Storybook for Django

 

Storybook for Django is an experimental UI development environment for Django components. It allows you to implement, document, and test UI components in isolation from your Django views.

!Screenshot of the Storybook UI, with a Django UI component displaying

How it works

Server-side, this uses django-pattern-library to mock template context and template tags. Client-side, we use Storybook to create stories from our templates.

Getting started

Let’s get you set up. There are two requirements:

1. First, start by setting up django-pattern-library, v0.7.0 and up. Have a look at our demo settings.py as an example.
2. Then, set up Storybook. We expect storybook-django to work with any framework supported by Storybook, and provide built-in support for React (Vue in progress).

Next, install our package:

``sh
npm install --save-dev storybook-django
`

$3

Add a middleware.js inside your Storybook configuration folder (.storybook by default):

`js
const {
createDjangoAPIMiddleware,
} = require('storybook-django/src/middleware');

module.exports = createDjangoAPIMiddleware({
// Point this at your Django runserver instance, with the correct port number.
origin: 'http://localhost:8001',
apiPath: ['/pattern-library/'],
});
`

This will forward pattern library API requests to Django. You may optionally add more API path patterns to apiPath to make other requests to your Django backend.

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This is optional but highly recommended. To leverage Storybook’s live-reloading and documentation capabilities, we need to configure it to load our templates. Edit your Storybook main.js file to customise the webpackFinal option:

`js
module.exports = {
webpackFinal: (config) => {
config.module.rules = config.module.rules.concat([
{
test: /\.html$/,
// Webpack 5:
type: 'asset/source',
// Webpack 4 (make sure to also install the raw-loader package):
// use: 'raw-loader',
},
]);

return config;
}
`

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Here is the most basic story for a Django template:

`js
import { Pattern } from 'storybook-django/src/react';

export default {};

export const Base = () => (
template="patterns/components/streamfield/heading_block.html"
context={{ value: 'An important section' }}
/>
);
`

Pattern uses a hard-coded endpoint of /pattern-library/api/v1/render-pattern by default. To change this, pass a different value. For example,

`js

`

If this is a necessity for your project, consider creating your own wrapper for the Pattern component rather than having to define the endpoint in all stories.

#### With auto-generated template paths

Our Pattern component has to be told which template to render, Alternatively, we can use Webpack’s __filename support to auto-generate the template path. First, configure Webpack:

`js
config.node = {
__filename: true,
};
`

Then, use the filename prop instead of template:

`js

`

This filename prop assumes the template is in the same folder as the template, with the same file name except for the extension (replaces .stories.(js|tsx) with .html).

#### With Storybook features

And here is a more advanced examples, showcasing different Storybook features:

- Setting a custom title for the story.
- Loading Markdown files to use as documentation.
- Loading the component’s template to display alongside the docs, and for live-reloading.
- Setting up controls.
- Having multiple stories with different data.

`js
import { Pattern } from 'storybook-django/src/react';

import docs from './quote_block.md';
import template from './quote_block.html';

export default {
title: 'Components / quote_block',
parameters: {
docs: {
source: { code: template },
extractComponentDescription: () => docs,
},
},
argTypes: {
quote: {
control: { type: 'text' },
description: 'Will be displayed first',
},
attribution: {
control: { type: 'text' },
description: 'Underneath the quote (optional)',
},
},
};

export const Base = (args) => (

);

Base.args = {
quote: 'Someone believed in me once and now it’s time for me to do the same.',
attribution: 'Young person',
};

export const NoAttribution = Base.bind({});

NoAttribution.args = {
quote: Base.args.quote,
attribution: null,
};
`

#### Making the most of React

The point of using React is to be able to fully customise the context within which our Django components are displayed. Here is an example, with a simple SVG icon template:

`js
const IconPattern = (props) => (
element="span"
template="patterns/components/icon/icon.html"
context={props}
/>
);

export const ReactDemoStory = () => (


View our complete guide


);
`

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We are working on Vue support. Please refer to Usage with Vue #7 in the meantime, and provide feedback.

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storybook-django’s implementation is largely framework-agnostic, and should work equally as well with Storybook’s HTML and Web Components support.

You will need to directly import the imperative APIs:

`js
import {
renderPattern,
simulateLoading,
insertHTMLWithScripts,
} from 'storybook-django';
`

- renderPattern calls the django-pattern-library API rendering endpoint.
- simulateLoading includes insertHTMLWithScripts, and fires a DOMContentLoaded event.
- insertHTMLWithScripts is like .innerHTML, but additionally executing any