ably-ui

ably-ui is the of home of the Ably design system library (https://ably-ui.herokuapp.com/). It provides a showcase, development/test environment and a publishing pipeline for different distributables.

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The library is built out of modules, assets, and JavaScript components. A module is a container for all of those.

For example, the core module provides the most general elements one can build the “chrome” of a web-based interface — typography, colours, spacing (i.e., containers) etc. The components within the module support our most common needs to build that “chrome”, like navigation elements, footer, hero sections, code samples etc. Assets, and JavaScript are all shared between the components in the module.

Components do not require assets directly — instead, it's up to the consumer to load the assets and pass them to the components. This ensures flexibility in terms of URLs.

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This type of installation gives you access to module/components assets as well as React components.

``bash
pnpm add @ably/ui # Preferred
`

To attach the imported JavaScript from the Core module to the window object:

`js
import "@ably/ui/core/scripts";

// AblyUi.Core is now available on window
`

To import an es6 core module and expose nothing to window:

`js
import ablyUiCore from "@ably/ui/core/scripts";
`

To import the JavaScript for an Accordion component:

`js
import Accordion from "@ably/ui/core/accordion/component";
`

If your bundler supports CSS importing, you can import it as well:

`js
import "@ably/ui/core/styles.css";
`

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Currently, AblyUI CSS is built to work with TailwindCSS. To integrate it into your app:

1. Add AblyUI to your project
2. Add TailwindCSS to your project
1. By project type:
1. In HTML
2. In Gatsby
1. Add postCSS import with npm install postcss-import
1. Further to the instructions, if installation is hanging for over 5 minutes or otherwise problematic, try installing the libraries one at a time
1. Make sure you are installing v2 with npm install -D tailwindcss@2.X
3. Make sure you are using the format @import 'tailwindcss/base';... in your global.css file rather than the @tailwind/base format from Tailwind v3
4. Add the following to your tailwind.config.js. Note how different config properties are always extended by the ablyUIConfig:

`js
const extendConfig = require("@ably/ui/tailwind.extend.js");

module.exports = extendConfig((ablyUIConfig) => ({
...ablyUIConfig,
purge: {
content: [
...(relative - globbed - paths - to - your - templates),
...ablyUIConfig.purge.content,
],
options: {
...ablyUIConfig.purge.options,
},
},
}));
`

1. In the CSS file you added your tailwind declarations to, import the CSS for the modules and components you need:

`css
@import "tailwindcss/base";
@import "tailwindcss/components";
@import "tailwindcss/utilities";

@import "@ably/ui/reset/styles.css"; / needed as we disable the default Tailwind reset /
@import "@ably/ui/core/styles.css"; / styles for core module components and more /
@import "@ably/ui/core/Flash/component.css";
`

#### Importing React components

Note that depending on the component, you might still need to include CSS & JS for it:

`js
import Meganav from "@ably/ui/core/Meganav";
`

Usage

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Icons are available in two formats to support different application types:

1. React Component Imports (recommended for React apps)
2. SVG Spritesheets (fallback for non-React apps)

We provide access to both custom local assets hosted in the repo and the third-party Heroicons library.

#### For React Applications (Recommended)

Using the Icon React Component

The Icon component is the preferred method for React applications, providing automatic fallback and consistent sizing:

`tsx
// Local custom icon


// Heroicon with explicit variant


// Heroicon using variant prop (appends variant to name)

`

How the React Component Works

1. First: Attempts to load a local React component generated from your custom SVGs
2. Fallback: If no local component exists, dynamically imports the corresponding heroicon
3. Graceful degradation: If neither exists, returns null (no icon displayed)

#### For Non-React Applications

Using SVG Spritesheets

For applications that don't use React, icons are available as SVG sprites that can be referenced directly:

`html




`

Even in React applications, you can use the sprite method for advanced use cases like hover states with the group class:

`tsx
href="{url}"
className="text-gui-default hover:text-gui-hover focus:text-gui-focus group"
>
{children}




`

The sprites file can be loaded with the loadSprites helper available in the core module or included in the page directly.

#### Icon Sources

Local Custom Icons

Putting SVG files inside a src/core/icons folder will:

1. Generate React components that can be imported dynamically
2. Add them to a per-group sprites file (e.g., core/sprites-gui.svg) for non-React usage

Heroicons Integration

The system automatically falls back to Heroicons when a local icon isn't found, using this naming convention:

- icon-gui-{heroicon-name}-{variant}

Where variant can be:

- outline → 24px outline icons
- solid → 24px solid icons
- mini → 20px solid icons
- micro → 16px solid icons

This hybrid approach allows you to use custom brand icons while having access to the entire heroicons library as a fallback.

See https://ably-ui.herokuapp.com/components/icon for more details.

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Font assets are not included automagically but are part of the repo, together with an example of font-face file; see src/core/fonts for examples. Make sure to include the licence file declaration on usage.

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An important part of ably-ui is ensuring the produced UI is accessible to as wide range of users as possible. All components should adhere to at least AA accessibility standards. In most cases, this can be accomplished by following a few simple rules:

— use the correct HTML elements: anchors for navigation, buttons for interacting, lists for lists etc

- test using a screen reader (for example Voice Over on a Mac OSX with Web rotor)
— confirm designs have appropriate tap targets, contrast
— use aria attributes where you reach the limits of what you can do with HTML
— don't break the web platform (i.e., don't break the behaviour of a back button, scrolling, in-page links etc)

Development

To visualise the assets in ably-ui, there is a Storybook instance, which serves as both a showcase and a development environment.

