Create Custom Components in Storyblok and Next.js

June 30, 2022

Storyblok is the first headless CMS that works for developers & marketers alike.

Home
Tutorials
Create Custom Components in Storyblok and Next.js

In this short tutorial, we will see how to start making our own components and extend the existing ones with Next.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.

Hint:

If you’re in a hurry, have a look at our live demo in Stackblitz! Alternatively, you can explore or fork the code from the Next Ultimate Tutorial GitHub Repository.

Section titled Requirements Requirements

This is a part of the Ultimate Tutorial Guide for Next.js. You can find the previous part of the series here, which shows how to render Storyblok stories dynamically in Next.js. We recommend you to take a look at that tutorial before starting this one.

You can also take a look at the optional tutorial of the series - Create Dynamic Menus in Storyblok and Next.js.

Hint:

We will use the code from the previous tutorial as a starting point. You can find the Stackblitz demo for it here.

Section titled Changing the Feature Component 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.

Now, let’s edit the Feature’s schema, and add image as a new field {1}.

This image field should be of type asset. To change the field type and view other options related to the field, click on the field image.

Change the field type to Asset {1} and select Images in the Filetypes {2}.

We will have to change the code in our Next.js app with the updated fields and styles.

Replace the code of Feature.js to the following:

components/Feature.js

        
      ...

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 -

Section titled Creating a Hero Component Creating a Hero Component

Before creating the schema for this new block, let’s first of all consider what we would like it to look like and what options we want to provide. I would say that a headline, a subheadline and a background_image field would be a great place to start. However, let’s kick it up a notch and provide the option to make this hero component use the full width of the screen.

First, go to the Block Library {1} and create a New Block {2}.

Creating a new block in the Block Library

It should be a Nested block {1} with the name hero {2}.

Now we can create our first three fields:

headline: field type Text
subheadline: field type Text
background_image: field type Image

The required steps for this are exactly the same as we have taken to add an image field to the Feature component earlier in this tutorial.

Once these fields are ready, we can create the layout field to make it possible to choose between two different layouts. Let’s add the field and choose Single-Option as its type {1}.

Let's add two key-value pairs which represent the possible choices {1}, hide the empty option {2}, and set the default value to constrained {3}:

Defining the layout options for the hero component

Finally, save the component and add it to our Home story, right above the Teaser. You can already add some sample content to the fields. Of course, nothing will be shown in our frontend just yet. So let’s take care of that next, shall we?

As we added a new component, we will also need to add the component to the frontend code of our project. Create a Hero.js file inside the components folder, and add the following code to it.

components/Hero.js

        
      import { storyblokEditable } from "@storyblok/react";

const Hero = ({ blok }) => {
  return (
    <div {...storyblokEditable(blok)} className={`min-h-[500px]
    relative
    flex
    items-end
    justify-center
    p-9
    my-6
    rounded-[5px]
    overflow-hidden ${blok.layout === 'constrained' ? 'container mx-auto' : ''}`}>
      <div className="relative z-10 text-center">
        <h1 className="text-6xl text-white font-bold mb-3">{blok.headline}</h1>
        <h2 className="text-4xl text-white font-light">{blok.subheadline}</h2>
      </div>
      <img
        src={blok.background_image.filename}
        alt={blok.background_image.alt}
        className="absolute top-0 left-0 z-0 w-full h-full object-cover"
      />
    </div>
  );
};

export default Hero;

Note that we are changing the styles of the Hero section depending on the selected layout. This is being done conditionally on line 13.

The only thing left to do is to add this component to our list of dynamic components in _app.js.

_app.js

        
      ...

import Hero from '../components/Hero'
const components = {
  feature: Feature,
  grid: Grid,
  teaser: Teaser,
  page: Page,
  hero: Hero
};

...

Save and go back to our Home story in Storyblok. We will see something like this -

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.

Section titled Wrapping Up 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!

Next Part:

In the next part of this series, we will see how to create and render blog articles in Storyblok and Next.js. You can find it here.

Resource	Link
Storyblok Next.js Ultimate Tutorial	https://www.storyblok.com/tp/nextjs-headless-cms-ultimate-tutorial
Stackblitz Demo	https://stackblitz.com/edit/create-custom-components-in-storyblok-and-next-js
Storyblok Technologies Hub	https://www.storyblok.com/technologies
Next.js Technology Hub	Storyblok Next.js Technology Hub
Storyblok React SDK	storyblok/storyblok-react

Question or Feedback?

Author

Chakit Arora

Chakit is a Full Stack Developer based in India, he is passionate about the web and likes to be involved in the community. He is a Twitter space host, who likes to talk and write about technology. He is always excited to try out new technologies and frameworks. He works as a Developer Relations Engineer at Storyblok.