Build Your Own Component Library, With `Shadcn-vue`

In case you are unaware, shadcn (creator of `ui.shadcn`) created a new way for devs to build component libraries. Instead of a usual component library, where you are limited to the component styling, props, or events designed by the author, you now have the capability to modify the components to suit your needs.
Quote from the shadcn himself, "It's a collection of re-usable components that you can copy and paste into your apps."

In this talk, I will be showcasing the power of this approach, walking through how to customize it, and why it has gained such a popularity in the recent months.
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Video Summary and Transcription
The talk introduces the concept of building your own component library using ShadCN Vue, a community port of ShadCN UI for Vue.js. Traditional component libraries often restrict users with fixed APIs, but ShadCN Vue offers full ownership, allowing developers to design their own APIs and customize components freely. The library is built on top of RedixView, enabling the use of primitive elements and easy styling with Tailwind CSS, which is crucial for seamless customization. Tailwind Merge and CLSX functions help in merging custom and default classes, providing flexibility in styling. ShadCN Vue also supports adding any component icons, enhancing its versatility. Developers can create a design system tailored to their needs, overcoming the limitations of traditional libraries. For more details, the official repository and documentation offer extensive guides on ShadCN Vue, making it an ideal choice for developers looking to have control over their component libraries.

This talk has been presented at Vue.js Live 2024, check out the latest edition of this JavaScript Conference.

FAQ

Tailwind CSS plays a crucial role in ShadCN Vue by providing a utility-first approach to styling. It allows for easy customization through CSS variables or the Tailwind config, and Tailwind Merge helps combine custom and default classes seamlessly.

A traditional component library is essentially a collection of components where the API, including props, events, methods, and slots, is designed by the author or the team. Users often face limitations with the exposed API and find it challenging to customize styling or build wrappers around these components.

The challenges include being limited to the exposed API, difficulty in customizing styling especially when using Tailwind CSS or Uno CSS, and finding it hard to build wrappers around the components for different styling and behavior.

You can customize components by modifying their styles, animations, and adding or changing elements as needed. ShadCN Vue uses Tailwind Merge and CLSX functions to merge custom classes with default ones, allowing for easy and flexible customization.

ShadCN Vue, built on top of RedixView, allows you to use primitive elements and style them easily with Tailwind CSS. You can merge custom classes with default classes using Tailwind Merge, and freely add or move elements in the DOM.

Yes, ShadCN Vue is built on top of RedixView, which is a styled and accessible component library. It allows you to build a design system around it, making it easy to customize and extend components to fit your project needs.

You can find more information, documentation, and pre-made blocks for ShadCN Vue on their official repository and documentation site. Be sure to check it out for detailed guides and customization options.

ShadCN Vue is a community port of ShadCN UI for Vue.js. It allows you to copy and paste accessible components into your project, offering full ownership over the components. This eliminates limitations with exposed APIs and allows for easy styling and DOM customization.

Yes, you are not bound by any specific icon library when using ShadCN Vue. You can add whatever component icons you want, allowing for greater flexibility and customization.

ShadCN Vue provides ownership of components, allowing you to design the API as needed. It also supports Tailwind Merge for styling, making it easy to customize elements and their positions in the DOM. Additionally, it facilitates building design systems around the components.

1. Introduction to Shed CN view and its benefits#

Short description:

Hey, guys. I'm Xenonia, and welcome to the Lightning Talk. Today I'll be sharing with you regarding build your own component library with Shed CN view. So what is traditional component library? It is the component library where the component's API is designed by the author or the team itself. We are always limited to the exposed API and find it hard to customize styling and build a wrapper around it. But with ShadCN Vue, you can copy and paste accessible components into your project, design the API as you like, and customize styling easily.

Hey, guys. I'm Xenonia, and welcome to the Lightning Talk. Today I'll be sharing with you regarding build your own component library with Shed CN view. I'm from Malaysia, and I'm the front-end lead at TroopFail Inc. I'm also the co-maintainer of RedixView and Shed CN view.

