VueJS

How to Set Up Storybook in VueJS

Published Sep 18, 2020

Updated Jun 1, 2023

4 min read

This article was written over 18 months ago and may contain information that is out of date. Some content may be relevant but please refer to the relevant official documentation or available resources for the latest information.

How to setup Storybook in VueJS

In this post, we will take a look at how to setup storybook in our VueJS application.

What is Storybook?

Storybook is a tool for developing UI components / libraries faster and in isolation. Storybook is an excellent addition to a project development cycle as it allows you to work on one component at a time and develop entire UIs without needing to start up a complex dev stack, force certain data into your database, or navigate around your application. It can also be used to write a documentation (story) of what each component does: for the parameters it accepts, the event it emits and response to expect.

A story describes a component in a specified state. You'd want to write a story for each state a component can have, such as active, inactive, loading. Storybook will then let you preview the component in its specified state in an interactive component library.

Setup our Project

Let’s start by creating our VueJS project. We would be using yarn for package management.

Using Vue CLI

Install Vue CLI if you don't already have it installed.

yarn global add @vue/cli

Create vue app

vue create your-app

Enter 'your-app' folder

cd your-app

Add storybook

yarn add --dev @storybook/vue

Add Storybook to package.json

{
   "scripts": {
   	"storybook": "start-storybook -p 9001 -c .storybook -s public",
   }
}

-p command refers to the port number where the Storybook will be run. -c command refers to the config directory. -s command refers to directory to load static / public files

run the following command, we should now see storybook running on port :9001

yarn storybook

Let's Configure Storybook in our VueJS project

As a best practice, Storybook configuration should be stored in a directory called .storybook.

Create .storybook directory as the config directory in the project root

Mkdir .storybook

Next lets create our config file

Create main.js inside our .storybook folder

module.exports = {
  stories: [""],
  addons: ["@storybook/addon-actions", "@storybook/addon-knobs"],
};

The main configuration file main.js controls the behaviour of the Storybook server.

stories - an array of globs that describes the location of your story files, relative to main.js. This makes the maintenance of the main.js file much easier by keeping it highly focused on the configuration of Storybook rather than its implementation. You can require as many stories as you need.
addons - a list of all the addons you are using (we will be describing what addons are as we go).
babel - custom babel configuration.

Note: you must always restart the Storybook’s process when you modify the main.js so as to update it.

Our folder structure should look like this: Storybook Vue Folder Structure

Let's write a story for a button component

First, let's write our custom button component - ../src/component/button.vue

<template>
  <button :class="{ 'loading': isLoading }" @click="clickButton">
    <slot></slot>
    {{ isLoading ? '- loading' : '' }}
  </button>
</template>
<script>
export default {
  name: "MyButton",
  props: {
    name: { type: String, required: true },
    isLoading: { type: Boolean, default: false },
  },
  methods: {
    clickButton() {
      this.$emit("buttonClicked", `${this.name}-button clicked`);
    },
  },
};
</script>

Let's write stories inside ./src/stories/button.stories.js

import { action } from "@storybook/addon-actions";
import { withKnobs, text, boolean } from "@storybook/addon-knobs";
import MyButton from "../components/button.vue";

export default {
  title: "MyButton",
  decorators: [withKnobs],
};

export const Button = () => ({
  props: {
    name: {
      type: String,
      default: text("Name", "MyButton!"),
    },
    isLoading: {
      type: Boolean,
      default: boolean("isLoading", true),
    },
  },
  components: { MyButton },
  template: `<MyButton :name="name" :isLoading="isLoading" @buttonClicked="action">Click Me!</MyButton>`,
  methods: {
    action: action("button-clicked"),
  },
});

Button.story = {
  name: "Button",
};

Addons are plugins in Storybook used to perform advanced functionalities on components. Examples are actions, knobs etc.

The actions addon is used to display data received by an event handler (callback) arguments in your stories.
The knobs addon allows you to dynamically interact with a component’s args (inputs). Experiment with alternate configurations of the component to discover edge cases.

