Unlock the Power of Svelte: Building a Custom Component Library
Svelte, an open-source JavaScript component framework, has taken the web development world by storm. Its unique approach and tiny bundle size have made it a favorite among developers. With the rise of Svelte, several UI component frameworks and libraries have emerged, such as Svelte Material UI, Smelt, Svelte Materialify, and Sveltestrap. But have you ever wondered what it takes to build your own Svelte component library?
Getting Started with SvelteKit
SvelteKit, the successor to Sapper or NextJS for Svelte, is packed with features like server-side rendering, routing, and code splitting. It uses Vite under the hood, making it a powerful tool for building component libraries. To get started, we’ll use a skeleton project as the base for our library.
Integrating Storybook
Storybook, an open-source tool for building UI components and pages in isolation, is essential for our component library development. It streamlines UI development and testing, allowing us to build components without worrying about configurations or development servers in SvelteKit.
Factors to Consider Before Building Components
Before we dive into building components, let’s consider a few essential factors:
- Props usage: Props pass data to child components or enable component communication.
- Slots and $$slots usage: Slots maintain reusability while allowing the parent component to control the content of the child.
- Avoiding nested and global CSS: Avoid using nested and global CSS, as they will not be scoped and may leak through to all child components.
- Handling events: Make sure to add or handle proper events using Svelte’s createEventDispatcher API.
Creating Components
Let’s create some components for our library! We’ll start with a button component, followed by a toggle component, and finally an input field component. Each component will have its own story file, allowing us to test and render them in isolation.
Testing with svelte-testing-library and Jest
Testing is a critical aspect of web development. With Svelte, we can use tools like Jest and Testing Library to write tests that mimic real user interactions. We’ll also use plugins like user-event and jest-dom to extend our testing capabilities.
Packaging and Publishing to npm
Once we’ve built and tested our components, it’s time to package and publish them to npm. SvelteKit provides a built-in feature to export our components as a package. We’ll add a few configuration files and attributes to our package.json file, and then run a simple command to generate our package.
With these steps, you’ll be well on your way to building your own custom Svelte component library. SvelteKit’s features, combined with tools like Storybook and Jest, make it an ideal choice for building and maintaining high-quality components. So why not give it a try?