If you’re using JavaScript Storybook to develop and showcase your components, you might find the default theme a bit plain and generic. Luckily, Storybook provides the flexibility to use custom themes to enhance the visual appearance of your component library.

What is Storybook?

Storybook is an open-source tool for building UI components and documenting their behavior in an isolated development environment. It allows developers to create, organize, and test components independently, making it easier to develop and maintain UI libraries.

Why Customize Storybook Themes?

Customizing the Storybook theme helps align it with the branding and design system of your project or organization. It also offers a consistent and immersive experience for developers when working with your component library.

Customizing Your Storybook Theme

To customize the Storybook theme, you need to create a custom webpack configuration and apply it to Storybook.

Step 1: Install Required Packages

To get started, you’ll need to install the following packages:

npm install @storybook/theming

Step 2: Create a Custom Theme

Create a new file called storybook-theme.js in your project’s root directory and define your custom theme:

import { create } from '@storybook/theming';

export default create({
  base: 'light',
  brandTitle: 'My Custom Storybook',
  brandUrl: 'https://www.example.com',
  brandImage: '/path/to/logo.png',
});

In this example, we’re creating a light-themed Storybook with a custom title, URL, and logo image.

Step 3: Add Custom Webpack Configuration

Next, you need to add a custom webpack configuration to Storybook. Create a file called main.js in the .storybook directory and add the following code:

module.exports = {
  webpackFinal: async (config, { configType }) => {
    config.module.rules.push({
      test: /\.css$/,
      use: [
        {
          loader: 'postcss-loader',
          options: {
            ident: 'postcss',
            plugins: [
              require('postcss-import'),
              require('tailwindcss'),
              require('autoprefixer'),
            ],
          },
        },
      ],
      include: path.resolve(__dirname, '../'),
    });

    return config;
  },
};

Make sure to install the required packages mentioned in the webpack configuration file:

npm install postcss-import tailwindcss autoprefixer --save-dev

Step 4: Apply Custom Theme

Lastly, update your Storybook config file (.storybook/config.js or main.js) to apply the custom theme:

import { addParameters } from '@storybook/react';
import customTheme from '../storybook-theme';

addParameters({
  options: {
    theme: customTheme,
  },
});

Now, when you run Storybook, you’ll see your components rendered with the custom theme you defined.

Conclusion

Customizing the Storybook theme allows you to create a visually appealing and branded environment for your component library. By following the steps outlined above, you can enhance the default appearance of Storybook and provide a more immersive experience for developers.

#javascript #storybook #customtheme