Update our main.js file. Now let's add the path from main.js to our stories folder:

  stories: ["../src/stories/*.stories.js"],

Let's stop our storybook server and run it again

yarn storybook

Now if we click on the button we would notice that there's a log of the event under actions in our storybook. Example Storybook Actions Addon

If we click on the knobs tab, we would be able to edit the values that our component accepts and see how they change in realtime. Example Storybook Knobs Addon

Conclusion

Yes! We've been able to setup Storybook in VueJS and have also built a simple button component to test out knobs and actions.

For more complex examples like using Vuex store in stories, check out Using Storybook with VueJS.

If you have any questions or run into any trouble, feel free to reach out on Twitter or Github.

This Dot is a consultancy dedicated to guiding companies through their modernization and digital transformation journeys. Specializing in replatforming, modernizing, and launching new initiatives, we stand out by taking true ownership of your engineering projects.

We love helping teams with projects that have missed their deadlines or helping keep your strategic digital initiatives on course. Check out our case studies and our clients that trust us with their engineering.

About the author(s)

Adesoji Temitope
@temitopedavid_@temitopeadesoji

Awesome 3D experience with VueJS and TresJS: a beginner's guide

Awesome 3D experience with VueJS and TresJS: a beginner's guide Vue.js developers are renowned for raving about the ease, flexibility, and speed of development their framework offers. Tres.js builds on this love for Vue by becoming the missing piece for seamless 3D integration. As a Vue layer for Three.js, Tres.js allows you to leverage the power of Three.js, a popular 3D library, within the familiar and beloved world of Vue components. This means you can create stunning 3D graphics and animations directly within your Vue applications, all while maintaining the clean and efficient workflow you've come to expect. TresJS is a library specifically designed to make incorporating WebGL (the web's 3D graphics API) into your Vue.js projects a breeze. It boasts several key features that make 3D development with Vue a joy: - Declarative Approach: Build your 3D scenes like you would any other Vue component, leveraging the power and familiarity of Vue's syntax. This makes it intuitive and easy to reason about your 3D elements. - Powered by Vite: Experience blazing-fast development cycles with Vite's Hot Module Replacement (HMR) that keeps your scenes updated in real-time, even as your code changes. - Up-to-date Features: Tres.js stays on top of the latest Three.js releases, ensuring you have immediate access to the newest features and functionality. - Thriving Ecosystem: The Tres.js ecosystem offers many resources to enhance your development experience. This includes: - Cientos: A collection of pre-built components and helpers that extend the capabilities of Tres.js, allowing you to focus on building your scene's functionality rather than reinventing the wheel (https://cientos.tresjs.org/). - TresLeches: A powerful state management solution specifically designed for 3D applications built with Tres.js (https://tresleches.tresjs.org/). You can try TresJS online using their official Playground or on their StackBlitz starter. But now, let's dive into a quick code example to showcase the simplicity of creating a 3D scene with TresJS. Setup First, install the package: npm install @tresjs/core three And then, if you are using Typescript, be sure to install the types: npm install @types/three -D If you are using Vite, now you need to modify your vite.config.ts file in this way to make the template compiler work with the custom renderer: ` Create our Scene Imagine a 3D scene as a virtual stage. To bring this stage to life, we need a few key players working together: 1. Scene: Think of this as the container that holds everything in your 3D world. It acts as the canvas where all the objects, lights, and the camera reside, defining the overall environment. 2. Renderer: This is the magician behind the curtain, responsible for taking all the elements in your scene and translating them into what you see on the screen. It performs the complex calculations needed to transform your 3D scene into 2D pixels displayed on your browser. 3. Camera: Like a real camera, this virtual camera defines the perspective from which you view your scene. You can position and adjust the camera to zoom in, zoom out, or explore different angles within your 3D world. - To make our camera dynamic and allow canvas exploration, we are going to leverage the client's OrbitControls component. Below are our examples. You will see that we just include the component in our canvas, and it just works. 4. Objects: These actors bring your scene to life. They can be anything from simple geometric shapes like spheres and cubes to complex models like characters or buildings. You create the visual elements that tell your story by manipulating and animating these objects. Starting from the beginning: to create our Scene with TresJS we just need to use our component TresCanvas in our Vue component's template: ` The TresCanvas component is going to do some setup work behind the scenes: - It creates a WebGLRenderer that automatically updates every frame. - It sets the render loop to be called on every frame based on the browser refresh rate. Using the window-size property, we force the canvas to take the width and height of our full window. So with TresCanvas component we have created our Renderer and our Scene. Let's move to the Camera: ` We just have to add the TresPerspectiveCamera component to our scene. NOTE: It's important that all scene-related components live between the TresCanvas component. Now, only the main actor is missing, let's add some styles and our object inside the scene. Our Vue component will now look like: ` And our scene will be: A Mesh is a basic scene object in three.js, and it's used to hold the geometry and the material needed to represent a shape in 3D space. As we can see, we can achieve the same with TresJS using the TresMesh component, and between the default slots, we are just passing our object (a Box in our example). One interesting thing to notice is that we don't need to import anything. That's because TresJS automatically generates a Vue Component based on the three objects you want to use in PascalCase with a Tres prefix. Now, if we want to add some color to our object the Three.js Material class comes to help us. We need to add: ` Conclusion Tres.js not only supercharges Vue.js applications with stunning 3D graphics, but it also integrates seamlessly with Nuxt.js, enabling you to harness the performance benefits of server-side rendering (SSR) for your 3D creations. This opens the door to building exceptional web experiences that are both interactive and performant. With Tres.js, Vue.js developers can leverage a declarative approach, cutting-edge features, and a vast ecosystem to bring their immersive web visions to life. If you want to elevate your Vue.js projects with a new dimension, Tres.js is an excellent choice to explore....

