Documentation Clarity for Getters in Vuex Modules

[jmcooper]

Version

4.0.0-rc.1

Reproduction link

https://vuex.vuejs.org/guide/modules.html#namespacing

Steps to reproduce

This is a problem with the documentation.

What is expected?

Greater clarity on getters in Vuex modules

What is actually happening?

In the namespacing section there is this explanation for why getters, actions and mutations are not namespaced by default:
"By default, actions, mutations and getters inside modules are still registered under the global namespace - this allows multiple modules to react to the same mutation/action type."

That reasoning (allowing multiple modules to react) is true for mutations an actions, but it doesn't explain the purpose for getters. In fact, it feels inaccurate to be grouping getters into this reasoning since it's actually erroneous to suggest you can have getters with the same name in multiple non-namespaced modules (or root) when that, in fact, will produce an error.

---

What is the purpose for a module's getters being global by default? If there is a purpose, can it be included here in the documentation?

[kiaking]

Good catch. Thanks for the feed back!

I think why getters are still registered globally is coming from historical reason, where when first we introduced modules, we believe we didn't had name spacing feature. So, we had to keep it global to avoid breaking changes.

How about we alter the text to:

---

By default, actions, mutations and getters inside modules are still registered under the global namespace - this allows multiple modules to react to the same mutation/action type. However, you must be careful that you can't define 2 getters with the same name or it will throw an error.

[jmcooper]

Hmm, having getters in that first sentence still feels troublesome. I'm also wondering if we could answer the question of "why" getters are global by default, or at least explain that it has no use in current versions, without making it feel too unprofessional. What about something like this:

---

By default, actions and mutations are still registered under the global namespace - this allows multiple modules to react to the same action/mutation type. Getters are also registered in the global namespace by default, however, this currently has no functional purpose and you must be careful not to define two getters with the same name in different, non-namespaced modules which will result in an error.

[kiaking]

Nice. Maybe we should add a little more on "why". How about:

---

By default, actions and mutations are still registered under the global namespace - this allows multiple modules to react to the same action/mutation type. Getters are also registered in the global namespace by default, however, this currently has no functional purpose (it's implemented this way to avoid breaking changes) and you must be careful not to define two getters with the same name in different, non-namespaced modules which will result in an error.

---

Would you like to create a PR? Or I could too!