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Reuse across projects

django-pattern-library is designed to be useful for component reuse within a single project, but it can also be set up to create a component library reusable between multiple projects. Reusing pattern library components is a matter of packaging and publishing a Django app (that happens to contain a lot of templates, CSS, and JS).

Here are the rough steps:

  • Decide where to store the shared pattern library. Whether it has its own repository, whether it’s published on PyPI, or in another way.
  • Choose a versioning and release methodology. With multiple projects reusing the code, it’s important for them to be able to pin specific versions, and have a clear sense of how to do updates.
  • Provide a pattern library development environment. Developers will need a way to iterate on pattern library components in isolation from the projects the UI components are reused in.

Static files

As part of your pattern library’s build process, make sure that the static files (CSS, JS, etc.) of each component can be reused individually of each-other. Different projects likely will reuse different components, and you don’t want to be paying the performance cost of loading components you don’t need.

Useful resources

Last update: 2024-01-17