Jun 12, 2024

3 mins

Vue3D

Understanding Vue's Reactive Data

Introduction Web development has always been about creating dynamic experiences. One of the biggest challenges developers face is managing how data changes over time and reflecting these changes in the UI promptly and accurately. This is where Vue.js, one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks, excels with its powerful reactive data system. In this article, we dig into the heart of Vue's reactivity system. We unravel how it perfectly syncs your application UI with the underlying data state, allowing for a seamless user experience. Whether new to Vue or looking to deepen your understanding, this guide will provide a clear and concise overview of Vue's reactivity, empowering you to build more efficient and responsive Vue 3 applications. So, let’s kick off and embark on this journey to decode Vue's reactive data system. What is Vue's Reactive Data? What does it mean for data to be ”'reactive”? In essence, when data is reactive, it means that every time the data changes, all parts of the UI that rely on this data automatically update to reflect these changes. This ensures that the user is always looking at the most current state of the application. At its core, Vue's Reactive Data is like a superpower for your application data. Think of it like a mirror - whatever changes you make in your data, the user interface (UI) reflects these changes instantly, like a mirror reflecting your image. This automatic update feature is what we refer to as “reactivity”. To visualize this concept, let's use an example of a simple Vue application displaying a message on the screen: ` In this application, 'message' is a piece of data that says 'Hello Vue!'. Let's say you change this message to 'Goodbye Vue!' later in your code, like when a button is clicked. ` With Vue's reactivity, when you change your data, the UI automatically updates to 'Goodbye Vue!' instead of 'Hello Vue!'. You don't have to write extra code to make this update happen - Vue's Reactive Data system takes care of it. How does it work? Let's keep the mirror example going. Vue's Reactive Data is the mirror that reflects your data changes in the UI. But how does this mirror know when and what to reflect? That's where Vue's underlying mechanism comes into play. Vue has a behind-the-scenes mechanism that helps it stay alerted to any changes in your data. When you create a reactive data object, Vue doesn't just leave it as it is. Instead, it sends this data object through a transformation process and wraps it up in a Proxy. Proxy objects are powerful and can detect when a property is changed, updated, or deleted. Let's use our previous example: ` Consider our “message” data as a book in a library. Vue places this book (our data) within a special book cover (the Proxy). This book cover is unique - it's embedded with a tracking device that notifies Vue every time someone reads the book (accesses the data) or annotates a page (changes the data). In our example, the reactive function creates a Proxy object that wraps around our state object. When you change the 'message': ` The Proxy notices this (like a built-in alarm going off) and alerts Vue that something has changed. Vue then updates the UI to reflect this change. Let’s look deeper into what Vue is doing for us and how it transforms our object into a Proxy object. You don't have to worry about creating or managing the Proxy; Vue handles everything. ` In the example above, we encapsulate our object, in this case, “state”, converting it into a Proxy object. Note that within the second argument of the Proxy, we have two methods: a getter and a setter. The getter method is straightforward: it merely returns the value, which in this instance is “state.message” equating to 'Hello Vue!' Meanwhile, the setter method comes into play when a new value is assigned, as in the case of “state.message = ‘Hey young padawan!’”. Here, “value” becomes our new 'Hey young padawan!', prompting the property to update. This action, in turn, triggers the reactivity system, which subsequently updates the DOM. Venturing Further into the Depths If you have been paying attention to our examples above, you might have noticed that inside the Proxy method, we call the functions track and trigger to run our reactivity. Let’s try to understand a bit more about them. You see, Vue 3 reactivity data is more about Proxy objects. Let’s create a new example: ` In this example, when you click on the button, the message's value changes. This change triggers the effect function to run, as it's actively listening for any changes in its dependencies. How does the effect property know when to be called? Vue 3 has three main functions to run our reactivity: effect, track, and trigger. The effect function is like our supervisor. It steps in and takes action when our data changes – similar to our effect method, we will dive in more later. Next, we have the track function. It notes