Stories for multiple components

It's useful to write stories that render two or more components at once if those components are designed to work together. For example, ButtonGroups, Lists, and Page components.

Reusing subcomponent stories

The simplest approach we can take is to reuse the stories of the ListItem in the List:

List.stories.ts|tsx

import type { Meta, StoryObj } from '@storybook/react';
 
import { List } from './List';
 
//👇 Instead of importing ListItem, we import the stories
import { Unchecked } from './ListItem.stories';
 
export const meta: Meta<typeof List> = {
  /* 👇 The title prop is optional.
   * See https://storybook.js.org/docs/configure/#configure-story-loading
   * to learn how to generate automatic titles
   */
  title: 'List',
  component: List,
};
 
export default meta;
type Story = StoryObj<typeof List>;
 
export const OneItem: Story = {
  render: (args) => (
    <List {...args}>
      <Unchecked {...Unchecked.args} />
    </List>
  ),
};

By rendering the Unchecked story with its args, we are able to reuse the input data from the ListItem stories in the List.

However, we still aren’t using args to control the ListItem stories, which means we cannot change them with controls and we cannot reuse them in other, more complex component stories.

Using children as an arg

One way we improve that situation is by pulling the rendered subcomponent out into a children arg:

List.stories.ts|tsx

import type { Meta, StoryObj } from '@storybook/react';
 
import { List } from './List';
 
//👇 Instead of importing ListItem, we import the stories
import { Unchecked } from './ListItem.stories';
 
const meta: Meta<typeof List> = {
  /* 👇 The title prop is optional.
   * See https://storybook.js.org/docs/configure/#configure-story-loading
   * to learn how to generate automatic titles
   */
  title: 'List',
  component: List,
};
 
export default meta;
type Story = StoryObj<typeof List>;
 
export const OneItem: Story = {
  args: {
    children: <Unchecked {...Unchecked.args} />,
  },
};

Now that children is an arg, we can potentially reuse it in another story.

However, there are some caveats when using this approach that you should be aware of.

The children args as any other arg needs to be JSON serializable. It means that you should:

Avoid using empty values
Use caution with components that include third party libraries

As they could lead into errors with your Storybook.

We're currently working on improving the overall experience for the children arg and allow you to edit children arg in a control and allow you to use other types of components in the near future. But for now you need to factor in this caveat when you're implementing your stories.

Creating a Template Component

Another option that is more “data”-based is to create a special “story-generating” template component:

List.stories.ts|tsx

import type { Meta, StoryObj } from '@storybook/react';
 
import { List } from './List';
import { ListItem } from './ListItem';
 
//👇 Imports a specific story from ListItem stories
import { Unchecked } from './ListItem.stories';
 
const meta: Meta<typeof List> = {
  /* 👇 The title prop is optional.
   * Seehttps://storybook.js.org/docs/configure/#configure-story-loading
   * to learn how to generate automatic titles
   */
  title: 'List',
  component: List,
};
 
export default meta;
type Story = StoryObj<typeof List>;
 
//👇 The ListTemplate construct will be spread to the existing stories.
const ListTemplate: Story = {
  render: ({ items, ...args }) => {
    return (
      <List>
        {items.map((item) => (
          <ListItem {...item} />
        ))}
      </List>
    );
  },
};
 
export const Empty = {
  ...ListTemplate,
  args: {
    items: [],
  },
};
 
export const OneItem = {
  ...ListTemplate,
  args: {
    items: [{ ...Unchecked.args }],
  },
};

This approach is a little more complex to setup, but it means you can more easily reuse the args to each story in a composite component. It also means that you can alter the args to the component with the Controls addon.