Development workflow

Everything you need to install, configure, and develop with the design system.

Use Normalize

Use of the Core or Components requires the existence of the Design System normalize stylesheet on the page. Install with:

npm install @pluralsight/ps-design-system-normalize

Include this vanilla CSS in your application in a method appropriate for your project. For usage options, follow the Core Usage docs patterns.

JavaScript Environment Requirements

Many components in the the Design System depend on features in more modern versions of ecmascript (es6 and es7). Older browsers and devices that we support do not provide these natively (e.g. IE 11) so you'll need to include a global polyfill in your bundled application, such as core-js or babel-polyfill. To explore features by version you can visit the ECMAScript Compatibility Table.

Use Core

Step 1: Install Core

First install the dependency:

npm install @pluralsight/ps-design-system-core

Core design elements are not Components. Rather they are represented as a set of variables.

Step 2: Configure Core

If you write your CSS in JavaScript, no additional configuration is required. Otherwise choose how to integrate the Core variables into your CSS build process. We recommend using PostCSS.

Install any required plugins you don't have yet for PostCSS:

npm install postcss-preset-env postcss-import

Adjust your postcss.config.js to include the required plugins:

module.exports = {
  plugins: {
    'postcss-import': {},
    'postcss-preset-env': { browsers: ['Last 2 versions', 'IE >= 11'] }
  }
}

See the CSS Configuration section for other CSS config options if the above doesn't apply.

For usage details, see the Core Usage docs.

Use Components

glamor needs to be installed exactly once per application that uses these components:

npm install glamor

All components support theming and have a peer dependency on the Theme package. Install with:

npm install @pluralsight/ps-design-system-theme

Each component is installed separately. The JavaScript is prebuilt Node modules. Assets are inlined. Find and use what you need. For example:

npm install @pluralsight/ps-design-system-button

See individual component pages for usage examples.

For full, working project examples, see Github.

CSS Configuration

PostCSS

To setup your own PostCSS config to consume the CSSNext variables, you'll want install the needed dependencies for PostCSS:

npm install postcss-import postcss-preset-env

Then adjust your postcss.config.js to include those plugins:

module.exports = {
  plugins: {
    'postcss-import': {},
    'postcss-preset-env': { browsers: ['Last 2 versions', 'IE >= 11'] }
  }
}

If you use Webpack for loading CSS, you'll also need to install your loaders:

npm install style-loader css-loader postcss-loader cssnano

And add a module.rule to your webpack.config.js:

module: {
  rules: [
    {
      test: /\.module\.css\$/,
      include: [
        require('path').resolve(
          path.join('node_modules', '@pluralsight', 'ps-design-system-core')
        )
      ],
      use: ['style-loader', 'css-loader', 'postcss-loader']
    }
  ]
}

Sass

Sass variables are available, generated from the source variables. To use Sass, installed the required build tools, such as:

npm install node-sass

If you use Webpack for loading CSS, you'll also need to install your loaders:

npm install style-loader css-loader sass-loader

And add a module.rule to your webpack.config.js:

module: {
  rules: [
    {
      test: /\.module\.css\$/,
      include: [
        require('path').resolve(
          path.join('node_modules', '@pluralsight', 'ps-design-system-core')
        )
      ],
      use: ['style-loader', 'css-loader', 'sass-loader']
    }
  ]
}

Next.js

To avoid flashes of unstyled content when doing SSR with next.js the following is necessary:

Add glamor/server to the \_document.js:

npm install glamor
import Document, { Html, Head, Main, NextScript } from 'next/document'
import { renderStatic } from 'glamor/server'
class MyDocument extends Document {
  static async getInitialProps(ctx) {
    const page = ctx.renderPage()
    const styles = renderStatic(() => page.html || page.errorHtml)
    const initialProps = await Document.getInitialProps(ctx)
    return { ...initialProps, ...page, ...styles }
  }
  constructor(props) {
    super(props)
    const { __NEXT_DATA__, ids } = props
    if (ids) {
      __NEXT_DATA__.ids = this.props.ids
    }
  }
  render() {
    return (
      <Html lang="en-US">
        <Head>
          <style dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: this.props.css }} />
        </Head>
        <body>
          <Main />
          <NextScript />
        </body>
      </Html>
    )
  }
}
export default MyDocument

In next.config.js directly adjust postCSS configuration like so:

npm install @pluralsight/ps-design-system-core
Note
css variables consumed by app need to be added to import from field.
const postcssPresetEnv = require('postcss-preset-env')
module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    require('postcss-import')(),
    postcssPresetEnv({
      stage: 2,
      features: {
        'nesting-rules': true
      },
      browsers: ['Last 2 versions', 'IE >= 11'],
      importFrom: [
        './node_modules/@pluralsight/ps-design-system-core/css/colors.module.css',
        './node_modules/@pluralsight/ps-design-system-core/css/type.module.css',
        './node_modules/@pluralsight/ps-design-system-core/css/colors-2020.module.css'
      ]
    })
  ]
}

Import Vanilla CSS

Vanilla CSS utility classes are available, generated from the source variables. Use of these utility classes is not recommended for most applications. The up side is that no build is technically necessary.

Configuration examples

See the examples on Github for config in project context.

See the core usage docs for usage syntax details.

Core Usage

After, installation, use Core in the flavor of your choice. JavaScript or CSSNext is recommended.

Import JavaScript

import * as core from '@pluralsight/ps-design-system-core'
;<button style={{ backgroundColor: core.colorsOrange[6] }}>Click</button>

Import CSSNext

To use the Core variables in CSSNext:

@import '@pluralsight/ps-design-system-core';


.mySelector {
  color: var(--psColorsPink);
}

Import SASS

To use the Core variables in SASS:

@import '[email protected]/ps-design-system-core/dist/index.module.scss';


.mySelector {
  color: $ps-colors-pink-base;
}

Import Vanilla CSS

In vanilla CSS, variables are not yet widely supported. Instead utility classes, generated from the original variables, are available. Include the vanilla CSS stylesheet via traditional means:

<link
  rel="stylesheet"
  href="node_modules/@pluralsight/ps-design-system-core/dist/index.css"
/>

And apply utility classes directly to the HTML elements:

<div class="ps-colors-pink--color"></div>

Examples

See full working examples on Github.