Shopify Getting started with Shopify Local theme setup

Example

There are a few ways to setup a local copy of your Shopify theme:

• Node.js ( gulp/grunt )
• Ruby
• Theme App ( Mac only )

There might be a few other ways, but I found the ruby way the most easy to work with.

In order to work locally on the Shopify theme files you will need a few things:

• Ruby installer ( http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/ )
• Development-Kit ( http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/ )
• SSL Certificate - ( https://curl.haxx.se/ca/cacert.pem )
• Shopify Theme Gem - ( https://rubygems.org/gems/shopify_theme/versions/0.0.25 )

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Ruby installer

The first thing is to install the Ruby installer, use the latest version.

The installation process is straight forward, but it will ask you to add Ruby to the Windows Environment Global Path and you should click the checkbox and add it there, so that you don't have to manually do it so afterwards.

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Development-Kit

You should choose the correct version of the DevKit that goes with the Ruby installer you added.

The installation process is easy as well.

1. You unzip the file in C:\DevKit for example
2. You cmd in that folder and write ruby dk.rb init which should create a config.yml in the filder
3. If you open the config.yml file you should see at the bottom - C:/Ruby23-x64 ( depending where you installer your Ruby and what version is ) if it's not there you must add it manually
4. At the same folder afterwards you run the following ruby dk.rb install
5. If everything is OK you should be able to run the following command - gem install json --platform=ruby that will confirm that your Ruby installation is working

More detailed instructions can be seen here as well: https://github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller/wiki/Development-Kit

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SSL Certificate

You will need to add the cacert.pem file to your window global variables.

1. You have to download the following file: https://curl.haxx.se/ca/cacert.pem ( save it as .pem and not as .pem.txt )
2. You have to enter your Environment Variables screen and under System variables click New
3. For Variable name you enter SSL_CERT_FILE and for variable value you enter the path to the file, for example C:\RailsInstaller\cacert.pem.

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Shopify Theme Gem

Open your cmd and enter the following code: gem install shopify_theme

This should install the the Shopify theme gem that we will need.

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If you went trough all of the above steps once, you won't be doing them any more.

Now comes that steps that you will have to do every time you start a new Shopify Project:

• Create a Private App ( from the Shopify Store )
• Create a config file using the Private App information

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Create a Private App

You must login to your Shopify store admin panel and go to the App screen -> Private app:

https://YOUR-STORE-NAME.myshopify.com/admin/apps/private

And click the button Create private app.

It will ask you for a title. ( enter what ever you like )

The important part is to change all of the permissions to Read and write

Once you change the permissions and save the App it will redirect you to a page from which you will get the API Key and Password for this App. ( you need those for the config file we will create below)

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Create a config file

Go to a local folder where you like the theme files to be in and cmd inside.

Write the following command:

theme configure API-KEY PASSWORD DOMAIN ID

Where:

• API key - is taken from them Private app we created
• Password - is taken from them Private app we created
• Domain - this is your domain YOUR-STORE-NAME.myshopify.com, without https:// before it
• ID - this is the theme ID, if you are going to work on the live theme, you can skip this, but if you are working on a cloned them then you will have to enter the Theme ID here

Once you run the above code it should create a file called config.yml where all the provided information will be present.

Now you should cmd ( in case you closed the console ) in the folder where the config.yml is and you write the following code: theme download which should start downloading the files one by one.

Once you complete the download process you write theme watch and every time you modify the downloaded files it will update the files in the Shopify store after 1-2 sec as well. This is true if you add files as well, but not when you delete files.

More detailed information for the Gem can be found here: https://github.com/Shopify/shopify_theme