Vue.js Computed Property Loses Its Reactivity When Passed Through An Event

I have a Modal component in my main app that gets passed content via an event whenever a modal has to be shown. Modal content is always a list with an action associated with each i

Solution 1:

You have the modal working with its own copy of items:

 template: `<ul v-if="shown">
    <li v-for="item in items">
      {{ item }} <button @click="callback(item)">Remove</button>
    </li>
  </ul>`,
  methods: {
    show(items, callback) {
      this.shown = true;
      this.items = items;
      this.callback = callback;
    }
  }

That copy is made once, upon the call to show, and what you are copying is just the value of the computed at the time you emit the showModal event. What show receives is not a computed, and what it assigns is not a computed. It's just a value.

If, anywhere in your code, you made an assignment like

someDataItem = someComputed;

the data item would not be a functional copy of the computed, it would be a snapshot of its value at the time of the assignment. This is why copying values around in Vue is a bad practice: they don't automatically stay in sync.

Instead of copying values around, you can pass a function that returns the value of interest; effectively a get function. For syntactic clarity, you can make a computed based on that function. Then your code becomes

const EventBus = new Vue();

Vue.component('comp', {
  data() {
    return {
      obj: {
        a: 'foo',
        b: 'bar'
      }
    }
  },
  computed: {
    objKeys() {
      return Object.keys(this.obj);
    }
  },
  template: `<div>
    <div>Entire object: {{ obj }}</div>
    <div>Just the keys: {{ objKeys }}</div>
    <button @click="remove('a')">Remove a</button>
    <button @click="remove('b')">Remove b</button>
    <button @click="showModal">Show Modal</button>
    <modal></modal>
  </div>`,
  methods: {
    remove(name) {
      this.$delete(this.obj, name);
    },
    showModal() {
      EventBus.$emit('showModal', () => this.objKeys, this.remove);
    }
  }
});

Vue.component('modal', {
  data() {
    return {
      shown: false,
      getItems: null,
      callback: () => {}
    }
  },
  mounted() {
    EventBus.$on('showModal', this.show);
  },
  template: `<div v-if="shown">
  <ul v-if="items.length>0">
    <li v-for="item in items">
      {{ item }} <button @click="callback(item)">Remove</button>
    </li>
  </ul>
  <em v-else>empty</em>
</div>`,
  computed: {
    items() {
      return this.getItems && this.getItems();
    }
  },
  methods: {
    show(getItems, callback) {
      this.shown = true;
      this.getItems = getItems;
      this.callback = callback;
    }
  }
});

var app = new Vue({
  el: '#app'
})

<script src="//unpkg.com/vue@latest/dist/vue.js"></script>
<div id="app">
  <comp></comp>
</div>

Solution 2:

You are passing a value to a function, you are not passing a prop to a component. Props are reactive, but values are just values. You include modal in the template of comp, so rework it to take (at least) items as a prop. Then it will be reactive.

I would recommend having the remove process follow the emit-event-and-process-in-parent rather than passing a callback.

const EventBus = new Vue();

Vue.component('comp', {
  data() {
    return {
      obj: {
        a: 'foo',
        b: 'bar'
      }
    }
  },
  computed: {
    objKeys() {
      return Object.keys(this.obj);
    }
  },
  template: `<div>
    <div>Entire object: {{ obj }}</div>
    <div>Just the keys: {{ objKeys }}</div>
    <button @click="remove('a')">Remove a</button>
    <button @click="remove('b')">Remove b</button>
    <button @click="showModal">Show Modal</button>
    <modal :items="objKeys" event-name="remove" @remove="remove"></modal>
  </div>`,
  methods: {
    remove(name) {
      this.$delete(this.obj, name);
    },
    showModal() {
      EventBus.$emit('showModal');
    }
  }
});

Vue.component('modal', {
  props: ['items', 'eventName'],
  data() {
    return {
      shown: false,
    }
  },
  mounted() {
    EventBus.$on('showModal', this.show);
  },
  template: `<div v-if="shown">
  <ul v-if="items.length>0">
    <li v-for="item in items">
      {{ item }} <button @click="emitEvent(item)">Remove</button>
    </li>
  </ul>
  <em v-else>empty</em>
</div>`,
  methods: {
    show(items, callback) {
      this.shown = true;
    },
    emitEvent(item) {
      this.$emit(this.eventName, item);
    }
  }
});

var app = new Vue({
  el: '#app'
})

<script src="//unpkg.com/vue@latest/dist/vue.js"></script>
<div id="app">
  <comp></comp>
</div>