This is a template for building a Shopify app using Ruby on Rails and React. It contains the basics for building a Shopify app.

Rather than cloning this repo, you can use your preferred package manager and the Shopify CLI with these steps.

Shopify apps are built on a variety of Shopify tools to create a great merchant experience. The create an app tutorial in our developer documentation will guide you through creating a Shopify app using this template.

The Ruby app template comes with the following out-of-the-box functionality:

• OAuth: Installing the app and granting permissions
• GraphQL Admin API: Querying or mutating Shopify admin data
• REST Admin API: Resource classes to interact with the API
• Shopify-specific tooling:
  • AppBridge
  • Polaris
  • Webhooks

These third party tools are complemented by Shopify specific tools to ease app development:

This template combines a number of third party open source tools:

• Rails builds the backend.
• Vite builds the React frontend.
• React Router is used for routing. We wrap this with file-based routing.
• React Query queries the Admin API.
• i18next and related libraries are used to internationalize the frontend.
  • react-i18next is used for React-specific i18n functionality.
  • i18next-resources-to-backend is used to dynamically load app translations.
  • @formatjs/intl-localematcher is used to match the user locale with supported app locales.
  • @formatjs/intl-locale is used as a polyfill for Intl.Locale if necessary.
  • @formatjs/intl-pluralrules is used as a polyfill for Intl.PluralRules if necessary.

1. You must create a Shopify partner account if you don’t have one.
2. You must create a store for testing if you don't have one, either a development store or a Shopify Plus sandbox store.
3. You must have Ruby installed.
4. You must have Bundler installed.
5. You must have Node.js installed.

This template runs on Shopify CLI 3.0, which is a node package that can be included in projects. You can install it using your preferred Node.js package manager:

Using yarn:

yarn create @shopify/app --template=ruby

Using npx:

npm init @shopify/app@latest -- --template=ruby

Using pnpm:

pnpm create @shopify/app@latest --template=ruby

This will clone the template and install the CLI in that project.

Once the Shopify CLI clones the repo, you will be able to run commands on your app. However, the CLI will not manage your Ruby dependencies automatically, so you will need to go through some steps to be able to run your app. To make the process easier, the template provides a script to run the necessary steps:

1. Start off by switching to the web folder:

   cd web

2. Install the ruby dependencies:

   bundle install

3. Run the Rails template script. It will guide you through setting up your database and set up the necessary keys for encrypted credentials.

   bin/rails app:template LOCATION=./template.rb

And your Rails app is ready to run! You can now switch back to your app's root folder to continue:

cd ..

The Shopify CLI connects to an app in your Partners dashboard. It provides environment variables, runs commands in parallel, and updates application URLs for easier development.

You can develop locally using your preferred Node.js package manager. Run one of the following commands from the root of your app:

Using yarn:

yarn dev

Using npm:

npm run dev

Using pnpm:

pnpm run dev

Open the URL generated in your console. Once you grant permission to the app, you can start development.

This template uses Rails' ActiveRecord framework to store Shopify session data. It provides migrations to create the necessary tables in your database, and it stores and loads session data from them.

The database that works best for you depends on the data your app needs and how it is queried. You can run your database of choice on a server yourself or host it with a SaaS company. Once you decide which database to use, you can configure your app to connect to it, and this template will start using that database for session storage.

The frontend is a single page React app. It requires the SHOPIFY_API_KEY environment variable, which you can get by running yarn run info --web-env. The CLI will set up the necessary environment variables for the build if you run its build command from your app's root:

Using yarn in your app's root folder:

yarn build --api-key=REPLACE_ME

Using npm:

npm run build -- --api-key=REPLACE_ME

Using pnpm:

pnpm run build --api-key=REPLACE_ME

The app build command will build both the frontend and backend when running as above. If you're manually building (for instance when deploying the web folder to production), you'll need to build both of them:

cd web/frontend
SHOPIFY_API_KEY=REPLACE_ME yarn build
cd ..
rake build:all

You can use the ShopifyAPI gem to start make authenticated Shopify API calls.

• Make a GraphQL Admin API call
• Make a GraphQL Storefront API call
• Make a Rest Admin API call

Examples from this app template:

• Making Admin GraphQL API request to create products:
  • ProductCreator#create (web/app/services/product_creator.rb)
• Making Admin Rest API request to count products:
  • ProductsController#count (web/app/controllers/products_controller.rb)

When you're ready to set up your app in production, you can follow our deployment documentation to host your app on a cloud provider like Heroku or Fly.io.

When you reach the step for setting up environment variables, you also need to set the following variables:

When running the app with the CLI in development mode on Firefox, you might see your app constantly reloading when you access it. That happened in previous versions of the CLI, because of the way HMR websocket requests work.

We fixed this issue with v3.4.0 of the CLI, so after updating it, you can make the following changes to your app's web/frontend/vite.config.js file:

1. Change the definition hmrConfig object to be:

   const host = process.env.HOST
     ? process.env.HOST.replace(/https?:\/\//, "")
     : "localhost";
   
   let hmrConfig;
   if (host === "localhost") {
     hmrConfig = {
       protocol: "ws",
       host: "localhost",
       port: 64999,
       clientPort: 64999,
     };
   } else {
     hmrConfig = {
       protocol: "wss",
       host: host,
       port: process.env.FRONTEND_PORT,
       clientPort: 443,
     };
   }

2. Change the server.host setting in the configs to "localhost":

   server: {
     host: "localhost",
     ...

When you’re previewing your app or extension, you might see an ngrok interstitial page with a warning:

You are about to visit <id>.ngrok.io: Visit Site

If you click the Visit Site button, but continue to see this page, then you should run dev using an alternate tunnel URL that you run using tunneling software. We've validated that Cloudflare Tunnel works with this template.

To do that, you can install the cloudflared CLI tool, and run:

# Note that you can also use a different port
cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:3000

In a different terminal window, navigate to your app's root and call:

# Using yarn
yarn dev --tunnel-url https://tunnel-url:3000
# or using npm
npm run dev --tunnel-url https://tunnel-url:3000
# or using pnpm
pnpm dev --tunnel-url https://tunnel-url:3000

• Ensure you're using the latest shopify_app gem that uses Session Tokens instead of cookies.
  • See "My app is still using cookies to authenticate"
• Ensure shopify.app.toml is present and contains up to date information for the app's redirect URLS. To reset/update this config, run

Using yarn:

yarn dev --reset

Using npm:

npm run dev -- --reset

Using pnpm:

pnpm run dev --reset

• Introduction to Shopify apps
• App authentication
• Shopify CLI
• Shopify API Library documentation
• Shopify App Gem
• Getting started with internationalizing your app
  • i18next
    • Configuration options
  • react-i18next
    • useTranslation hook
    • Trans component usage with components array
  • i18n-ally VS Code extension