Build Process

This build process aims to be an agnostic way to ensure modern features in our Shopify projects. It is entirely opt-in. This enables it to be dropped into an existing theme but only affect new files created in the scripts/styles folders. Any old assets wouldn't be converted to build process unless explicitly done so. This also allows one to 'opt-out' of the process during development if needed. so at any point, a file can be moved back to assets, theme.liquid file reference updated, and theme deployed to circumvent the build process.

Overview

Scripts and Styles folders

The root directory for these folders will be iterated through on build. Each file located in root will have an equitable .min file created for it in the assets folder. This separation provides the opportunity to only load the scripts and styles needed for a specific page instead of requiring all assets for the entire site at one time. For the components that need to be on every page, you can do this by creating a subdirectory in the scripts or styles folder and importing it to a tap-main.scss/tap-theme.scss/tap-index.js/tap-theme.js file in the root of the parent directory. We prefix all files in the root of the scripts and styles directories with tap- so we can ignore theme preventing merge conflicts, but not ignore vendor.min files.

The build process is possible because these are javascript and scss files, not .liquid files. Liquid in the build process files will keep it from working. If .js.liquid, .css.liquid or .scss.liquid files need to be moved over, please follow this process for sanitizing the files of liquid and referencing them in a way the build process can handle.

File Structure

Potential file structure for a project:

|-- YourProject
    |-- assets
        |-- index.min.js
        |-- my-page.min.js
        |-- product.min.js
        |-- main.min.css
        |-- my-page.min.css
        |-- product.min.css
    |-- config
    |-- layout
        | theme.liquid (references .min files in assets)
    |-- locales
    |-- scripts
        |-- components
            |-- header.js
        |-- tap-index.js (includes header.js)
        |-- tap-my-page.js
        |-- tap-product.js
    |-- snippets
    |-- styles
        |-- components
            |-- header.scss
        |-- tap-main.scss (includes header.scss)
        |-- tap-my-page.scss
        |-- tap-product.scss
    |-- templates

Essential Setup

Setup in New Project

1. Setup project (recommend Skeleton Theme)
2. Clone this repo
3. (If needed) Install bundler 2 - gem install bundler
4. Install gems - bundle install
5. Run ruby build_process_app.rb migrate [PATH_TO_PROJECT_DIR] to copy files from build-process-files to the directory of your project
6. Add tap-main.scss to styles folder (Files in root should have some prefix to avoid gitignoring .min files) (Files in root should have some prefix to avoid gitignoring .min files. Make sure to update .gitignore too.)

(Optional) 7. Add tap-index.js to scripts folder (Files in root should have some prefix to avoid gitignoring .min files) (Files in root should have some prefix to avoid gitignoring .min files. Make sure to update .gitignore too.)

Setup in Existing Project

1. Clone this repo
2. (If needed) Install bundler 2 - gem install bundler
3. Install gems - bundle install
4. Run ruby build_process_app.rb migrate [PATH_TO_PROJECT_DIR] to copy files from build-process-files to the directory of your project
5. Move to the folder of the theme you downloaded
6. Add tap-main.scss to styles folder (Files in root should have some prefix to avoid gitignoring .min files) (Files in root should have some prefix to avoid gitignoring .min files. Make sure to update .gitignore too.)

(Optional) 7. Add tap-index.js to scripts folder (Files in root should have some prefix to avoid gitignoring .min files) (Files in root should have some prefix to avoid gitignoring .min files. Make sure to update .gitignore too.)

Next Steps

1. Add snippet css-variables.liquid to snippets folder
   • This file allow us to sanitize our scss files from any liquid

Code for file:

{% comment %}

:root {
--color-body-text: {{ settings.color_body_text }};
--color-background: {{ settings.color_background_color }}
}
{% endcomment %}

<style>
  :root {
    --color-black: #000000;
    --color-white: #ffffff;
  }
</style>

2. Add snippet js-variables.liquid to snippets folder
   • This file allow us to sanitize our javascript files from any liquid

Code for file:

{% capture js_variables %}
  <script>
  Shopify = window.Shopify || {};
  {% comment %} /* # Theme settings
  ================================================== */ {% endcomment %}
  Shopify.theme_settings = {};
  {% comment %} Example: {% endcomment %}
  {% comment %} Cart 
  Shopify.theme_settings.display_tos_checkbox = {{ settings.display_tos_checkbox | json }};
  Shopify.theme_settings.go_to_checkout = {{ settings.go_to_checkout | json }};
  Shopify.theme_settings.cart_action = {{ settings.cart_action | json }};
  {% endcomment %}
  </script>
{% endcapture %}

{%- assign js_variables = js_variables | split: 'Shopify.' -%}

{%- for variable in js_variables -%}
  {%- assign variableblock = variable | strip -%}
  {% if forloop.first %}
    {{ variableblock }}
  {% else %}
    {{ variableblock | prepend: 'Shopify.' }}
  {% endif %}
{%- endfor -%}

2. Add code for css and js variables to theme.liquid in the head.

 {% include 'css-variables' %}

 {% include 'js-variables' %}

3. Run npm install (or yarn install)
4. Make sure Shopify tooling is installed

• brew tap shopify/shopify
• brew install themekit

5. Install Gulp CLI

• npm install gulp-cli -g

6. Build minified files

• npm run build

7. Include minified files in theme.liquid Replace tap with the prefix you preferred

• {{ 'tap-main.min.css' | asset_url | stylesheet_tag }}
• {{ 'tap-index.min.js' | asset_url | script_tag }}

8. Add Production store URL to cypress.json
9. See Project's README.md for next steps in setting up the project