As developers, we often face the challenge of creating comprehensive and up-to-date documentation for our projects. One popular solution for generating documentation is using JavaScript Storybook. Storybook allows us to write and showcase reusable UI components, but did you know that it can also be used to generate static documentation? In this blog post, we will explore how to generate static documentation using JavaScript Storybook.

Why Generate Static Documentation?

Static documentation provides several benefits for developers and end-users. By generating static documentation, we can:

• Easily maintain documentation alongside our codebase
• Ensure that documentation is always consistent, even if the code changes
• Speed up documentation deployment by serving pre-built files
• Improve SEO by making the documentation easily indexable

Set up Storybook

Before we dive into the process of generating static documentation, make sure you have Storybook set up for your project. If you haven’t already, install Storybook using the following command:

npm install @storybook/react --save-dev

Once installed, you can configure Storybook by creating a .storybook directory in your project’s root. Inside this directory, create a main.js file and export the necessary configuration options.

Adding Docs Addon to Storybook

The first step in generating static documentation is to add the Docs Addon to your Storybook project. The Docs Addon allows us to write component documentation using Markdown or MDX.

To install the Docs Addon, run the following command:

npm install @storybook/addon-docs --save-dev

Next, create a preview.js file inside the .storybook directory and import the Docs Addon:

import { addParameters } from '@storybook/react';
import { DocsPage, DocsContainer } from '@storybook/addon-docs/blocks';

addParameters({
  docs: {
    container: DocsContainer,
    page: DocsPage,
  },
});

Generating Static Documentation

To generate static documentation, we’ll use an additional package called storybook-to-ghpages. Install it using the following command:

npm install storybook-to-ghpages --save-dev

Once installed, add a new script to the scripts section of your package.json file:

"scripts": {
  "build:storybook": "build-storybook -o .out",
  "generate:docs": "build-storybook -o .out && storybook-to-ghpages -d .out",
}

Now you can build your Storybook documentation using the following command:

npm run generate:docs

This command will build your Storybook documentation and deploy it to the gh-pages branch, making it ready for static hosting.

Conclusion

By using JavaScript Storybook and the Docs Addon, we can easily generate static documentation for our projects. This allows us to maintain comprehensive documentation that is always up to date. Furthermore, deploying the static documentation to a hosting service provides benefits like faster deployment and improved SEO.

#staticdocumentation #storybook #javascript