Stylelint - Keeping Your Styled Components in Check! 🎨

By SrinivasTheDeveloper, 25th October 2023

Hi, young web developer! Today, we have a fun and colourful journey ahead. We're going to learn about a tool called Stylelint. It's like a superhero that helps us keep our styled components neat and clean! 🦸‍♂️

Installation - Let's Get Ready!

Imagine you're getting ready for an adventure. You need the right gear. Similarly, we need to prepare our tools for Stylelint. We use npm to install the things we need:

• stylelint: This is like our superhero suit.

• stylelint-config-standard: It's like a set of rules for our superhero to follow.

• postcss-styled-syntax: This is like a special tool that helps our superhero understand our styled-components.

Run this command in your project folder to get these tools ready:

npm install --save-dev \
  stylelint \
  stylelint-config-standard \
  postcss-styled-syntax

Configure Stylelint - Our Hero's Costume!

Superheroes need costumes, right? Our hero Stylelint also needs one! We create a .stylelintrc file in the main folder of our project and add this costume:

{
  "extends": [
    "stylelint-config-standard"
  ],
  "customSyntax": "postcss-styled-syntax"
}

Setup - Ready to Go!

Just like superheroes have a mission, we have to set up Stylelint to do its job. We add a script in our package.json so it knows what to look for.

{
  "scripts": {
    "lint:css":"stylelint './src/**/*.js'"
  }
}

Now, our superhero is ready to save the day! 🦸‍♀️

Lint Your CSS - Let's Clean Up!

Now comes the exciting part. We run our superhero, Stylelint, to check our styled-components. We run the following command, and it's like our hero flying into action:

npm run lint:css

Some Super Tips

1. You can also use Stylelint to automatically fix some of the issues. For example, fixing indentation or formatting errors.

2. If you're using Webpack to build your project, you can make Stylelint check your styles during the build process.

What About Webpack?

Webpack is like our superhero's sidekick. It helps Stylelint in its mission. If you want Stylelint to be even more powerful, you can use stylelint-custom-processor-loader with Webpack.

Stylelint for Styled-Components

Now, our superhero Stylelint is designed to work with styled-components. It understands them well. So, if you use styled-components, Stylelint knows how to handle them.

Use Stylelint with Other Libraries

Just like superheroes can team up, Stylelint can work with other libraries that use a similar pattern to styled-components, like styled.x. You just have to tell Stylelint the right keyword to look for.

import cool from 'other-library';

const Button = cool.button`
  color: blue;
`;

{
  "processors": [
    [
      "stylelint-processor-styled-components",
      {
        "moduleName": "other-library"
      }
    ]
  ]
}

When Things Get a Bit Tricky

Sometimes, even superheroes get a little confused. Stylelint might not understand what you're doing with your styled-components. In those cases, you can help it out.

For example, when you use variables or complex things inside your styles, Stylelint might not catch everything. You can add comments to explain to Stylelint what you're doing. It's like giving your superhero a hint:

const something = 'background';

const Button = styled.div`
  ${/* sc-prop */ something}: papayawhip;

Supported Tags

Stylelint can understand the different tags that you use in your styles. These tags help Stylelint know what's going on. Here are some of the important tags:

• sc-block

• sc-selector

• sc-declaration

• sc-property

• sc-value

You can use these tags to make Stylelint's job easier. They are like little notes for your superhero!

Stylish Syntax

Stylelint needs you to follow a certain style in your code. For example, it wants your closing backtick to be at the right place. It's like saying goodbye properly. ✋

Right way:

if (condition) {
  const Button = styled.button`
    color: red;
  `;
}

Wrong way:

if (condition) {
  const Button = styled.button`
    color: red;
`

So, remember to say goodbye properly with your backticks!

Stylelint - Your CSS Buddy!

That's it! You've learned about Stylelint, your superhero for keeping your styled components neat and clean. Now you're ready to make your projects look amazing. So, go ahead and create beautifully styled components without worrying about messy code. Happy coding! 🎨💻🚀

Remember: Even superheroes like Stylelint need to follow some rules, but they're here to make your projects better. 🌟