Vortex - Blogs built faster than Lewis Hamilton Drives

Tejas Ravishankar — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 15:40:07 +0000

Vortex is an open-source library that allows you to build themeable, modular and responsive blogs with just a few lines of code!

Let's build a cool blog with Vortex!

Step 1: Install & Import Vortex

Inside your React project directory, install Vortex by running either of the following:

npm i @hydralite/vortex
# or
yarn add @hydralite/vortex
# or
pnpm i @hydralite/vortex

Now that we've installed Vortex, let's import it.

We can do so by importing the Blog component directly from the Vortex library and it's stylesheet.

import "@hydralite/vortex/dist/style.css";
import Blog from "@hydralite/vortex";

Step 2: Initializing Our Blog Component

import "@hydralite/vortex/dist/style.css";
import Blog from "@hydralite/vortex";

function App() {
  return (
    <div>
      <Blog />
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

From now onwards, we'll be focusing primarily on the Blog component for readability purposes.

Step 3: Choose a layout

The first step to building your blog is to choose a layout. There are 3 in-built layouts bundled-in with Vortex.

To understand more about each layout, check out the layout guide.

For now, we'll be choosing the default layout.

<Blog
    {/* You can also use Hashnode or DevTO instead  */}
    layout = "Default"
/>

Step 4: Add some content

It's time to add some content to our blog!

Vortex supports markdown content, so let's give it some to display!

const content = `
Everything's supported - a [link](https://example.com), some \`inline\` content, **bold** text, <ins>underlined text</ins>, and even a codeblock with syntax highlighting:

You can specify the language of the codeblock after the backticks (which need to be escaped).
\`\`\`js
console.log("Here's some JavaScript code!");
console.log("it works inside the codeblock!");
\`\`\`

### Images
![image](https://images.ctfassets.net/hrltx12pl8hq/7JnR6tVVwDyUM8Cbci3GtJ/bf74366cff2ba271471725d0b0ef418c/shutterstock_376532611-og.jpg)

### Tweet Embeds

Below is a tweet embed:
[tweet](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1470157804304572420?s=20)

### GitHub Gist Embeds

Here's a GitHub gist:
[gist](https://gist.github.com/getify/2b53198906d320abe650)

### CodePen Embeds
[codepen embed](https://codepen.io/alvaromontoro/pen/vYexLGV)
`;

Now that we've written up some content - let's pass it into the blog!

<Blog layout="Default" content={content} />

Step 5: Add headers

It's time to spice up our blog with a banner, a title, a subtitle, and maybe even a category!

<Blog
  layout="Default"
  content={content}
  header={{
    title: "Here is my title",
    subtitle: "Here's a subtitle",
    image: {
      src: "https://images.pexels.com/photos/10437856/pexels-photo-10437856.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&fit=crop&fp-y=0.53&h=500&sharp=20&w=1400",
      borderRadius: "20px",
    },
    category: {
      title: "Development & Testing",
    },
  }}
/>

Step 6: Insert metadata

Let's insert some metadata into our article, like the author, and the date when it was published!

<Blog
    layout = "Default"
    content = {content}
    header = {{...}}
    author = {{
            name: 'Look! It\'s me!',
            avatar: 'https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/63039748?v=4'
    }}
    date = '12 December, 2021'
/>

Step 7: Add reactions

For more details on this step, check out our reactions guide.

<Blog
    layout = "Default"
    content = {content}
    header = {{...}}
    author = {{
            name: 'Look! It\'s me!',
            avatar: 'https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/63039748?v=4'
    }}
    date = '12 December, 2021'
    reactions = {{
        onClick: () => {},
        reactions: [
            {
                name: 'Heart',
                emote: '❤',
                upvotes: 2
            },
            {
                name: 'Thumbs Up',
                emote: '👍',
                upvotes: 10
            }
        ]
    }}
/>

Step 8: Make it your own

To finish up, let's customize your blog! Follow the customization and themes documentation for more information.

We need your help

What do you think about Vortex? Do let me know, I'm curious and would love your feedback!

If you'd like to support us, an upvote at our Product Hunt page and a star on our GitHub repository would be incredible.

DEV Community: Tejas Ravishankar