Dan Edwards

Astrum - A lightweight pattern library for any web project

Add a comment

Replies

Best
Dan Edwards
Hey guys! We're really excited to launch Astrum today! Astrum is a lightweight pattern library designed to be included with any web project. It’s open-source, released under MIT license, so we hope you’ll take it out for a spin and let us know what you think. Any questions feel free to pop them here and myself @ryanhavoc or @mattantwest will answer them :)
Pete Heslop
Hey Dan! I've been following your and ND's since you're offscreen article. For someone who isn't a Front End dev - could you give us a ELI5? Cheers!
Ryan Taylor
@pwheslop Hey, I'll answer on Dan's behalf. So I guess you could think of it like the front-end equivalent of branding guidelines. So as front-end dev's we'd break down a design into reusable chunks of markup/code e.g. different button styles, different navigation styles etc etc. Those all then go into the pattern library (Astrum) for reference by other developers, the designers to ensure consistence and it also acts as documentation for the project. It's particularly beneficial when multiple developers are working on a project and/or when a project is going to be passed around to other teams. In the long term it can reduce future development time because you can review and use your reusable components, documented in the pattern library, rather than dissecting existing templates or worse reinventing the wheel and build the same thing again from scratch.
Dan Edwards
@pwheslop Ryan answered this much better than I could ;) But thanks for the kind words and following along for the ride :)
San
This is exactly what I've been looking for! Thank you so much!
Ryan Taylor
@ambrium You're welcome. :-)
P.E. Butler III
Will be using this for sure!
Ryan Taylor
@pebutler3 Awesome! Let us know how you get on. :-)
Ramiro Saenz
Really cool! Great work.
Dan Edwards
@saenzramiro Thanks Ramiro 🤓
SSS
I am the only one who think this adds additional complexity to web project? While working I am looking for speed, this doesn't speed up my development and create additional steps for things that supposed to be fast & simple.
Ryan Taylor
@famouslabs It would depend on your workflow and how you want to approach including a pattern library. Do you use anything currently? Internally, at No Divide, we found we start building reusable code in Astrum prior to building up final templates which becomes a far more quicker process because the reusable code is already in place and tested in isolation. We also find that it helps our designer ensure that his designs remain consistent. Interested to hear where you think the slow downs would be though?
Andy Bell
Looks really really useful. Great work as always guys :)
Matt West
@4ndeh Thanks Andy!