Storybook for Angular

• Storybook for Angular
  • Getting Started
  • Setup Storybook for your Angular projects
  • Run Storybook
  • Setup Compodoc
    • Automatic setup
    • Manual setup
  • moduleMetadata decorator
  • applicationConfig decorator
  • FAQ
    • How do I migrate to a Angular Storybook builder?
      • Do you have only one Angular project in your workspace?
        • Adjust your package.json
      • I have multiple projects in my Angular workspace

Storybook for Angular is a UI development environment for your Angular components. With it, you can visualize different states of your UI components and develop them interactively.

Storybook runs outside of your app. So you can develop UI components in isolation without worrying about app specific dependencies and requirements.

Getting Started

cd my-angular-app
npx storybook@latest init

Setup Storybook for your Angular projects

Storybook supports Angular multi-project workspace. You can setup Storybook for each project in the workspace. When running npx storybook@latest init you will be asked for which project Storybook should be set up. Essentially, during initialization, the .storybook folder will be created and the angular.json will be edited to add the Storybook configuration for the selected project. The configuration looks approximately like this:

// angular.json
{
  ...
  "projects": {
    ...
    "your-project": {
      ...
      "architect": {
        ...
        "storybook": {
          "builder": "@storybook/angular:start-storybook",
          "options": {
            // the path to the storybook config directory
            "configDir": ".storybook",
            // the build target of your project
            "browserTarget": "your-project:build",
            // the port you want to start Storybook on
            "port": 6006
            // further options are available and can be found in
            // https://github.com/storybookjs/storybook/tree/next/code/frameworks/angular/src/builders/start-storybook/schema.json
          }
        },
        "build-storybook": {
          "builder": "@storybook/angular:build-storybook",
          "options": {
            "configDir": ".storybook",
            "browserTarget": "your-project:build",
            "outputDir": "dist/storybook/your-project"
            // further options are available and can be found in
            // https://github.com/storybookjs/storybook/tree/next/code/frameworks/angular/src/builders/build-storybook/schema.json
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Run Storybook

To run Storybook for a particular project, please run:

ng run <your-project>:storybook

To build Storybook, run:

ng run <your-project>:build-storybook

You will find the output in dist/storybook/your-project.

For more information visit: storybook.js.org

Setup Compodoc

You can include JSDoc comments above components, directives, and other parts of your Angular code to include documentation for those elements. Compodoc uses these comments to generate documentation for your application. In Storybook, it is useful to add explanatory comments above @Inputs and @Outputs, since these are the main elements that Storybook displays in its user interface. The @Inputs and @Outputs are the elements that you can interact with in Storybook, such as controls.

Automatic setup

When installing Storybook via sb init, you will be given the option to set up Compodoc automatically.

Manual setup

If you have already installed Storybook, you can set up Compodoc manually.

Install the following dependencies:

npm i -D @compodoc/compodoc

Add the following option to your to the Storybook Builder:

{
  ...
  "projects": {
    ...
    "your-project": {
      ...
      "architect": {
        ...
        "storybook": {
          "builder": "@storybook/angular:start-storybook",
          "options": {
            ...
            "compodoc": true,
            "compodocArgs": [
              "-e",
              "json",
              "-d",
              // Where to store the generated documentation. It's usually the root of your Angular project. It's not necessarily the root of your Angular Workspace!
              "."
            ],
          }
        },
        "build-storybook": {
          "builder": "@storybook/angular:build-storybook",
          "options": {
            ...
            "compodoc": true,
            "compodocArgs": [
              "-e",
              "json",
              "-d",
              "."
            ],
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Go to your .storybook/preview.js and add the following:

import { setCompodocJson } from '@storybook/addon-docs/angular';
import docJson from '../documentation.json';
setCompodocJson(docJson);

const preview: Preview = {
  ...
};

export default preview;

moduleMetadata decorator

If your component has dependencies on other Angular directives and modules, these can be supplied using the moduleMetadata decorator either for all stories or for individual stories.

