iView — High Quality Vue 2 UI Component Library

Introduction

iView is a UI component library for Vue.js 2.0 that provides a rich set of high-quality components for building enterprise web applications. It focuses on elegant design, consistent APIs, and comprehensive documentation with support for internationalization.

What iView Does

• Provides 60+ reusable UI components including tables, forms, and modals
• Supports internationalization with 16 built-in language packs
• Offers a theme customization system via Less variables
• Includes advanced components like tree selects, cascaders, and transfer lists
• Provides an admin template (iView Admin) for rapid dashboard development

Architecture Overview

iView components are built as standard Vue 2 single-file components using a slot-based composition pattern. Styling uses Less with a centralized variable system for theming. Each component manages its own state internally while exposing v-model bindings and event hooks. The library provides a global configuration method for setting defaults like component size and language.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Install via npm and import globally or on a per-component basis
• Customize themes by overriding Less variables before compilation
• Configure i18n by passing locale objects to iView.lang()
• Use with vue-cli or webpack with the iview-loader for tag shorthand
• On-demand importing available via babel-plugin-import to reduce bundle size

Key Features

• Clean and consistent API design across all components
• Built-in form validation with async rule support
• Powerful table component with sorting, filtering, and custom renders
• Comprehensive date/time pickers with range selection
• Smooth CSS transitions and animations throughout

Comparison with Similar Tools

• Element UI — Similar scope for Vue 2, more widely adopted in Chinese market
• Ant Design Vue — Port of Ant Design for Vue, enterprise-focused
• Vuetify — Material Design based, supports Vue 3 natively
• Naive UI — Vue 3 first, TypeScript native, newer architecture
• PrimeVue — Framework-agnostic components with Vue wrappers

FAQ

Q: Does iView support Vue 3? A: The original iView targets Vue 2. The Vue 3 successor is View UI Plus, maintained under a separate package.

Q: Can I import components on demand? A: Yes. Use babel-plugin-import or manually import individual components to reduce your production bundle.

Q: Is iView still maintained? A: Core iView for Vue 2 receives maintenance updates. Active development has shifted to View UI Plus for Vue 3.

Q: How do I customize the theme? A: Override Less variables in your build configuration. iView provides a comprehensive set of variables for colors, spacing, and typography.

Sources

• https://github.com/iview/iview
• https://www.iviewui.com/