By SrinivasTheDeveloper, 24th October 2023
Hey there, future coder! Today, we're going to learn how to build something super awesome—a library of cool React components. And guess what? We're going to use Vite and TypeScript, which will make it even cooler! 🚀
Why Vite, You Ask?
Great question! Vite is like a superhero tool for building things on the web. It's super fast and efficient. It's like getting the flash for your project! 🏃💨 Plus, it plays really well with TypeScript and helps us create libraries. So, it's the perfect sidekick for our React library adventure.
Setting Up Our Project
First, we need to organize our project. We'll use a technique called a "monorepo" with the help of Yarn workspaces. This allows us to manage all our pieces in one place. To set this up, we create a package.json file in our project's main folder and make it look like this:
{
"name": "lib-example",
"private": true,
"workspaces": {
"packages": [
"packages/*",
"sites/*"
]
}
}
Our project has two main parts:
Packages: This is where our component library lives.
Sites: This is where we'll test our awesome library.
Our project tree looks like this:
react-library-vite-example
|- packages
| |- my-lib
|- sites
| |- my-site
|- package.json
|- yarn.lock
The Library Package
In the packages folder, let's create our component library using Vite. We run a magical command:
yarn create vite my-lib --template react-ts
By default, it creates a React web app that's set up with TypeScript. But we want to make it a library, so we added a Vite plugin to help generate type definitions for our components.
We also need to update the vite.config.js file to bundle the library. We specify which entry point to use, what the library should be called, and in what formats it should be available.
We even make sure not to include certain things in the bundle that we don't need. It's like packing your bag for a trip—only take what you'll use!
Now, let's create an example component, a super cool button. It's styled and ready to be part of our library. 🚀
Time to Build Stories
A story in Storybook is like telling your friends about your cool toy. We create a story for our button component in a file called Button.stories.tsx.
We have a primary story and a secondary story to show off the different styles of our buttons. It's like showing your friends how your toy works in different ways!
Adding Dark and Light Themes
Wouldn't it be fun if you could change how your toy looks with just a switch? Well, we can make our library do that too!
We added a ThemeToggle button so you can switch between dark and light themes. Just like flipping a light switch!
Publishing as an NPM Package
And now, the grand finale! We're going to share our library with the world. We build the library, prepare it for NPM, and hit the "Publish" button. Just like sharing your cool toy with your friends!
Testing Your Library
We want to test our library in action, so we create a site to test it. We add a reference to our library in our site's package.json and start using our components. It's like playing with your toy to see if it's as awesome as you thought it would be!
Configuring Storybook
We're not done yet! We want to tell a story about our library, and that's where Storybook comes in. We configure Storybook for our library and create documentation for our components. Just like writing a manual for your toy.
Time to Play!
Now you can explore your library and show off your cool components to the world. And if you want to learn more, Storybook's documentation is like a treasure map waiting for you to discover more adventures!
That's it for our journey today. We've created a React component library using Vite and TypeScript, added some themes, and even shared it with the world. You're on your way to becoming a coding superhero! 🦸♂️✨
Happy coding! 🚀👩💻👨💻