Writing Stories

After you've installed and configured bookemoji you'll need to know how to write a story.

If you're familiar with writing stories with Storybook or Histoire, you'll find that part is very approachable.

What is a Story

Stories are simply svelte components

Stories serve multiple purposes, but when writing them, their main role is to enable dynamic rendering of a component's props and allow external control through "Controls".

For bookemoji, a story must:

be a file within the configured "stories" directory
have a .book.svelte file extension

...and that's it! And that's also by design.

To elevate a story file though—you want to use the <Story> component. Read on.

Writing your first story

First,

Run npm run dev if not already
Create a new file within your stories directory, e.g. Example.book.svelte

Then, type or paste the below code sample into the file.

Replace the MyComponent reference with a real import of a component.

<script lang="ts">
  import { Story, Controls, defineMeta } from "bookemoji/components/v4";
  import MyComponent from "$lib/path/to/your/components/Component.svelte";
  // if your components aren't in $lib, that's fine too!
</script>

<Story name="Default" of={MyComponent} />

You can write stories with either svelte 4 or svelte 5

Svelte 5 path

import { ... } from "bookemoji/components";

Svelte 4 path

import { ... } from "bookemoji/components/v4";

If your component requires more setup, you can use the slot of the Story to do so. See below as an example.

...

<Story name="Default" of={Tab} let:args>
  <Figure>
    <Image {...args} />
  </Figure>
</Story>

Using `args`

args allow you to present variants distinctly. They generally are your props, but you can use them creatively to make better stories.

<Story name="Default" of={MyComponent}  />
<Story name="Red Variant" of={MyComponent} args={{ color: "red", }}  />

<Story name="Green Variant" of={MyComponent} args={{ color: "green", }}>
    <div class="wrapper">
        <MyComponent {...args}>
    </div>
</Story>

Using `defineMeta`, `argTypes`, and `Controls`

With the variants rendering, it'd be nice if you can present a component and manipulate it from the UI—a key feature of component workshops.

That's where argTypes comes in. To establish argTypes we use the defineMeta function. Here is the source of the example Button as an example

<script lang="ts">
  import { Story, Controls } from "$lib/components/v4";
  import Button from "$lib/Button.svelte";
  import { defineMeta } from "book-emoji";

  defineMeta<typeof Button>({
    component: Button,

    argTypes: {
      variant: { type: "select", options: ["primary", "secondary", "tertiary"] },
      size: { type: "select", options: ["small", "medium", "large"] },
      disabled: { type: "boolean" },
      loading: { type: "boolean" },
      classes: { type: "text" },
      type: { type: "select", options: ["button", "submit", "reset"] },
      ariaLabel: { type: "text" },
      text: { type: "text" },
    },
  });
</script>

<Story of={Button} name="Basic" args={{ variant: "primary", size: "medium", text: "Primary Button" }} />

<Controls of={Button} story="Basic" />

<Story of={Button} name="Secondary" args={{ variant: "secondary", size: "medium", text: "Secondary Button" }} />
<Controls of={Button} story="Secondary" />

<Story of={Button} name="Tertiary" args={{ variant: "tertiary", size: "medium", text: "Tertiary Button" }} />

<Controls of={Button} story="Tertiary" />

In the sample, the defineMeta is what allows Controls to know the types of args of the components.

Controls then is keyed by the name / story properties.

A ghost flying out of a book for stylistic embellishment of the page

Writing Stories

What is a Story

Writing your first story

Using args

Using defineMeta, argTypes, and Controls

Using `args`

Using `defineMeta`, `argTypes`, and `Controls`