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Tutorial

Quickly learn how to create a login page using Joy UI components.

In this small tutorial, you'll learn how to:

  1. Import Joy UI components.
  2. Build a basic login page with them.
  3. Toggle light and dark mode.

The only prerequesite is having Joy UI installed.

Building the login page

1. Creating the basic layout

To create the structure for the login page, we'll use the Sheet component, which is simply an HTML div that supports the global variant feature.

Try playing around with different variant values to see how they look like. You can use solid, soft, outlined, or plain.

import { CssVarsProvider } from '@mui/joy/styles';
import Sheet from '@mui/joy/Sheet';

function App() {
  return (
    <CssVarsProvider>
      <Sheet variant="outlined">Welcome!</Sheet>
    </CssVarsProvider>
  );
}

export default App;

2. Using the sx prop for quick styling

Every Joy UI component accepts the sx prop, which allows a shorthand syntax for writing CSS. It's great for creating one-off customizations or rapidly experimenting with different styles.

<Sheet
  sx={{
    maxWidth: 400,
    mx: 'auto', // margin left & right
    my: 4, // margin top & botom
    py: 3, // padding top & bottom
    px: 2, // padding left & right
    display: 'flex',
    flexDirection: 'column',
    gap: 2,
    borderRadius: 'sm',
    boxShadow: 'md',
  }}
>
  Welcome!
</Sheet>

Don't worry if you're confused about the sx prop's syntax at this moment. You'll get the hang of it as you use it more. Check the MUI System's documentation to learn more about its foundation.

3. Using Typography to create a welcome text

The Typography component supports the level prop, allowing you to choose between a pre-defined scale of typography values. Joy UI provides 13 typography levels out of the box: display 1 | display 2 | h1 | h2 | h3 | h4 | h5 | h6 | body1 | body2 | body3 | body4 | body5.

You can also change which HTML tag gets rendered in each Typography component using the component prop.

// ...other imports
import Typography from '@mui/joy/Typography';

<Sheet
  sx={...}
>
  <div>
    <Typography level="h4" component="h1">
      <b>Welcome!</b>
    </Typography>
    <Typography level="body2">Sign in to continue</Typography>
  </div>
</Sheet>;

4. Using TextField to create user name and password inputs

The TextField component is made of the FormLabel, Input and FormHelperText components.

// ...other imports
import TextField from '@mui/joy/TextField';

<Sheet
  sx={
    {
      // ...
    }
  }
>
  ...typography
  <TextField
    // html input attribute
    name="email"
    type="email"
    placeholder="johndoe@email.com"
    // pass down to FormLabel as children
    label="Email"
  />
  <TextField
    name="password"
    type="password"
    placeholder="password"
    label="Password"
  />
</Sheet>;

The Button component has solid and primary as its default variant and color, respectively. Play around with changing their values to see how each variant differs from one another. Try plain, outlined, or soft.

We'll also use a Link component inside the endDecorator prop of the Typography component to pull off the sign up anchor link.

// ...other imports
import Button from '@mui/joy/Button';
import Link from '@mui/joy/Link';

<Sheet
  sx={
    {
      // ...
    }
  }
>
  ...typography and text-fields
  <Button
    sx={{
      mt: 1, // margin top
    }}
  >
    Log in
  </Button>
  <Typography
    endDecorator={<Link href="/sign-up">Sign up</Link>}
    fontSize="sm"
    sx={{ alignSelf: 'center' }}
  >
    Don't have an account?
  </Typography>
</Sheet>;

🎁 Bonus: Setting up dark mode

Joy UI provides an effortless way to toggle between modes by using the React hook useColorScheme. All you need to do is create a component that uses the hook and then render it under the CssVarsProvider component.

import React from 'react';
import { CssVarsProvider, useColorScheme } from '@mui/joy/styles';
// ...other imports

const ModeToggle = () => {
  const { mode, setMode } = useColorScheme();
  const [mounted, setMounted] = React.useState(false);

  // necessary for server-side rendering
  // because mode is undefined on the server
  React.useEffect(() => {
    setMounted(true);
  }, []);
  if (!mounted) {
    return null;
  }

  return (
    <Button
      variant="outlined"
      onClick={() => {
        if (mode === 'light') {
          setMode('dark');
        } else {
          setMode('light');
        }
      }}
    >
      {mode === 'light' ? 'Turn dark' : 'Turn light'}
    </Button>
  );
};

export default function App() {
  return (
    <CssVarsProvider>
      <ModeToggle />
      <Sheet>...</Sheet>
    </CssVarsProvider>
  );
}

Congratulations 🎉! You've built your first good looking UI with Joy UI!