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The easiest way to get started is to use the development script:

`bash
./bin/dev
`

This script will:

- Check that all required tools (Node.js, pnpm) are installed at the correct versions via asdf
- Install all project dependencies
- Start Storybook automatically

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If you prefer to run commands manually:

Firstly, ensure you have all of the required project dependencies by running pnpm install in the project root.

Then, to run Storybook, run pnpm storybook in the project root - it should open automatically in your browser.

To build Storybook as if it was a statically built site (i.e. what it looks like when deployed), run pnpm build-storybook from the project root, go to the generated directory with cd preview, and then run npx http-server (accepting the prompt to install that package if you haven't done already). The built site will be available at the listed local URL.

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We have a dynamic SWC configuration which allows us to support compile-time feature flags in the library. This allows us to change the behaviour of certain code paths during compilation time (not runtime), which is mostly useful in development mode.

For example, there could be a flag somewhere in our code that logs additional debug information in development that is useless in a released version. It could look like this:

`ts
// Example usage in api-client.ts
declare const __DEBUG_MODE__: boolean;

const api = createApiClient();
if (__DEBUG_MODE__) {
console.log("Debug mode enabled");
}
`

The flag can be added to the list in swc.config.ts, and enabled with an environment variable:

`
$ DEBUG_MODE=true pnpm build
`

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Make sure you commit & push your work before doing this.

You will need to authenticate with npmjs to publish.

After the above, you should have:

- NPM_TOKEN set in your environment
- .npmrc file to read NPM_TOKEN from your environment like this:
`
//registry.npmjs.org/:_authToken=${NPM_TOKEN}
`

To deploy a review app with your in-progress code, you can use the pre-release script:

`bash


in root


scripts/pre-release.sh
`

This script is a combination of two scripts:

1. Pre-Release:

- update your local dependencies for ably-ui and run a production build
- release an NPM package with the version built from your current SemVer but adding a pre-release tag based on a short SHA of your HEAD commit

2. Update Pre-Release Version:

- commit all the above and push to origin

This will trigger a build of the review app.

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Components and modules contain JS and CSS files, but no templates. Instead, for each framework that a given component supports, a separate "framework template" is created. A component can still be used in any other framework by just using it's required assets.

All components live in src and follow a directory and filename convention:

- module directory (TitleCase)
- module asset files: scripts.js for JavaScript and styles.css for CSS
- component directory (TitleCase)
- component.js - supporting JS script (legacy)
- component.css - additional CSS (legacy)
- [ComponentName].stories.tsx - if React, a Storybook presentation file
- if React, [ComponentName].tsx at a sibling level to the component directory

For example:

`
- Core
- script.js
- styles.css
- Accordion
- component.js
- component.css
- Accordion.stories.tsx
- Accordion.tsx
`

#### CSS

##### z-index and positioning

If using positioning any other than static, be mindful of creating stacking contexts. In properties.css you'll find the z-index values for the HTML stacking context (used by components like the meganav). When creating a new one within your component, hoist the z-index values to the selector that creates the stacking context and define z-index values there for easy scanning (see https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/developing-web-components/9781491905685/ch04.html for a good write-up on stacking contexts and z-index.).

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By default, Prettier & ESLint will handle most of the frontend files. You can use them through your editor (which should pick up the relevant config files) or on the command line (see scripts in package.json).

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#### To add a new component:

Add a [ComponentName].tsx file in src, in the module of your choice (most likely core). Any supporting files, i.e. stylesheets, should be placed in a directory with the same name of the component.

#### To see this component in Storybook:

Create a [ComponentName].stories.tsx file alongside your component assets, following the examples of other Storybook stories, or their online documentation for guidance. When running Storybook, the story should be picked up and rendered in place automatically.

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We use Semantic Versioning 2.0.0 to version different library versions.

Packages are published to the GitHub private registry.

Publishing is done by tagging a release in GitHub. This triggers a GitHub action that pushes to the private NPM registry as well as publishing new artefacts in the CDN, with the version taken from the tag of the GitHub release.

This will trigger GitHub actions in supported apps (currently Voltaire & Website) to create a PR with an ably-ui version update.

To trigger a release:

- Make sure you have run pre-release script ./pre-release.sh (This updates the npm package version for ably-ui in package.json).
- Merge your PR into main after it has been approved.
- On the Github Ably-UI repo, create a new release tag.
- Create a new tag with the new version number for the release.
- _Do not prefix the tag with a v_
- Add a meaningful title for the Release.
- Click on the Autogenerate release notes button.
- Publish Release.
- Check the Github Actions tab in the repo to make sure the release is green.
- Upon successful release, a compiled version of the Storybook site will be deployed to Github Pages.

This will release the packages and update library and create & push the commit & tag, and also create corresponding PRs in Voltaire & Website. It will also deploy a new Storybook site to https://ably.github.io/ably-ui/.

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Review apps allow you to create temporary deployments of Storybook for sharing UI changes with stakeholders without requiring local development setup.

To create a review app:

1. Create a pull request with your changes
2. Add the review-app label to your PR
3. A Heroku review app will be automatically created and deployed
4. The deployment will appear in the deployments section of your PR (basic auth is enabled - ask fellow contributors for credentials if needed)

Review apps are automatically cleaned up when the PR is closed or the label is removed. Only repository contributors can create review apps.

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ably-ui uses vitest with the Storybook addon for vitest to automatically turn all stories into executable tests. This means that we don't have to explicitly write tests for stories, though we have the ability to write play functions, which allow us to test more detailed interactions.

The tests run in a browser environment using Playwright, providing comprehensive visual regression testing and interaction testing capabilities.

You can run the tests locally using:

`bash
pnpm test
``

This will run all story tests using vitest in a headless browser environment.