Advantages and disadvantages of Storybook

The pros & cons of Storybook at a glance

Front-end developers are always looking for new tools to simplify the development process for a new website and increase efficiency - even more so in times of tight deadlines. This is where Storybook comes in handy. How Storybook helps with the development and testing of UI components is described in the following article.

What is Storybook?

*Storybook provides a sandbox for creating user interfaces in isolation. This is a JavaScript tool that allows developers to create organized UI systems, making both the creation process and documentation more efficient and user-friendly.

Storybooks is used to create future-proof, flexible and, of course, attractive user interfaces for a new website. In general, Storybook makes front-end development easier and more efficient.

The tool is not called the world's most popular component explorer for nothing. This is crucial because the use of modular components in user interfaces is becoming increasingly common.

It helps frontend developers document, manage and track specific components and pages as it is relatively easy to search. Moreover, the tool is flexible and supports the most widely used frontend frameworks and libraries, including React, React native, Vue and Angular, to name a few.

With a Living Style Guide, different states are visually documented to facilitate the feedback cycle between developers and the design department.

The advantages of Storybook

In our opinion, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. This is mainly due to the fact that Storybook facilitates work on the frontend. Therefore, the most important advantages for us are described below.

Versatile applications

One of the main advantages of Storybook is that it runs outside the main application, allowing developers to create UI components for different devices and operating systems without having to deal with or manage app-specific dependencies.

Unlike the traditional 'step-by-step' approach, Storybook allows you to isolate problems. This is probably why Storybook is currently one of the most popular UI development tools.

Storybook is an environment that allows developers to create view layer components in isolation. While many people call the tool 'React Storybook',it can be used with Vue, Angular, or a number of other view-layer frameworks.

Creation of components and libraries

One of the refinements of Storybook is that it runs in isolation as a web application in its own environment. This allows the components to be developed and tested in isolation.

This has many advantages, especially for larger projects, as it means that the entire project does not always have to be reloaded. Different states are highlighted visually, and hard-to-reach states and borderline cases can be simulated easily.

You can start with just a single component. But over time, you'll be able to create a custom library that can be accessed in the future. This means that the longer Storybook is used, the higher the effect will be. Users can thus benefit from enormous time savings.

Reduced time factor, reduced website costs

Normally, adjustments to the design are extremely time-consuming. While normally the entire app has to be reloaded even for small changes in the design, this is possible in real time with Storybook.

This is because the components are edited outside the app and within their own environment. In the cloud, it is also possible for multiple teams to work on the interface simultaneously.

Create Website Cost: Reduced time and streamlined processes literally make all front-end workflows less expensive, which impacts overall costs.

Complex test procedures

We all know how complex customer journeys can be. Every customer reacts differently to an interface, which in turn has different implications. Storybook maintains a library of all UI components in one place, so every possible state of each component can be tested and recorded separately.

Here, each test result is considered a story, which is the smallest unit in a storybook. Each story can only contain one state of a particular component, and only when you put all the different states of all the different components together do you get the complete storybook.

Storyshots

Storyshots is an extremely useful add-on for snapshot testing. Storyshots is an integration between Storybook and Jest Snapshot Testing. The add-on works by first converting all existing stories into screenshots.

These screenshots are related to the desired design of the UI components, so each time UI changes are made, new screenshots are created to compare with the saved ones. If the tests fail for any reason, the developer has the option to either change the original desired state or get to the bottom of the cause of the irregularity.

The disadvantages of Storybook

As it turns out, Storybook offers a variety of useful tools to facilitate the work of front-end developers and streamline processes. However, the few disadvantages should not go unmentioned, which sometimes make the use of Storybook somewhat inconvenient.

Limited documentation

Documentation is unfortunately only possible to a limited extent with Storybook. Although it is possible to document components, this is not possible for codes such as pipes or services.

Double work

The work may feel duplicated if you maintain your React components and Storybook library at the same time. This can detract a bit from the overall time savings.

Separate Stories

Storybook requires the creation of separate file stories, sometimes even multiple stories for large components. It may take some time to fully utilize all the features and benefits of the tool.

Final thoughts

The great thing about Storybook is its broad application. Whether it's creating a first-class user interface or a React app, the tool helps developers with a wide range of processes from the very first step.

It also facilitates the collection of feedback as well as documentation. Other features include an add-on array that adapts the workflow of teams, different testing procedures, tools for searching and finding needed resources, and the ability to share components.

Therefore, as an Internet agency, we recommend all frontend developers to think outside the box and test the tool to convince themselves of the many advantages.

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