As an ecommerce platform, Shopify is used by many businesses to create online stores. In order to make development and testing easier, it is possible to develop Shopify locally on your computer. This guide will show you how to do just that.
What You’ll Need
In order to develop Shopify locally, you will need the following:
- A text editor – we recommend Visual Studio Code
- The Shopify Theme Kit – this is used to sync your local theme files with your live Shopify store
- An understanding of HTML, CSS, and Liquid – the coding languages used to develop Shopify themes
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Step 1: Install the Shopify Theme Kit
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Open your terminal and navigate to the directory where you want to clone your theme.
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Enter the following command:
theme get --list. This will list all of the themes in your development store. -
Enter the following command:
theme get -s [store name] -t [theme ID]. Replace[store name]with the name of your development store, and replace[theme ID]with the ID of the theme that you want to clone. For example, if my development store was called “mystore” and my theme ID was “123456”, I would enter the following command:theme get -s mystore -t 123456 -
You will be prompted for your API password. Enter the password for your development store.
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The files for your theme will be downloaded into a directory called “theme”.
- Use these objects in Liquid templates to display dynamic content on storefronts. For more information about using objects in Liquid templates refer to our Shopify Liquid Objects Reference documentation.
- Editing Your Theme Files : Now that you have cloned your theme files onto your computer, you can edit them using a text editor such as Visual Studio Code. To do this, simply open the “theme” directory in your text editor.
- There are three types of files that make up a Shopify theme: layouts, templates, and assets.
- Layouts: Layouts are used to define the structure of pages in your shop. For example, if all pages in your shop have the same header and footer, you would create a layout file called “ layout.
“Liquid” and add those shared elements to that file. Then, any page that uses that layout would automatically include those shared elements. - Templates: Templates are used to display content on pages in your shop. For example, if you wanted to display a list of products on one page in your shop, you would create a template file called “products”. liquid ” and add the code needed to display those products on that page.
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Assets: Assets are files such as images, JavaScript files, and CSS files. These files are used by layouts and templates to add styling and functionality to pages in your shop. For example, if you wanted to add an image or CSS file to one of your pages, you would upload it as an asset file.
The first step is to install the Shopify Theme Kit. This is a command line tool that allows you to sync your local theme files with your live Shopify store. You can download the Theme Kit from the Shopify Developer Portal.
Step 2: Create a Development Store
In order to test your themes, you will need to create a development store. This is a temporary store that you can use for testing purposes. You can create a development store from your Shopify Partner Dashboard.
Step 3: Set Up Your Local Development Environment
Once you have installed the Theme Kit and created a development store, you are ready to set up your local development environment. To do this, you will need to clone (copy) your development store’s theme into a local directory on your computer.
Step 4: Edit Your Theme Files
Note:
Step 5: Previewing Your Changes
Once you have finished editing your theme Files you will want to preview your changes before publishing them to your live Shopify store. To do this you can use Theme Kit’s built in preview server.
