README
Slater
A Shopify development toolkit.
This project is an active work in progress! The CLI is stable, but the theme itself is not.
Want to help? We'd love to have you. Ideas, feedback, critiques 👉 shoot us an Issue.
Install
npm i slater -g
Features
- asset pipeline via Webpack, Babel, PostCSS/SASS
- built-in deployment tool
- live reloading
- simple config
- easy integration into existing themes
- starter theme (WIP)
Table of Contents
- Quick Start
- Usage
- Command Line
- Deployment
- Live Reloading
- Guides and Tutorials
- Slater in the Wild
- Contributors
- License
Quick Start
The easist way to get started with Slater is slater init
. init
outputs a
default folder structure into the directory of your choice.
slater init <root>
Don't forget to install the dependencies.
npm install
You'll need to define one or more themes in the provided slater.config.js
file
to deploy to, similar to a standard Shopify config.yml
file.
module.exports = {
themes: {
development: {
id: '12345...',
password: 'abcde...',
store: 'store-name.myshopify.com',
ignore: [
'settings_data.json'
]
}
}
}
Then, from the project root:
slater watch
And that's it! Slater will watch your local theme for changes and sync them to your remote site when they update 🎉.
Usage
Slater makes some assumptions out of the box, but it can be easily customized to fit most existing projects.
Themes
Slater projects require themes to be defined in the
slater.config.js
.
By default it looks for a theme called development
:
module.exports = {
themes: {
development: { ... }
}
}
You can call it whatever you want though.
module.exports = {
themes: {
dev: { ... }
}
}
Just be sure to specify your theme name on the CLI:
slater build --theme dev
You can also define as many themes as you like. Use these for a production theme, staging, or whatever you like.
module.exports = {
themes: {
dev: { ... },
test: { ... },
live: { ... }
}
}
Directory Structure
All theme files should be located within a single source directory. By default,
Slater looks for a /src
directory in your project root.
To adjust this, specify an in
prop on your config:
module.exports = {
in: '/source'
}
Files within this directory will be built and copied to /build
in
your project root, and then synced to your remote theme.
To adjust your local build directory, specify an out
prop on your config:
module.exports = {
out: '/dist'
}
Assets
Slater uses Webpack internally to compile a single JavaScript entry point. By
default, it looks for /src/scripts/index.js
.
You can specify a different entry point using the assets
object on your
config:
module.exports = {
assets: {
in: '/source/scripts/index.js'
}
}
Slater uses PostCSS by default. It's configured to allow SASS-like nesting, in addition to all modern CSS goodies.
To compile your styles, simply import your root stylesheet into your JavaScript entrypoint:
import '../styles.css'
// rest of your project scripts
You can also use SASS. Simple specify the sass
preset in your assets config:
module.exports = {
assets: {
presets: [
'sass'
]
}
}
Alias & Env
To make your JavaScript a little easier to work with, Slater supports alias definitions and environment variables.
module.exports = {
alias: {
components: './src/scripts/components'
},
env: {
API_KEY: 'abcde...'
}
}
Which you can then use in your JavaScript like this:
import api from 'components/api.js'
const fetcher = api({
key: API_KEY
})
For convenience, there's also a built-in alias @
that points to the directory
containing your JavaScript entry point.
Keep in mind, these environment variables are public, so don't use them for any secret keys, passwords, or any value that you need to keep private!
Command Line
watch
Watches for file changes and syncs updates to your specified theme.
slater watch
build
Compiles assets and copies all files from the config.in
directory to the
config.out
directory.
slater build
sync
Sync local files or directories to your remote theme. A direct interface to
[@slater/sync], which @slater/cli
uses internally.
slater sync build/snippets/hero.liquid # file
slater sync build/snippets # directory
slater sync # defaults to config.out
Options
Any of the core commands can be combined with the following options:
--config <path>
- specify the path to your config file--theme <name>
- specify a named theme from your config file
Deployment
To deploy a theme, combine the above commands as needed:
slater build && slater sync --theme production
Live-reloading & HTTPS
slater
uses an local SSL certification to correspond with Shopify's HTTPS
hosted themes. To take advantage of live-reloading, you need to create a
security exception for the slater
cert (this is safe). To do this, load
https://localhost:3000 in your browser, and follow
the instructions for adding an exception. If it works, you should see this in
your browser window:
slater running
Guides
Adding Slater to any existing Theme
In the Wild
The following sites were built using some version of Slater. Send us a PR to add to this list!
Contributors
Eric Bailey |
Kevin Green |
License
MIT License © The Couch