migration guide: This page documents the method to configure storybook introduced recently in 5.3.0, consult the migration guide if you want to migrate to this format of configuring storybook.
Storybook Docs transforms your Storybook stories into world-class component documentation. Storybook Docs for React supports DocsPage for auto-generated docs, and MDX for rich long-form docs.
To learn more about Storybook Docs, read the general documentation. To learn the React specifics, read on!
- Installation
- DocsPage
- Props tables
- MDX
- Inline stories
- TypeScript props with
react-docgen
- More resources
First add the package. Make sure that the versions for your @storybook/*
packages match:
yarn add -D @storybook/addon-docs@next
Then add the following to your .storybook/main.js
list of addons
:
module.exports = {
// other settings
addons: ['@storybook/addon-docs'];
}
When you install docs you should get basic DocsPage documentation automagically for all your stories, available in the Docs
tab of the Storybook UI.
Storybook Docs automatically generates Props tables for your components based on either PropTypes
or TypeScript
types. To show the props table for your component, be sure to fill in the component
field in your story metadata:
import { Button } from './Button';
export default {
title: 'Button',
component: Button,
};
If you haven't upgraded from storiesOf
, you can use a parameter to do the same thing:
import { storiesOf } from '@storybook/react';
import { Button } from './Button';
storiesOf('InfoButton', module)
.addParameters({ component: Button })
.add( ... );
MDX is a convenient way to document your components in Markdown and embed documentation components, such as stories and props tables, inline.
Then update your .storybook/main.js
to make sure you load MDX files:
module.exports = {
stories: ['../src/stories/**/*.stories.@(js|mdx)'],
};
Finally, you can create MDX files like this:
import { Meta, Story, ArgsTable } from '@storybook/addon-docs';
import { Button } from './Button';
<Meta title='Button' component={Button} />
# Button
Some **markdown** description, or whatever you want.
<Story name='basic' height='400px'>
<Button>Label</Button>
</Story>
## ArgsTable
<ArgsTable of={Button} />
Storybook Docs renders all React stories inline on the page by default. If you want to render stories in an iframe
so that they are better isolated. To do this, update .storybook/preview.js
:
export const parameters = {
docs: {
inlineStories: false,
},
};
If you're using TypeScript, there are two different options for generating props: react-docgen-typescript
(default) or react-docgen
.
You can add the following lines to your .storybook/main.js
to switch between the two (or disable docgen):
module.exports = {
typescript: {
// also valid 'react-docgen-typescript' | false
reactDocgen: 'react-docgen',
},
};
Neither option is perfect, so here's everything you should know if you're thinking about using react-docgen
for TypeScript.
react-docgen-typescript |
react-docgen |
|
---|---|---|
Features | Great. The analysis produces great results which gives the best props table experience. | OK. React-docgen produces basic results that are fine for most use cases. |
Performance | Slow. It's doing a lot more work to produce those results, and may also have an inefficient implementation. | Blazing fast. Adding it to your project increases build time negligibly. |
Bugs | Many. There are a lot of corner cases that are not handled properly, and are annoying for developers. | Few. But there's a dealbreaker, which is lack for imported types (see below). |
SB docs | Good. Our prop tables have supported react-docgen-typescript results from the beginning, so it's relatively stable. |
OK. There are some obvious improvements to fully support react-docgen , and they're coming soon. |
Performance is a common question, so here are build times from a random project to quantify. Your mileage may vary:
Docgen | Build time |
---|---|
react-docgen-typescript | 33s |
react-docgen | 29s |
none | 28s |
The biggest limitation of react-docgen
is lack of support for imported types. What that means is that when a component uses a type defined in another file or package, react-docgen
is unable to extract props information for that type.
import React, { FC } from 'react';
import SomeType from './someFile';
type NewType = SomeType & { foo: string };
const MyComponent: FC<NewType> = ...
So in the previous example, SomeType
would simply be ignored! There's an open PR for this in the react-docgen
repo which you can upvote if it affects you.
Another common pitfall when switching to react-docgen
is lack of support for React.FC
. This means that the following common pattern DOESN'T WORK:
import React, { FC } from 'react';
interface IProps { ... };
const MyComponent: FC<IProps> = ({ ... }) => ...
Fortunately, the following workaround works:
const MyComponent: FC<IProps> = ({ ... }: IProps) => ...
Please upvote the issue if this is affecting your productivity, or better yet, submit a fix!
Want to learn more? Here are some more articles on Storybook Docs: