and though bugs are the bane of my existence, rest assured the wretched thing will get the best of care here

Icons and SVG Illustrations

We manage our own icon and illustration library in the gitlab-svgs repository. This repository is published on npm, and is managed as a dependency with yarn. You can browse all available icons and illustrations. To upgrade to a new version run yarn upgrade @gitlab/svgs.

Icons

We are using SVG Icons in GitLab with a SVG Sprite. This means the icons are only loaded once, and are referenced through an ID. The sprite SVG is located under /assets/icons.svg.

Usage in HAML/Rails

To use a sprite Icon in HAML or Rails we use a specific helper function:

sprite_icon(icon_name, size: nil, css_class: '')
  • icon_name: Use the icon_name for the SVG sprite in the list of (GitLab SVGs).
  • size (optional): Use one of the following sizes : 16, 24, 32, 48, 72 (this is translated into a s16 class)
  • css_class (optional): If you want to add additional CSS classes.

Example

= sprite_icon('issues', size: 72, css_class: 'icon-danger')

Output from example above

<svg class="s72 icon-danger">
  <use xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="/assets/icons.svg#issues"></use>
</svg>

Usage in Vue

GitLab UI, our components library, provides a component to display sprite icons.

Sample usage :

<script>
import { GlIcon } from "@gitlab/ui";

export default {
  components: {
    GlIcon,
  },
};
<script>

<template>
  <gl-icon
    name="issues"
    :size="24"
    class="class-name"
  />
</template>
  • name: Name of the icon of the SVG sprite, as listed in the (GitLab SVG Previewer).
  • size: (optional) Number value for the size which is then mapped to a specific CSS class (Available sizes: 8, 12, 16, 18, 24, 32, 48, 72 are mapped to sXX CSS classes)
  • class (optional): Additional CSS classes to add to the SVG tag.

Usage in HTML/JS

Please use the following function inside JS to render an icon: gl.utils.spriteIcon(iconName)

Loading icon

Usage in HAML/Rails

To insert a loading spinner in HAML or Rails use the loading_icon helper:

= loading_icon

You can include one or more of the following properties with the loading_icon helper, as demonstrated by the examples that follow:

  • container (optional): wraps the loading icon in a container, which centers the loading icon using the text-center CSS property.
  • color (optional): either orange (default), light, or dark.
  • size (optional): either sm (default), md, lg, or xl.
  • css_class (optional): defaults to an empty string, but can be used for utility classes to fine-tune alignment or spacing.

Example 1:

The following HAML expression generates a loading icon’s markup and centers the icon by wrapping it in a gl-spinner-container element.

= loading_icon(container: true)

Output from example 1:

<div class="gl-spinner-container">
  <span class="gl-spinner gl-spinner-orange gl-spinner-sm" aria-label="Loading"></span>
</div>

Example 2:

The following HAML expression generates a loading icon’s markup with a custom size. It also appends a margin utility class.

= loading_icon(size: 'lg', css_class: 'gl-mr-2')

Output from example 2:

<span class="gl-spinner gl-spinner-orange gl-spinner-lg gl-mr-2" aria-label="Loading"></span>

Usage in Vue

The GitLab UI components library provides a GlLoadingIcon component. See the component’s storybook for more information about its usage.

Example:

The following code snippet demonstrates how to use GlLoadingIcon in a Vue component.

<script>
import { GlLoadingIcon } from "@gitlab/ui";

export default {
  components: {
    GlLoadingIcon,
  },
};
<script>

<template>
  <gl-loading-icon inline />
</template>

SVG Illustrations

From now on, use img tags to display any SVG based illustrations with either image_tag or image_path helpers. Using the class svg-content around it ensures nice rendering.

Usage in HAML/Rails

Example

.svg-content
  = image_tag 'illustrations/merge_requests.svg'

Usage in Vue

To use an SVG illustrations in a template provide the path as a property and display it through a standard img tag.

Component:

<script>
export default {
  props: {
    svgIllustrationPath: {
      type: String,
      required: true,
    },
  },
};
<script>

<template>
  <img :src="svgIllustrationPath" />
</template>