down all the important data we need to keep an eye on. In our case, this data would be state.message. Lastly, we've got the trigger function. This one is like our alarm bell. It alerts the effect function whenever our important data (the stuff track is keeping an eye on) changes. In this way, trigger, track, and effect work together to keep our Vue application reacting smoothly to changes in data. Let’s go back to them: ` Tracking (Dependency Collection) Tracking is the process of registering dependencies between reactive objects and the effects that depend on them. When a reactive property is read, it's "tracked" as a dependency of the current running effect. When we execute track(), we essentially store our effects in a Set object. But what exactly is an "effect"? If we revisit our previous example, we see that the effect method must be run whenever any property changes. This action — running the effect method in response to property changes — is what we refer to as an "Effect"! (computed property, watcher, etc.) > Note: We'll outline a basic, high-level overview of what might happen under the hood. Please note that the actual implementation is more complex and optimized, but this should give you an idea of how it works. Let’s see how it works! In our example, we have the following reactive object: ` We need a way to reference the reactive object with its effects. For that, we use a WeakMap. Which type is going to look something like this: ` We are using a WeakMap to set our object state as the target (or key). In the Vue code, they call this object targetMap. Within this targetMap object, our value is an object named depMap of Map type. Here, the keys represent our properties (in our case, that would be message and showSword), and the values correspond to their effects – remember, they are stored in a Set that in Vue 3 we refer to as dep. Huh… It might seem a bit complex, right? Let's make it more straightforward with a visual example: With the above explained, let’s see what this Track method kind of looks like and how it uses this targetMap. This method essentially is doing something like this: ` At this point, you have to be wondering, how does Vue 3 know what activeEffect should run? Vue 3 keeps track of the currently running effect by using a global variable. When an effect is executed, Vue temporarily stores a reference to it in this global variable, allowing the track function to access the currently running effect and associate it with the accessed reactive property. This global variable is called inside Vue as activeEffect. Vue 3 knows which effect is assigned to this global variable by wrapping the effects functions in a method that invokes the effect whenever a dependency changes. And yes, you guessed, that method is our effect method. ` This method behind the scenes is doing something similar to this: ` The handling of activeEffect within Vue's reactivity system is a dance of careful timing, scoping, and context preservation. Let’s go step by step on how this is working all together. When we run our Effect method for the first time, we call the get trap of the Proxy. ` When running the get trap, we have our activeEffect so we can store it as a dependency. ` This coordination ensures that when a reactive property is accessed within an effect, the track function knows which effect is responsible for that access. Trigger Method Our last method makes this Reactive system to be complete. The trigger method looks up the dependencies for the given target and key and re-runs all dependent effects. ` Conclusion Diving into Vue 3's reactivity system has been like unlocking a hidden superpower in my web development toolkit, and honestly, I've had a blast learning about it. From the rudimentary elements of reactive data and instantaneous UI updates to the intricate details involving Proxies, track and trigger functions, and effects, Vue 3's reactivity is an impressively robust framework for building dynamic and responsive applications. In our journey through Vue 3's reactivity, we've uncovered how this framework ensures real-time and precise updates to the UI. We've delved into the use of Proxies to intercept and monitor variable changes and dissected the roles of track and trigger functions, along with the 'effect' method, in facilitating seamless UI updates. Along the way, we've also discovered how Vue ingeniously manages data dependencies through sophisticated data structures like WeakMaps and Sets, offering us a glimpse into its efficient approach to change detection and UI rendering. Whether you're just starting with Vue 3 or an experienced developer looking to level up, understanding this reactivity system is a game-changer. It doesn't just streamline the development process; it enables you to create more interactive, scalable, and maintainable applications. I love Vue 3, and mastering its reactivity system has been enlightening and fun. Thanks for reading, and as always, happy coding!...

