Component‑Driven Drupal Experiences with SDC, Storybook & Canvas

Elevate your Drupal platform with a component-based design system that brings designers, developers, and content editors onto the same page. By leveraging Single Directory Components (SDC), Storybook integration, and Drupal’s new Canvas, we empower your team to build consistent, dynamic pages faster than ever. It’s a complete package that unifies your site’s design and enables visual page building, all shaped to fit your organization’s vision.

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Modern Design System, Meet Visual Editing

Traditional Drupal theming can lead to scattered code and dependency on developers for every content update. Our solution combines a modern design system with a visual page builder to eliminate those pain points.

Single-Directory Component (SDC)

We utilize SDC (a Drupal 10+ feature that organizes all component files in one folder) to create a single source of truth for your UI elements.

Storybook

The components are then documented and showcased in Storybook, an open-source for developing and testing UI components in isolation.

Drupal Canvas

Finally, we integrate Drupal Canvas, a new drag-and-drop page builder that allows anyone to theme and build pages through a browser interface.

Key Features & Benefits

Design once, reuse everywhere – that’s the philosophy of our component-driven approach. By investing in a robust component library now, you save countless hours down the road and ensure every part of your site adheres to your brand and quality standards.

Single Directory Components (SDC)

All template, style, and script files for a UI component live together, making maintenance and updates straightforward. This modular architecture reduces theme complexity and creates consistency across your site (a button or banner behaves the same everywhere). SDC brings a modern component-based approach long enjoyed in other frameworks, now baked into Drupal core for maximum stability and performance.

Storybook Integration

We set up Storybook as a “living style guide” for your project. Storybook provides a sandbox where your team can view, test, and document components in isolation. Designers and QA can interact with components (buttons, cards, menus, etc.) outside the Drupal site to make sure they look and behave perfectly before going live. This leads to fewer bugs and a shared understanding of UI components. With a visual catalog of components, onboarding new team members or collaborating across teams becomes easier and more efficient.

Drupal Canvas

We incorporate the Drupal Canvas into your site. This new drag-and-drop page builder enables users without deep Drupal knowledge to visually create and edit pages right from the browser, with real-time previewdocs.acquia.com. Content creators can arrange the pre-built components (from your SDC library) into custom layouts on any page, all through an intuitive interface. No need to rely on developers for every landing page – marketing teams can compose content freely, and the system automatically applies your design system to keep everything on-brand.

Our Process from Vision to Reality

Implementing a component-based design system with a visual builder might sound complex – but our team has you covered. We follow a proven process to deliver this solution seamlessly:

Discovery & Planning

We begin by understanding your current Drupal setup, branding guidelines, and content workflow. Our experts review your existing design assets (styles, templates) and identify opportunities for component consolidation. We’ll map out which UI elements can become reusable components and plan how Storybook and Canvas will fit into your editorial process.

Component Library Development

Next, our Drupal developers create or refactor your site’s UI elements into Single Directory Components. Each component (e.g., header, slideshow, call-to-action block) is built in its own directory with Twig, CSS, JS, and YAML configs. We ensure each component is flexible (with configurable variants) so it can be reused in different contexts. Throughout this phase, we keep accessibility and performance in mind – your components won’t just be reusable, they’ll be robust and WCAG-compliant out of the box.

Storybook Setup & Documentation

As components take shape, we integrate Storybook and add all your new components to it. We write clear documentation and usage notes for each component (properties, examples, when to use them). This Storybook becomes a single source of truth for your design system – a place where developers and designers can point to the exact implementation of a component. We also leverage Storybook’s add-ons (for responsive views, accessibility checks, etc.) to ensure quality. By the end of this phase, your team has a fully browsable style guide of your site’s components, complete with live interactive examples.

Drupal Canvas Integration

Once the components are ready, we enable and configure Drupal Canvas on your site. We register all the SDC components as drag-and-drop elements within the builder interface. Our team customizes the Canvas settings to match your roles and workflows – for example, defining which components are available to editors and ensuring proper permissions. We’ll tailor the UI so that even non-technical content managers find it intuitive to assemble pages. The result is a smooth integration: your Storybook components are now directly usable inside Drupal’s page builder, with consistent output.

Training & Launch Support

A tool is only as effective as its users. We provide hands-on training sessions for your content editors, designers, and developers. Our training covers how to use the Canvas to create pages, how to utilize Storybook for referencing components, and best practices for designing within the system’s guidelines. We make sure your team is comfortable and excited about the new workflow. When everything is ready, we assist with the rollout – whether it’s launching a redesigned section of your site using the new components or migrating old content into new component-based layouts. Post-launch, our support team remains available to answer questions, perform periodic maintenance (e.g. module updates, Storybook version updates), and help you continuously optimize your design system.

Consistent & Scalable Architecture

By combining SDC and Storybook, you’re essentially getting a Drupal design system. This ensures a consistent look-and-feel across the site and makes it easy to scale. Need a new page or feature? Simply reuse and compose existing components instead of building from scratch. This reusability not only speeds up development but also reduces errors – if a component is improved, the change propagates site-wide. Your platform becomes more maintainable and future-proof, ready to adopt new features or a redesign with minimal effort.

Faster Time-to-Market

With a library of ready components and a visual builder, launching new pages or microsites becomes significantly faster. Editors can spin up pages for campaigns or events in hours, not days, using approved components. Developers, on the other hand, spend time on high-value custom features rather than trivial content updates. This parallel workflow (developers build the toolbox, editors use the toolbox) means greater productivity and quicker iterations. Your team can respond to business needs and market opportunities in a fraction of the time it used to take.

Why Choose Cheppers for Your Design System?

When you partner with us, you gain a team that not only understands the technology inside-out but also knows how to apply it to solve real business challenges. We take a solutions-focused approach – it’s not just about implementing Storybook or a new module, but about delivering a better way for your teams to work and your audience to experience content.

Innovation with Purpose

We don’t adopt tech for tech’s sake. Every component we build and tool we integrate is chosen to drive your goals – be it improving site speed, boosting conversions, or simplifying content updates. Our team evaluates how SDC, Storybook, and Canvas can specifically benefit you, and we craft a solution that fits your environment.

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Innovation with Purpose

Collaborative Partnership

Just as components work together, we believe in working closely with you. Our process is transparent and iterative. You’ll see early demos of components in Storybook, test out the page builder in a staging environment, and provide input throughout. This guarantees the final system feels unique for your organization. We listen to your editors and developers to fine-tune the experience so everyone is on board and excited.

Quality and Support

Cheppers’ specialists are Acquia Certified and have implemented Drupal solutions for enterprises, universities, and nonprofits worldwide. Quality is at the core of our delivery – from clean code for each component to rigorous testing of the drag-and-drop functionality. After deployment, we don’t disappear – we offer ongoing support plans (just as we do for our Drupal Support & Maintenance clients) to keep your platform secure, up-to-date, and continuously improving. In short, we’ve got your back for the long haul.

Ready to Transform Your Drupal Workflow?

Your journey to a more efficient, scalable, and user-friendly Drupal site starts here. Imagine in the next few weeks having a central library of components, a beautiful style guide, and an editor experience that feels like a modern app – that’s what we’re offering to build with you.

Reach out to us today to discuss how we can implement a component-driven solution for your organization. Whether you’re planning a full redesign or just want to modernize your current site’s workflow, we’re here to help you make it real. Let’s create a Drupal experience that your team and your audience will love.

Let’s start building the future of your Drupal site, together!

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