Documenting components

Styleguidist generates documentation for your components based on the comments in your source code, propTypes declarations, and Readme files.

tip

See examples of documented components in our demo style guide.

Code comments and propTypes

Styleguidist will display your components’ JSDoc comment blocks. Also, it will pick up props from propTypes declarations and display them in a table.

import React from 'react'
import PropTypes from 'prop-types'
/**
* General component description in JSDoc format. Markdown is *supported*.
*/
export default class Button extends React.Component {
static propTypes = {
/** Description of prop "foo". */
foo: PropTypes.number,
/** Description of prop "baz". */
baz: PropTypes.oneOfType([PropTypes.number, PropTypes.string])
}
static defaultProps = {
foo: 42
}
render() {
/* ... */
}
}
info

Flow and TypeScript type annotations are supported.

tip

You can change its behavior using propsParser and resolver options.

info

Component’s PropTypes and documentation comments are parsed by the react-docgen library. They can be modified using the updateDocs function.

Usage examples and Readme files

Styleguidist will look for any Readme.md or ComponentName.md files in the component’s folder and display them. Any code block with a language tag of js, jsx, or javascript will be rendered as a React component with an interactive playground. For backwards compatibility, code blocks without a language tag are also rendered in this way. It is recommended to always use the proper language tag for new documentation.

React component example:
```js
<Button size="large">Push Me</Button>
```
You can add a custom props to an example wrapper:
```js { "props": { "className": "checks" } }
<Button>I’m transparent!</Button>
```
Or add padding between examples in a block by passing the `padded` modifier:
```jsx padded
<Button>Push Me</Button>
<Button>Click Me</Button>
<Button>Tap Me</Button>
```
Or disable an editor by passing a `noeditor` modifier:
```jsx noeditor
<Button>Push Me</Button>
```
To render an example as highlighted source code add a `static` modifier:
```jsx static
import React from 'react';
```
Examples with all other languages are rendered only as highlighted source code, not an actual component:
```html
<Button size="large">Push Me</Button>
```
Any [Markdown](http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/) is **allowed** _here_.
tip

You can configure examples file name with the getExampleFilename option.

tip

If you need to display some JavaScript code in your documentation that you don’t want to be rendered as an interactive playground you can use the static modifier with a language tag (e.g. js static).

External examples using doclet tags

Additional example files can be associated with components using @example doclet syntax.

The following component will also have an example loaded from the extra.examples.md file:

/**
* Component is described here.
*
* @example ./extra.examples.md
*/
export default class Button extends React.Component {
// ...
}
note

You’ll need a regular example file (like Readme.md) too when skipComponentsWithoutExample is true.

Public methods

By default, any methods your components have are considered to be private and are not published. Mark your public methods with JSDoc @public tag to get them published in the docs:

/**
* Insert text at cursor position.
*
* @param {string} text
* @public
*/
insertAtCursor(text) {
// ...
}

Ignoring props

By default, all props your components have are considered to be public and are published. In some rare cases, you might want to remove a prop from the documentation while keeping it in the code. To do so, mark the prop with JSDoc @ignore tag to remove it from the docs:

MyComponent.propTypes = {
/**
* A prop that should not be visible in the documentation.
*
* @ignore
*/
hiddenProp: React.PropTypes.string
}

Defining custom component names

Use @visibleName JSDoc tag to define component names that are used in the Styleguidist UI:

/**
* The only true button.
*
* @visibleName The Best Button Ever 🐙
*/
class Button extends React.Component {

The component will be displayed with a custom “The Best Button Ever 🐙” name and this will not change the name of the component used in the code of your app or Styleguidist examples.

Using JSDoc tags

You can use the following JSDoc tags when documenting components, props and methods:

When documenting props you can also use:

All tags can render Markdown.

/**
* The only true button.
*
* @version 1.0.1
* @author [Artem Sapegin](https://github.com/sapegin)
* @author [Andy Krings-Stern](https://github.com/ankri)
*/
class Button extends React.Component {
static propTypes = {
/**
* Button label.
*/
children: PropTypes.string.isRequired,
/**
* The color for the button
*
* @see See [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_colors#HTML_color_names) for a list of color names
* @see See [MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/color_value) for a list of color names
*/
color: PropTypes.string,
/**
* The size of the Button
*
* @since Version 1.0.1
*/
size: PropTypes.oneOf(['small', 'normal', 'large']),
/**
* The width of the button
*
* @deprecated Do not use! Use `size` instead!
*/
width: PropTypes.number,
/**
* Gets called when the user clicks on the button
*
* @param {SyntheticEvent} event The react `SyntheticEvent`
* @param {Object} allProps All props of this Button
*/
onClick: PropTypes.func
}
}

Writing code examples

Code examples in Markdown use ES6+JSX syntax. You can use the current component without explicitly importing it:

// ```jsx inside Button/Readme.md or Button.md
<Button>Push Me</Button>
info

Styleguidist uses Bublé to run ES6 code on the frontend, it supports most of the ES6 features.

To use other components, you need to explicitly import them:

// ```jsx inside Panel/Readme.md or Panel.md
import Button from '../Button'
;<Panel>
<p>
Using the Button component in the example of the Panel component:
</p>
<Button>Push Me</Button>
</Panel>

You can also import other modules, like mock data:

// ```jsx inside Markdown
import mockData from './mocks'
;<Message content={mockData.hello} />

Or you can explicitly import all your example dependencies, to make examples easier to copy into your app code:

// ```jsx inside Markdown
import React from 'react'
import Button from 'rsg-example/components/Button'
import Placeholder from 'rsg-example/components/Placeholder'
info

rsg-example module is an alias defined by the moduleAliases config option.

caution

You can only use import by editing your Markdown files, not by editing the example code in the browser.

Each example acts as a function component and you can use the useState Hook to handle its state.

// ```jsx inside Markdown
const [isOpen, setIsOpen] = React.useState(false)
;<div>
<button onClick={() => setIsOpen(true)}>Open</button>
<Modal isOpen={isOpen}>
<h1>Hallo!</h1>
<button onClick={() => setIsOpen(false)}>Close</button>
</Modal>
</div>

If a component uses React Context, you need a context provider in the example or in a custom Wrapper component. See ThemeButton example.

tip

If you need a more complex demo it’s often a good idea to define it in a separate JavaScript file and import it in Markdown.

Limitations

In some cases Styleguidist may not understand your components, see possible solutions.

Edit this page