So, first of all, what is traditional component library? So essentially, I describe it as the component library that the component's API were designed, such as props, event, methods, and slots were designed by the author or the team itself. So I believe all of us has used component library before. Definitely, we will come across a few challenges. So, first of all, we are always limited to the exposed API. Be it exposed a thousand props or events, we always somehow limited. We just think at the bottom of our mind, I just wish that I could modify just something of that component.

Second challenge, we always find it hard to customize the styling, especially when we are using, let's say, Tailwind CSS or Uno CSS, we always need to force the important exclamation mark for the style, to assert the styling, because just the component library wasn't built around, wasn't designed to have inline classes styling.

Third of all, which is we always find it difficult to build a wrapper around it. So in my company, we were trying to build a design system, a component library around a component library, because we want to have different styling, different component behavior, as such, and we always find it so hard to do so. So I believe this problem has always been the case, until ShadCN arrives.

So this was, the project was initially released last year, on January, and since then, it has gained so much popularity in the React world, and it also affected the Vue, as well as Shelf world. So what is this ShadCN Vue? It is essentially a concept that for you to copy and paste accessible components into your project. And it solves all the problem that I mentioned earlier. How so? So I'm not going to talk about ShadCN UI, because that project is built for React. So let's look at ShadCN Vue, which essentially is the same idea, same concept, but it is a community viewport of ShadCN UI. And it is a collection of reusable components that you can copy and paste or use the CLI to add the components into your project. So it eliminates three of the problems just now. So we are no longer bound by the exposed API. So right now we are free to design the API however we like. So because all the components right now are in your project, you have the ownership of the component. So let's take a look at this button here. So you can add however, whatever props, events, slot props, however you want, anything you want into the button because right now you have ownership of that. Just design it as you see fit. Got it? Secondly, we always find it hard to customize styling and let's say the DOM positions of certain elements. No longer the case as well.

2. Customizing ShadCN view and its benefits#

Short description:

Because of how ShadCN is built on top of RedixView, it allows you to use the primitive and style the element itself. You are no longer bound and can add or move elements in the DOM. It is no longer difficult to build a REPL as it is built on top of RedixView, a style and accessible component library. Tailwind CSS makes customization easy. You can customize the layout, styling, animations, classes, and even the component icons. Check out the documentation for more details.

Because of how ShadCN is built on top of RedixView, it allows you to use the primitive and to style the element itself here. So if you can see the menu trigger, we pass in the class of however, whatever classes here and it will overwrite, not overwrite, it will merge with the default classes by using Tailwind Merge. Other than that, it also allows us to do add whatever elements we want or move however the element we want to be rendered in the DOM. So let's say I want to add a separator or I want to add a span in between the drop-down options. Yeah, we are no longer bound but we can do whatever we want right now.

And lastly, it no longer finds it difficult to build a REPL because like I mentioned earlier, it is built on top of RedixView, which is a style and accessible component library that you can build your design system around it. Also, we are using Tailwind CSS, which is super easy to customize by either using your CSS variable or the Tailwind config to fit your own project. So let's look at how could we customize it instead of just talking about the point. Let's look at the case.

So here in the repository, if you initiate, if you include dialogues into a component, you will receive all these .view files as well as this index.cx. So let's look at how we can customize it to your own project. So right now, let's say I have this dialogue overview. Let's say I don't want to have black layout. I can just modify it. I can change the styling here. I also can change the animations however I like for this overlay. And here, dialogue content, you can see that here we have a CN functions, which is essentially functions that Tailwind merges as well as CLSX together. So right now, the first parameters here is designed by us, the shadcn library, and prop.class essentially is what you want to merge with. Let's say you don't want to have left one stroke two, you want to have left 33%. In your component usage, you can just add the class equals to left-33%. And it will merge and overwrite this specific view and persist all the other file, all the other styling here. You don't need to have exclamation mark or anything. And of course, you can add whatever component icon you want. It's no longer bound by the specific icon library. You can change however you want. So these are just some of the quick preview of how to customize it. There's so much more I would love to share with you. Unfortunately, I don't have the time today. So do give us a star as well as check out the doc. There's so many things for you to customize. So if you look at the team, you can change however you want. As well as there's a lot of pre-made blocks for you to copy and paste into your project. So see you next. So that's all for me. See you next time.

Zernonia Kong
Zernonia Kong
7 min
25 Apr, 2024

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