In Vue.js, is there a way to keep component templates out of JavaScript strings?

Given that you are starting a new project, you can use vue-hackernews-2.0 as boilerplate, where you see lot of components already coded with webpack integration for both dev and prod env. This is also developed by core vue team and recommended in official docs.

You can see there are different files for each component and one component looks like following having clear separation of HTML, JS and CSS part:

<template>  <li v-if="comment" class="comment">    <div class="by">      <router-link :to="'/user/' + comment.by">{{ comment.by }}</router-link>      {{ comment.time | timeAgo }} ago    </div>    <div class="text" v-html="comment.text"></div>    <div class="toggle" :class="{ open }" v-if="comment.kids && comment.kids.length">      <a @click="open = !open">{{        open            ? '[-]'            : '[+] ' + pluralize(comment.kids.length) + ' collapsed'      }}</a>    </div>    <ul class="comment-children" v-show="open">      <comment v-for="id in comment.kids" :id="id"></comment>    </ul>  </li></template><script>export default {  name: 'comment',  props: ['id'],  data () {    return {      open: true    }  },  computed: {    comment () {      return this.$store.state.items[this.id]    }  },  methods: {    pluralize: n => n + (n === 1 ? ' reply' : ' replies')  }}</script><style lang="stylus">.comment-children  .comment-children    margin-left 1.5em.comment  border-top 1px solid #eee  position relative  .by, .text, .toggle    font-size .9em    margin 1em 0  .by    color #999    a      color #999      text-decoration underline  .text    overflow-wrap break-word    a:hover      color #ff6600    pre      white-space pre-wrap  .toggle    background-color #fffbf2    padding .3em .5em    border-radius 4px    a      color #999      cursor pointer    &.open      padding 0      background-color transparent      margin-bottom -0.5em</style>

This uses webpack for build and adds working config as well which I myself am using in production without any issue.

You can use <template>...</template> or <script type="text/x-template">...</script>, and specify the selector in template attribute for that.

<template id="myComponent">  <div>    <h1>Hello!</h1>    <p><slot></slot></p>  </div></template>Vue.component('myComponent', {  template: '#myComponent'})

Simple working example here: http://codepen.io/anon/pen/dNWrZG?editors=1010

Also, the build process of single file components is not that difficult. You can check the webpack-simple template: https://github.com/vuejs-templates/webpack-simple, the vue-loader will do everything for you.

Once you feel comfortable with webpack, you can take a look at the full webpack template: https://github.com/vuejs-templates/webpack

From my experiences, if the template is very short, use inline mode is OK. If not, x-template also allows you to get rid of escaping line breaks. I don't see why you think these approaches are discouraged. Can you provide more information?

However, if you insist to embed long template inline, you can still do that without escaping. The answer is ES6 template literals - string wrapped within ``:

template: `  <span>    $    <input      ref="input"      v-bind:value="value"      v-on:input="updateValue($event.target.value)"    >  </span>`,

On the other hand, I really think vue-cli is a great tool. Webpack is something worth learning.