Octavo

An opinionated, drop-in component library for next.js apps.

NOTE: This project is in early alpha stages, and the readme is still not accurate. It is not recommended for use currently. If you really want to use it still, reach out to the author.

Installation

Install via npm with npm i octavo, then add the plugin to your next.config.js as such:

const withOctavo = require('octavo')

module.exports = withOctavo(/* octavo options */)(/* normal nextjs config */)

You then need to create a page in your nextjs app where octavo will live. You can "inject" octavo on to any page of your choosing. Something like /components might be a nice choice. When you have decided on a page, octavo can be injected as follows:

import createPage from 'octavo/page'
import createStaticProps from 'octavo/getStaticProps'

export default createPage()
export const getStaticProps = createStaticProps()

With this in place, if you go to the page you injected it on, it should work, although it will be empty. Next, let's talk about how to get some components loaded in there.

Usage

Octavo points to components/* as its default location for components, in line with next.js convention. This is configurable if needed though, see the options section, below. It expects your components to live in folders, perhaps they contain an index where the components lives, and some other stuff like css. It doesn't matter what else is in the folder, as long as it has an index. To start writing docs for a specific component, add a docs.mdx file to the component's folder, and make sure that this file has a front matter block containing a key/value pair for componentName. Let's look at an example. Here's how your folder structure might look:

.
├── pages
│   ├── index.jsx
│   └── components.jsx <- here's where you injected octavo
└── components
    └── button
        ├── index.jsx <- this is what's returned when you import `components/button`
        ├── style.module.css
        └── docs.mdx <- here's the docs file you created for octavo

So, you have only now added two things to your app -- a file in pages where you injected the component library itself, and a docs.mdx file in one of your components. And remember, the docs.mdx file needs frontmatter, or you will get an error. Here's how a minimal docs.mdx file might look:

---
componentName: 'Button'
---

Hi there, welcome to the button docs!

With this in place, you should see your component's name render in the sidebar and show the contents of your markdown file. Not so bad! You are of course welcome to add docs files to multiple components, we're just starting with one.

Now let's actually make these docs useful. There are a few components that are made available within docs.mdx files that will help you to showcase your components.

1. Your actual component. So in the example above, you can use <Button /> right in that mdx file, and it will render an example however you please.
2. <LiveComponent> - a component that can be used to render a live code editor that will display and update your component
3. <KnobsComponent> - a component that can be used to render a set of UI controls that will live update a rendered version of your component
4. <PropsTable> - a component that will render a full or partial list of your component's props.
5. Any of your own components you specified in the octavo options

We'll dig into how each of these work in the following sections, and give plenty of examples.

<LiveComponent>

Let's look at an example of this component first:

<LiveComponent>{`<Button
  url='http://example.com'
  theme='primary'
/>`}</LiveComponent>

Assuming that you're in a docs.mdx file with a componentName of Button, this example would render a live code editor containing the string specified, in addition to a preview pane which contains the rendered component. As the code editor is adjusted, the component would be re-rendered accordingly.

This is a very simple component - it just expects a single child, as a string, which it renders into the code editor.

TODO: screenshot here

<KnobsComponent>

As usual, a usage example upfront:

<KnobsComponent
  knobs={{
    text: {
      control: 'text',
      defaultValue: 'http://example.com',
      required: true,
    },
    disabled: { control: 'checkbox' },
    theme: { control: 'select', options: ['foo', 'bar'] },
  }}
/>

This would render your component, like <LiveComponent>, but rather than a code editor, a set of UI controls. These UI controls follow the props spec, and using a props file with this component is strongly recommended.

TODO: screenshot here

Nested props are supported as well, to infinite depth. For example, a nested theme prop might look like this:

<KnobsComponent
  knobs={{
    theme: {
      color: { control: 'select', options: ['red', 'blue'] },
      style: {
        control: 'select',
        options: ['primary', 'secondary', 'tertiary'],
      },
    },
  }}
/>

Control types currently available are:

• text
• select -- requires options to be set
• checkbox
• json - freeform input for any js object, not recommended

TODO: screenshot here

<PropsTable>

Example as always:

<PropsTable
  props={{
    text: {
      type: 'string',
      description: 'text displayed in the button',
      required: true,
    },
    theme: {
      color: {
        type: 'string',
        description: "sets the button's color",
        options: ['red', 'blue'],
      },
    },
  }}
/>

This component is quite straightforward as well, given an object containing data about props, it displays a nicely formatted table that shows the component's props. This component pairs particularly well with the props file, which we will discuss below, as its objects can be piped in directly.

TODO: screenshot here

Props

An additional, optional convention is to define your component's props in a separate file. You may ask yourself, "but why can't I use typescript, or jsdocs in my component, or PropTypes?!" The answer in this case is because octavo does not want to impose anything upon the way that you choose to build your components, so instead it offers an optional manner of detailing your props outside of your actual component.

If you include a props.json5 file in the folder with your component, it will be picked up, parsed, and injected into your docs.mdx file as componentProps. You can then pass it into the <PropsTable> and/or <KnobsComponent> components, either fully, or splitting out individual props or sets of props, to save yourself lots of repetition and make your docs file much more terse.

The props.json5 file does have an expected object structure, which is detailed below in psuedo-typescript style:

{
  propName: {
    type: String, // write out the type you expect however you please
    description: String, // a short description of your prop
    required: Boolean, // is it a required prop?
    control: String, // for knobs, see <KnobsComponent> docs above
    options: []String, // if there are only a specific set of values, detail them here
    defaultValue: String, // for knobs, the starting value
    itemType: String // for array props, a way to freeform document what type(s) it expects its items to have
  }
}

As with other components, props can be nested here as well. However, it will not work if you have controls specified on a parent and child prop both, because that's not possible. And feel free to use this reference for json5 formatting, I am sure you will enjoy it.

Options

When initializing octavo in next.config.js, there are a few options you can pass it to customize its behavior. The example below shows how that might be done. None of the options are required, they all have defaults.

const withOctavo = require('octavo')

module.exports = withOctavo({
  // Where your components live. "components/*" is the default.
  componentsRoot: 'components/*',
  // Where your generic docs pages live. No default
  docsRoot: 'docs/*',
  // Extra logging. Default is false
  verbose: false,
})(/* normal nextjs config */)

There are some additional options that can be passed in to the page configuration for customization, example below:

import createPage from 'octavo/page'
import createStaticProps from 'octavo/getStaticProps'

const octavoOptions = {
  // if you have custom components you'd like to have available for use across all docs pages,
  // the can be added here. No default.
  components: { Tester: () => <p>testing 123</p> },
  // Anything that can fit into the `src` of an image tag. Default is the octavo logo.
  customLogo: '/img/my-company-logo.svg',
}

export default createPage(octavoOptions)
export const getStaticProps = createStaticProps(octavoOptions)

Notes

Any global styles that you specify by importing to _app.jsx will be reflected in your component library. Normally, this is a good thing, as your components will be showcased as they normally would within your app, but if any styles are not rendering as expected in the component library, it may be due to global overrides.