Nov 22, 2023

7 mins

VueJavaScriptTypeScriptWeb Development

Understanding Side Effects in VueJS

Introduction In this article, we will talk about side effects in VueJS, and how to prevent some of them. Side effects are not outrightly bad since they might have some usecase like in a setTimeout() function. But we need to try to ensure that we know about these side effects. What are side effects? A side effect is when a function changes or modifies data that does not exist in its local scope. A simple example is a function that receives a parameter which is an Array, and inside that function, it changes the data in that array. Example: ` From this example above, we find out that numberList is been mutated when additem is called. Side Effects in Vue Example 1: Side Effects in Computed Properties Lets try to create a side effect example in a computed property. ` From the example above, we would see that the Unsorted Data and Sorted Data are the same. this.languages data model gets mutated when sortedLanguages is referenced. This is a side effect that can result in unexpected behaviours in your application if not properly handled. Example 2: Side effects wWen Accessing Getters Lets try to create a side effect example when accessing and assigning a getters data model. // store/index.js ` From this example, we would see that the store gets updated when we call (dispatch) the action sortLanguages. This is a side effect that can result in unexpected behaviours in your application, because the languages state is been mutated. How Do We Resolve These Side Effects? - Shallow clone ` When we shallow clone a language's array using the .slice() method, it returns a shallow copy of a portion of the array into a new array object. We do this to prevent a mutation of the language's data model. - Deep clone ` To deep clone, we can simply use json.parse(json.stringify(()) on our data model. JSON.stringify converts the data model to a string which removes references from the data model. JSON.parse converts the string back to an array of objects. In Vue, side effects that modify reactive properties in the store can be hidden and cause unexpected bugs which can be difficult to trace and debug. It's my hope that this article helps you better identify and respond to side effects in VueJS. If you have any questions or run into any trouble, feel free to reach out on Twitter or Github....

Sep 12, 2022

2 mins

Vue

Understanding the Difference Between `:focus` and `:focus-visible` in CSS

Understanding the Difference Between :focus and :focus-visible in CSS I have learned my fair share about the importance of keyboard accessibility, so I know that visual indication of the focused element is very important. But the well-known :focus pseudo-class is not always the best fit for this job. That's where :focus-visible comes in. Let's look at the differences between these two pseudo-classes and explore the best practices for using them effectively. What is the :focus Pseudo-Class? The :focus pseudo-class is a CSS selector that applies styles to any element that receives focus, regardless of how that focus was triggered. This includes focus events from keyboard navigation, mouse clicks, and touch interactions. Example Usage of :focus ` In this example, the button will display a blue outline whenever it is focused, whether the user clicks on it with a mouse, taps it on a touchscreen, or navigates to it using the keyboard. What is the :focus-visible Pseudo-Class? The :focus-visible pseudo-class is more specialized. It only applies styles to an element when the browser determines that the focus should be visible. This typically occurs when the user navigates via the keyboard or assistive technologies rather than through mouse or touch input. Example Usage of :focus-visible ` Here, the button will only show a blue outline when focused through keyboard navigation or another input method that usually requires visible focus indicators. Key Differences Between :focus and :focus-visible :focus - Behavior: Applies to any element that receives focus, regardless of the input method. - Use Cases: Ensures that all interactions with the element are visually indicated, whether by mouse, keyboard, or touch. :focus-visible - Behavior: Applies styles only when the focus should be visible, such as using a keyboard or assistive technology. - Use Cases: Ideal for scenarios where you want to provide focus indicators only to keyboard and assistive technology users while avoiding unnecessary outlines for mouse and touch users, typically required by design. Accessibility Implications :focus - Pros: - Guarantees that all users can see when an element is focused, which is critical for accessibility. - Cons: - Can lead to a suboptimal experience for mouse users, as focus styles may appear unnecessarily during mouse interactions. :focus-visible - Pros: - Enhances user experience by showing focus indicators only when necessary, thus keeping the interface clean for mouse and touch users. - Tailors the experience for keyboard and assistive technology users, providing them with clear visual cues. - Cons: - Additional considerations may be required to ensure that focus indicators are not accidentally omitted, especially in older browsers that do not support :focus-visible. - There may be cases where you want to show focus indicators for all users, regardless of input method. Best Practices for Using :focus and :focus-visible To achieve the best accessibility and user experience, combining both :focus and :focus-visible in your CSS is often a good idea. Combining :focus and :focus-visible ` Here is a Stackblitz example of what such styling could look like for you to try out and play with. Additional Tips - Test with Keyboard and Assistive Technology: Ensure that your web application is navigable using a keyboard (Tab, Shift + Tab, etc.) and that focus indicators are visible for those who rely on them. It's never a bad idea to include accessibility testing in your e2e testing suite. - Provide Clear Focus Indicators: Make sure that focus indicators are prominent and easy to see. A subtle or hard-to-spot focus indicator can severely impact accessibility for users who rely on keyboard navigation. Conclusion The :focus-visible pseudo-class offers a more refined way to manage focus indicators, improving accessibility and user experience, particularly for keyboard and assistive technology users. By understanding the differences between :focus and :focus-visible, and applying best practices in your CSS, you can create more accessible and user-friendly web applications. Remember, accessibility should never be an afterthought. By thoughtfully applying focus styles, you ensure that all users, regardless of how they interact with your site, can easily navigate and interact....

Nov 8, 2024

3 mins

AccessibilityCSSPlaywright

Let's innovate together!

We're ready to be your trusted technical partners in your digital innovation journey.

Whether it's modernization or custom software solutions, our team of experts can guide you through best practices and how to build scalable, performant software that lasts.

How to Set Up Storybook in VueJS

How to setup Storybook in VueJS

What is Storybook?

Setup our Project

Using Vue CLI

Add storybook

Let's Configure Storybook in our VueJS project

Let's write a story for a button component

Conclusion

Adesoji Temitope

You might also like

Awesome 3D experience with VueJS and TresJS: a beginner's guide

Understanding Vue's Reactive Data

Understanding Side Effects in VueJS

Understanding the Difference Between `:focus` and `:focus-visible` in CSS

Let's innovate together!

You might also like

Awesome 3D experience with VueJS and TresJS: a beginner's guide

Understanding Vue's Reactive Data

Understanding Side Effects in VueJS

Understanding the Difference Between `:focus` and `:focus-visible` in CSS