Create Custom Components in Storyblok and Gatsby.js
Storyblok is the first headless CMS that works for developers & marketers alike.
Please note that this article has already been updated to match Storyblok V2. If you haven’t already started using it, you can find out how to make the switch here.
In this short tutorial, we will see how to start making our own components and extend the existing ones with Gatsby.js and Storyblok. We will add a new Hero component with two Layout options in Storyblok, along with the code in our frontend. We will also extend our existing Feature component by including images and better styling.
If you are in a hurry, check out this demo in boilerplate repo!
Requirements
This is a part of the Ultimate Tutorial Guide for Gatsby.js. You can find the previous part of the series here, which shows how to render Storyblok stories dynamically in Gatsby.js. We recommend you to take a look at that tutorial before starting this one.
We will use the code from the previous tutorial as a starting point. You can find the boilerplate repo for it here.
Changing the Feature Component
To view all the components, click on the Block Library tab {1} on the left-hand side as seen in the image.
Block Library
Now, let’s edit the Feature’s schema, and add image as a new field {1}.
Add Image Field
We will have to change the code in our Gatsby.js app with the updated fields and styles.
Replace the code of feature.js to the following:
...
const Feature = ({ blok }) => (
<div className="column feature" {...storyblokEditable(blok)}>
<div className="p-6">
<img className="object-cover object-center w-full mb-8 lg:h-48 md:h-36 rounded-xl" src={blok.image.filename} alt="feature"/>
<h1 className="mx-auto mb-8 text-2xl font-semibold leading-none tracking-tighter text-neutral-600 lg:text-3xl">{blok.name}</h1>
<div className="mt-4">
<a href="#" className="inline-flex items-center mt-4 font-semibold text-blue-600 lg:mb-0 hover:text-neutral-600" title="read more"> Read More » </a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
);
...Let’s go ahead and add images to the features of a grid on the about page. To do that, we need to click on the Grid and then click on one of the features inside it. We will see that we have a field named image already present there. We can now add an image to a feature. Let’s add images for other features as well. It should look something like this -
For Gatsby Image, we have a tutorial you can follow here
Features with Images
Creating a component
Now, let’s create a new Hero component. To do that, we will need to return to the Block Library {1} and click on +New Block at the top right corner {2}.
Block Library
Once we click on +New Block, we can enter the details about our new component. Let’s give it a name hero-section {1}, and select the block type Nested {2}, which is there by default. This will be a Nested component because we will be using it inside other components.
A Content Type Block allows you to create templates for Stories, whereas a Nested Block can only be used inside a Story and other blocks. You can find more information here.
You can hit Add Block {3} after that.
Add Block
We can start adding the fields. We need to create four fields, three of which are-
1. title of type text.
2. subtitle of type text.
3. image of type asset and then select image as we did for feature’s image.
The 4th one will be a layout field, which will allow us to change the layout of the hero-section. We will have two different layouts - one with the image on the left-hand side and the other one with the image on the right-hand side. It should be of type Single Option {1}.
Layout Field
Now, let’s add two options as key-value pairs {1} for the two types of layout, each one with a default value {2}.
Options for Layout
Let’s hit save and add this component to our home story. Also, we should add content to the component’s fields. Feel free to use any text and image.
As we added a new component, we will also need to add the component to the frontend code of our project. Create a hero-section.js file inside the components folder, and add the following code to it.
import { storyblokEditable } from "gatsby-source-storyblok";
const HeroSection = ({ blok }) => {
return (
<div {...storyblokEditable(blok)}>
{blok.layout == 'layout_one' && (
<section className="text-gray-600 body-font">
<div className="container mx-auto flex px-5 py-24 md:flex-row flex-col items-center">
<div className="lg:flex-grow md:w-1/2 lg:pr-24 md:pr-16 flex flex-col md:items-start md:text-left mb-16 md:mb-0 items-center text-center">
<h1 className="title-font sm:text-5xl text-3xl mb-4 font-medium text-gray-900">{blok.title}
</h1>
<p className="mb-8 leading-relaxed">{blok.subtitle}</p>
<div className="flex justify-center">
<button className="inline-flex text-white bg-indigo-500 border-0 py-2 px-6 focus:outline-none hover:bg-indigo-600 rounded text-lg">Know More</button>
<button className="ml-4 inline-flex text-gray-700 bg-gray-100 border-0 py-2 px-6 focus:outline-none hover:bg-gray-200 rounded text-lg">Contact Us</button>
</div>
</div>
<div className="lg:max-w-lg lg:w-full md:w-1/2 w-5/6">
<img className="object-cover object-center rounded" alt="hero" src={blok.image.filename}/>
</div>
</div>
</section>
)}
{blok.layout == 'layout_two' && (
<section className="text-gray-600 body-font">
<div className="container mx-auto flex px-5 py-24 md:flex-row flex-col items-center">
<div className="lg:max-w-lg lg:w-full md:w-1/2 w-5/6 mb-10 md:mb-0">
<img className="object-cover object-center rounded" alt="hero" src={blok.image.filename}/>
</div>
<div className="lg:flex-grow md:w-1/2 lg:pl-24 md:pl-16 flex flex-col md:items-start md:text-left items-center text-center">
<h1 className="title-font sm:text-5xl text-3xl mb-4 font-medium text-gray-900">{blok.title}
</h1>
<p className="mb-8 leading-relaxed">{blok.subtitle}</p>
<div className="flex justify-center">
<button className="inline-flex text-white bg-indigo-500 border-0 py-2 px-6 focus:outline-none hover:bg-indigo-600 rounded text-lg">Know More</button>
<button className="ml-4 inline-flex text-gray-700 bg-gray-100 border-0 py-2 px-6 focus:outline-none hover:bg-gray-200 rounded text-lg">Contact Us</button>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</section>
)}
</div>
)
}
export default HeroSectionNote that we are changing the styles of the Hero section depending on the selected layout. This is being done conditionally on lines 6 and 24.
The only thing left to do is adding this component to our list of dynamic components in layout.js.
...
import Teaser from './teaser'
import Grid from "./grid"
import Feature from "./feature"
import Navigation from "./navigation"
import Footer from "./footer"
import HeroSection from './hero-section';
storyblokInit({
accessToken: process.env.GATSBY_PREVIEW_STORYBLOK,
use: [apiPlugin],
components: {
teaser: Teaser,
grid: Grid,
feature: Feature,
'hero-section': HeroSection
}
});
...Look at how we use the technical name hero-section here to map with our frontend component.
Save and go back to our Home story in Storyblok. We will see something like this -
Hero Section with layout one
We also have an option to change the layout here. We can choose the other one from the dropdown and we will see the changes.
Hero Section with layout two
Wrapping Up
In this tutorial, we saw how to extend and create new components from scratch with different types of fields, along with the integration of those components into the frontend of our application. Congratulations!
In the next part of this series, we will see how to create and render blog articles in Storyblok and Gatsby.js. (Soon to be published. Stay tuned!)
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| Storyblok Gatsby.js Ultimate Tutorial | https://www.storyblok.com/tp/gatsby.js-headless-cms-ultimate-tutorial |
| Gatsby Repo | https://github.com/storyblok/gatsby-storyblok-boilerplate |
| Storyblok Technologies Hub | https://www.storyblok.com/technologies |
| Gatsby.js Technology Hub | Storyblok Gatsby.js Technology Hub |
| Storyblok Gatsby SDK | storyblok/gatsby-source-storyblok |
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