import { StoryFn, Meta, moduleMetadata } from '@storybook/angular';
import { SomeComponent } from './some.component';

export default {
  component: SomeComponent,
  decorators: [
    // Apply metadata to all stories
    moduleMetadata({
      // import necessary ngModules or standalone components
      imports: [...],
      // declare components that are used in the template
      declarations: [...],
      // List of providers that should be available to the root component and all its children.
      providers: [...],
    }),
  ],
} as Meta;

const Template = (): StoryFn => (args) => ({
  props: args,
});

export const Base = Template();

export const WithCustomProvider = Template();
WithCustomProvider.decorators = [
  // Apply metadata to a specific story
  moduleMetadata({
    imports: [...],
    declarations: [...],
    providers: [...]
  }),
];

applicationConfig decorator

If your component relies on application-wide providers, like the ones defined by BrowserAnimationsModule or any other modules which use the forRoot pattern to provide a ModuleWithProviders, you can use the applicationConfig decorator on the meta default export to provide them to the bootstrapApplication function, which we use to bootstrap the component in Storybook.

import { StoryObj, Meta, applicationConfig } from '@storybook/angular';
import { BrowserAnimationsModule, provideAnimations } from '@angular/platform-browser/animations';
import { importProvidersFrom } from '@angular/core';
import { ChipsModule } from './angular-src/chips.module';

const meta: Meta = {
  component: ChipsGroupComponent,
  decorators: [
    // Apply application config to all stories
    applicationConfig({
      // List of providers and environment providers that should be available to the root component and all its children.
      providers: [
        ...
        // Import application-wide providers from a module
        importProvidersFrom(BrowserAnimationsModule)
        // Or use provide-style functions if available instead, e.g.
        provideAnimations()
      ],
    }),
  ],
};

export default meta;

type Story = StoryObj<typeof ChipsGroupComponent>;

export const WithCustomApplicationProvider: Story = {
  render: () => ({
    // Apply application config to a specific story
    applicationConfig: {
      // The providers will be merged with the ones defined in the applicationConfig decorators providers array of the global meta object
      providers: [...]
    }
  })
}

FAQ

How do I migrate to a Angular Storybook builder?

The Storybook Angular builder is a new way to run Storybook in an Angular workspace. It is a drop-in replacement for running storybook dev and storybook build directly.

Do you have only one Angular project in your workspace?

In this case go to your angular.json and add storybook and build-storybook entries in architect section of your project like shown above.

Adjust your package.json

Go to your package.json and adjust your script section. Usually, it will look like this:

{
  "scripts": {
    "storybook": "start-storybook -p 6006", // or `storybook dev -p 6006`
    "build-storybook": "build-storybook" // or `storybook build`
  }
}

Now, you can run Storybook with ng run <your-project>:storybook and build it with ng run <your-project>:build-storybook. Adjust the scripts in your package.json accordingly.

{
  "scripts": {
    "storybook": "ng run <project-name>:storybook", // or `storybook dev -p 6006`
    "build-storybook": "ng run <project-name>:build-storybook" // or `storybook build`
  }
}

Also remove the compodoc part in your script section if you have set it up previously. It is now built-in in @storybook/angular and you don't have to call it explicitly:

{
  "scripts": {
    "docs:json": "compodoc -p tsconfig.json -e json -d ./documentation",
    "storybook": "npm run docs:json && start-storybook -p 6006",
    "build-storybook": "npm run docs:json && build-storybook"
  }
}

Change it to:

{
  "scripts": {
    "storybook": "ng run <project-name>:storybook",
    "build-storybook": "ng run <project-name>:build-storybook"
  }
}

I have multiple projects in my Angular workspace

In this case you have to adjust your angular.json and package.json as described above for each project in which you want to use Storybook. Please note, that each project should have a dedicated .storybook folder, which should be placed in the root of the project.

You can run npx sb init sequentially for each project to setup Storybook for each of them to automatically create the .storybook folder and create the necessary configuration in your angular.json.

You can then use Storybook composition to composite multiple Storybooks into one.

Storybook also comes with a lot of addons and a great API to customize as you wish. You can also build a static version of your Storybook and deploy it anywhere you want.