Introduction to controls

created:8/18/2020

updated:8/18/2020

Overview

The controls api provides an extensible interface for specifying and using input controls to enter component property values at run-time.

You can also check the list of pre-defined controls that are available for creating interactive examples of your components.

Background

You can use controls in both formats ESM and MDX.

Basic usage

Attach a controls object to your example
Ensure your example accepts the same parameters as declared in the controls object.

ESM

import { ControlTypes } from '@component-controls/core';
export const textControl = ({ text }) => (<div>{props.text}</div>);
textControl.controls = {
  text: { type: ControlTypes.TEXT, value: 'some text'}
};

MDX

import { ControlTypes } from '@component-controls/core';
import { Story, Playground, PropsTable } from '@component-controls/blocks';
<Story name="text-control" controls={{ text: { type: ControlTypes.TEXT, value: 'some text'} }}>
  {props => (
    <div>{props.text}</div>
  )}
</Story>

Smart properties

The component-controls built-in instrumentation module provides the ability to smartly detect any properties passed to your "stories" and creates the controls table accordingly.

No properties are passed to the example. In this case, no controls will be used at run-time, since the properties can not be passed to the example:

export const overview = () => <button>no props</button>

Name	Description	Default

Some named properties are passed to the example. In this case, only the properties specifically listed will be available at run-time (ie: backgroundColor):

export const overview = ({ backgroundColor }) => <button style={{ backgroundColor }}>some props</button>

Name	Description	Default	Controls
backgroundColor	ControlTypes.COLOR	grey	Invalid Type

All the properties are passed. In this case, all listed controls will be available at run-time:

export const overview = props => <button style={props}>all props</button>

Name	Description	Default	Controls
backgroundColor	ControlTypes.COLOR	grey	Invalid Type
padding	ControlTypes.NUMBER	10	Invalid Type

Display options

All controls can receive the following configuration properties

description

Full text property description with markdown support. It is used in the Props table.

some text

Name	Description	Default	Controls
text	a description with markdown support ControlTypes.TEXT	some text	Invalid Type

hidden

Hide the property editor for this property will only use the value.

some text

Name	Description	Default

label

Label to display next to the field editor by default uses the property name itself.

some text

Name	Description	Default	Controls
Enter some text:	ControlTypes.TEXT	some text	Invalid Type

order

Allows custom sorting of the properties if 'order' is not provided, the props will be sorted by the order/key of the object (unreliable)

text 1/text 2

Name	Description	Default	Controls
text2	ControlTypes.TEXT	text 2	Invalid Type
text1	ControlTypes.TEXT	text 1	Invalid Type

required

Visually display the control property as required in the Props table.

some text

Name	Description	Default	Controls
text	ControlTypes.TEXT	some text	Invalid Type

defaultValue

The default value that will be displayed in the Props table and the value that will be reverted to when the user clicks on reset. By default it is set from the value field of the control but you can also assign it manually.

some text

Name	Description	Default	Controls
text	ControlTypes.TEXT	a default value	Invalid Type

Randomize data

data helper information to generate random data will be used in conjunction with faker.js.

data: {
    name: string; //faker.js name of data generator
    options: object; // options to be passed to the faker data generator
  }

Custom generator name

export const overview = ({ street }) => street;
overview.controls = {
  street: {
    type: ControlTypes.TEXT,
    label: 'Street',
    value: '30333 Atlantic Ave.',
    data: { name: 'address.streetAddress' },
  },
};

30333 Atlantic Ave.

Name	Description	Default	Controls
Street	ControlTypes.TEXT	30333 Atlantic Ave.	Invalid Type

Custom generator options

export const overview = ({ number }) => number;
overview.controls = {
  number: {
    type: ControlTypes.NUMBER,
    label: 'A number',
    value: 10,
    data: { name: 'random.number', options: { min: 50, max: 100 } },
  }
}

Name	Description	Default	Controls
Street	ControlTypes.TEXT	30333 Atlantic Ave.	Invalid Type

Smart controls

The controls module can automatically extract component properties from the components prop info (ie typescript interfaces or react-props). This extraction process is called smart-props.

