React Native Storybook
With React Native Storybook you can design and develop individual React Native components without running your application.
Installing Storybook
First, install the package from the npm registry and copy initial set of files
npm i -D @kadira/react-native-storybook
cp -r ./node_modules/@kadira/react-native-storybook/assets/template ./storybook
Edit index.ios.js file and the index.android.js file to set your root component name when calling AppRegistry.registerComponent
. And add the storybook npm script to the scripts section of your package.json file.
{
"start": "node node_modules/react-native/local-cli/cli.js start",
"storybook": "storybook start -p 9001"
}
Writing Storybook Stories
Now you can write stories to preview and interact with your components. These story files can be placed almost anywhere within your project directory.
import React from 'react';
import { storiesOf } from '@kadira/react-native-storybook';
import ExampleComponent from '../../components/ExampleComponent';
storiesOf('ExampleComponent')
.add('First Story', () => (
<ExampleComponent foo="bar">First Story</ExampleComponent>
));
After writing stories, they must be imported into the storybook by requiring them inside the storybook/config.js file. Check the react-native-button repo for an example.
Starting Storybook (fast)
The fastest way to start storybook is to temporarily load it from your main index.ios.js
and index.android.js
files. When you want to run the storybook insert this line and comment out the rest of the file.
import './storybook';
Start the react-native debug server
npm run start
Start the storybook server
npm run storybook
And start your android/ios device or simulator. Stories will appear on http://localhost:9001 as soon as your device connects successfully.
Starting Storybook (advanced)
There are a couple of drawbacks with the previous method.
- Both your react native application and the storybook use the same app name. Because of this, only one of them can exist on a device at any given moment.
- Should edit index.__.js files when switching between the app and the storybook.
React Native Storybook can be run without making changes to your index.__.js files but it'll take a few minutes to set it up.
Connecting Devices
In order to work with React Native Storybook, one or more devices should be connected. Stories will only show when devices are available.
iOS simulator
- Start with
react-native run-ios
Android emulator
- Get your AVD name with
emulator -list-avds
- Start the emulator
emulator -avd MY_AVD_NAME
- Forward port 8081
adb reverse tcp:8081 tcp:8081
- Forward port 9001
adb reverse tcp:9001 tcp:9001
- Start with
react-native run-android
Android device
- Connect your device with adb
- Forward port 8081
adb reverse tcp:8081 tcp:8081
- Forward port 9001
adb reverse tcp:9001 tcp:9001
- Start with
react-native run-android