Of course there might be cases where we don't want this, especially on production sites, so having Pattern Lab in the Drupal theme folder should always be optional.
And it is always possible to have a separate web server configuration for Pattern Lab.
The URL might not be pretty, but knowing that your theme's pattern library is always there with your theme brings a nice, warm feeling. This is not necessary but does help in creating a strong mental association between the Drupal theme and Pattern Lab.Īn added bonus in having a Pattern Lab instance in the theme folder is that we have a way to access Pattern Lab through the Drupal installation. So how does Drupal theme development fit in? How can we integrate atomic design and Pattern Lab with Drupal theme development? Can we achieve the Holy Grail of keeping the pattern library in sync with our Drupal theme? Come togetherĪs a first step we can place Pattern Lab in the Drupal theme folder. The philosophy of Pattern Lab is to reduce dependencies and keep things simple. The Holy GrailĪtomic design is both platform and tool agnostic and Pattern Lab is a static site generator. After making the choice to use atomic design and Pattern Lab in a real world Drupal 8 project and seeing the methodology validated, I have wanted to design and build all websites in this way. When presented with something that almost instantly seems obvious, you don't need much more convincing.