The make smart-props work, you need to assign a component to your ESM or MDX documents (will aplpy to all stories defined) or to a specific story.
You also need to pass some parameters to your stories:

ESM

import { Button } from '../components/Button';
export default {
  title: 'Smart Controls',
  component: Button,
};
export const smart = props => <Button {...props} />;

MDX

---
title: Smart Controls
component: Button
---
import { Story, Playground, PropsTable } from '@component-controls/blocks';
import { Button } from '../components/Button';
<Playground>
  <Story name='smart'>
    {props => <Button {...props} />}
  </Story>
</Playground>
<PropsTable name="smart" />

Name	Description	Default
disabled	boolean	-
backgroundColor	color	#fefefe
color	color	black
type	options	button
padding	number	5

Configure smart-controls

You can the behavior or smart-controls using the smartControls story property

Disable

If you assign false to smartControls, the system will skip creating automatically smart controls for the story.

ESM

import { Button } from '../components/Button';
export default {
  title: 'Smart Controls',
};
export const smart = props => <Button {...props} />;
smart.component = Button;
smart.smartControls = false;

MDX

---
title: Smart Controls
---
import { Story, Playground, PropsTable } from '@component-controls/blocks';
import { Button } from '../components/Button';
<Playground>
  <Story name='smart' component={Button} smartControls={false}>
    {props => <Button {...props} />}
  </Story>
</Playground>
<PropsTable name="smart" />

Include only specific properties

You might want to configure only some properties of your components to be editable.

ESM

import { Button } from '../components/Button';
export default {
  title: 'Smart Controls',
};
export const smart = props => <Button {...props} />;
smart.component = Button;
smart.smartControls = {
  include: ['color', 'backgroundColor'],
};

MDX

---
title: Smart Controls
---
import { Story, Playground, PropsTable } from '@component-controls/blocks';
import { Button } from '../components/Button';
<Playground>
  <Story name='smart' component={Button} smartControls={{ include: ['color', 'backgroundColor'] }}>
    {props => <Button {...props} />}
  </Story>
</Playground>
<PropsTable name="smart" />

Name	Description	Default	Controls
backgroundColor	color	#fefefe
color	color	black

Exclude specific properties

You might want to prevent some properties of your components to be editable.

ESM

import { Button } from '../components/Button';
export default {
  title: 'Smart Controls',
};
export const smart = props => <Button {...props} />;
smart.component = Button;
smart.smartControls = {
  exclude: ['color', 'backgroundColor'],
};

MDX

---
title: Smart Controls
---
import { Story, Playground, PropsTable } from '@component-controls/blocks';
import { Button } from '../components/Button';
<Playground>
  <Story name='smart' component={Button} smartControls={{ exclude: ['color', 'backgroundColor'] }}>
    {props => <Button {...props} />}
  </Story>
</Playground>
<PropsTable name="smart" />

Name	Description	Default
disabled	boolean	-
type	options	button
padding	number	5

Grouping

By assigning a groupId property you can display the properties grouped in different tabs. This works both when creating controls from scratch, or using smart-controls and just overriding their groupId field.

ESM

import { Button } from '../components/Button';
export default {
  title: 'Smart Controls',
};
export const smart = props => <Button {...props} />;
smart.component = Button;
smart.controls = { 
  color: { groupId: 'Colors' },
  backgroundColor: { groupId: 'Colors' }
};

MDX

---
title: Smart Controls
---
import { Story, Playground, PropsTable } from '@component-controls/blocks';
import { Button } from '../components/Button';
<Playground>
  <Story name='smart'
    component={Button} 
    controls={{ 
      color: { groupId: 'Colors' },
      backgroundColor: { groupId: 'Colors' }
    }}
  >
    {props => <Button {...props} />}
  </Story>
</Playground>
<PropsTable name="smart" />

	Name	Description	Default
-(3 properties)
	disabled	boolean	-
	type	options	button
	padding	number	5
Colors(2 properties)

Gatsby vs Nextjs vs Webpack

Migration from Storybook 6 - Gatsby