How do you document and share web components with other developers and teams?

1 Custom Elements

Custom elements are the core feature of web components, as they allow you to define new HTML tags with custom behavior and style. You can use the customElements API to register and create custom elements, and use them in your HTML markup like any other element. To document and share custom elements, you need to provide some information about their attributes, properties, methods, events, and slots. You can use tools like Web Component Analyzer or Storybook to generate documentation and interactive demos for your custom elements.

2 Shadow DOM

Shadow DOM is a feature that lets you create a separate DOM tree for your custom element, which is isolated from the main document. This means you can encapsulate your element's style and content, and avoid conflicts with other styles and scripts. Shadow DOM also enables you to use slots, which are placeholders for inserting external content into your element. To document and share shadow DOM elements, you need to explain how to use slots, and how to access and style the shadow root and its nodes.

3 Templates and Clones

Templates and clones are a design pattern that lets you create and reuse multiple instances of a custom element, without having to register each one separately. You can use the <template> tag to define a template for your element, and use the cloneNode method to create copies of it. You can then customize each clone with different attributes and content, and append them to the document. To document and share templates and clones, you need to show how to create and modify clones, and how to use template literals and attributes to pass data to them.

4 Modules and Imports

Modules and imports are a design pattern that lets you organize and load your web components code in a modular way. You can use the <script type="module"> tag to create a JavaScript module, which is a file that can export and import variables, functions, classes, and other values. You can then use the import statement to load your web components code from other modules, or use the dynamic import() function to load them on demand. To document and share modules and imports, you need to explain how to structure and name your modules, and how to use relative and absolute paths to import them.