View Source Manual setup

To start using PhoenixStorybook in your Phoenix application you will need to follow these steps:

1. Add the phoenix_storybook dependency
2. Create your storybook backend module
3. Add storybook access to your router
4. Make your components' assets available
5. Update your Docker image
6. Create some content

1. Add the phoenix_storybook dependency

Add the following to your mix.exs and run mix deps.get:

def deps do
  [
    {:phoenix_storybook, "~> 0.7.0"}
  ]
end

2. Create your storybook backend module

Create a new module under your application lib folder:

# lib/my_app_web/storybook.ex
defmodule MyAppWeb.Storybook do
  use PhoenixStorybook,
    otp_app: :my_app,
    content_path: Path.expand("../storybook", __DIR__),
    # assets path are remote path, not local file-system paths
    css_path: "/assets/my_components.css",
    js_path: "/assets/my_components.js"
end

3. Add storybook access to your router

Once installed, update your router's configuration to forward requests to a PhoenixStorybook with a unique name of your choice:

# lib/my_app_web/router.ex
use MyAppWeb, :router
import PhoenixStorybook.Router
...
scope "/" do
  storybook_assets()
end

scope "/", PhoenixStorybookSampleWeb do
  pipe_through(:browser)
  ...
  live_storybook "/storybook", backend_module: MyAppWeb.Storybook
end

4. Make your components' assets available

Build a new CSS bundle dedicated to your live_view components: this bundle will be used both by your app and the storybook.

In this README, we use assets/css/storybook.css as an example.

If your components require any hooks or custom uploaders, or if your pages require connect parameters, declare them as such in a new JS bundle:

// assets/js/storybook.js

import * as Hooks from "./hooks";
import * as Params from "./params";
import * as Uploaders from "./uploaders";

(function () {
  window.storybook = { Hooks, Params, Uploaders };
})();

Your application must bundle these assets and serve them. Our custom mix phx.gen.storybook generator may guide you through these steps.

ℹ️ Learn more on this topic in the sandboxing guide.

5. Update your Docker image

If you are deploying your app with Docker, then you need to copy the storybook content into your Docker image.

Add this to your Dockerfile:

COPY storybook storybook

6. Create some content

Then you can start creating some content for your storybook. Storybook can contain different kinds of stories:

• component stories: to document and showcase your components across different variations.
• pages: to publish some UI guidelines, framework with regular HTML content.
• examples: to show how your components can be used and mixed in real UI pages.

Stories are described as Elixir scripts (.story.exs) created under your :content_path folder. Feel free to organize them in sub-folders, as the hierarchy will be respected in your storybook sidebar.

Here is an example of a stateless (function) component story:

# storybook/components/button.story.exs
defmodule MyAppWeb.Storybook.Components.Button do
  alias MyAppWeb.Components.Button

  # :live_component or :page are also available
  use PhoenixStorybook.Story, :component

  def function, do: &Button.button/1

  def variations do [
    %Variation{
      id: :default,
      attributes: %{
        label: "A button"
      }
    },
    %Variation{
      id: :green_button,
      attributes: %{
        label: "Still a button",
        color: :green
      }
    }
  ]
  end
end