros: proper usage of NPM and Webpack; scoped definition;
• Cons: the script must be available as a NPM package.
• Note: when available this is the recommended approach.

• Steps:

  • For your case, you can check in datatables official page they do have a NPM package. I could be used like:

    npm install --save datatables.net-dt
    

  • And in your .vue file:

    <script>
      require( 'datatables.net-dt' )();
      export default {
        name: 'Index',
        data() {
          return { 
          }
        }
      }
    </script>
    

---

2: Add <script> tag to index.html

Locate and a dd the <script> tag to your index.html

• Pros: the <script> tag is clearly (and declaratively) added to the HTML source. The script will only be loaded once.
• Cons: the script will be globally loaded.
• Steps:
  • Just add the <script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdn.datatables.net/v/dt/dt-1.10.16/sl-1.2.5/datatables.min.js"></script> to the end of the index.html file, preferably right before </body>.

---

3: Create the <script> tag programatically

The other alternative is to create the script tag programatically at the component, when the component is lodaded.

• Pros: the code stays in the component only. Your external script will be loaded only when the component is loaded.
• Cons: the script still will be globally available once it is loaded.

• Steps/Code:

  <script>
    export default {
      name: 'Index',
      data() {
        return { 
        }
      },
      mounted() {
        if (document.getElementById('my-datatable')) return; // was already loaded
        var scriptTag = document.createElement("script");
        scriptTag.src = "https://cdn.datatables.net/v/dt/dt-1.10.16/sl-1.2.5/datatables.min.js";
        scriptTag.id = "my-datatable";
        document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(scriptTag);
      }
    }
  </script>