WeeklyHow - Blog

You are probably wanting to learn Shopify development because you either have a Shopify store that you want to improve or you just want to be a Shopify developer. Either way, you will do the same steps to learn Shopify development. Then you can choose whether you want to create a Shopify app or a Shopify theme. But, the question still remains... How do you actually learn Shopify development as an absolute beginner?Well, in this article, we will be talking about how to learn Shopify development in 2021 as a beginner. Watch video If you prefer watching video tutorials, you can watch the video version of this article below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPildLbYMT4 Otherwise, you can continue by reading my guide below. Getting started In order for you to be able to learn Shopify development, you'll have to understand or at least have the basic knowledge of web development. Why? Because Shopify development is, indeed, still part of web development. You will still use HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or frontend languages to render your Shopify development projects. You will also need to learn backend development. In other words, you will need to pick a programming language for your backend. This could be Node, PHP, Ruby, or Python.It's important to note though that there are more programming languages that you can use for Shopify development. The only thing that matters is the programming language should be able to communicate with an API.Now, let's assume you have learned frontend and backend. What is the next thing that you need to learn?Well, the next thing that you should learn is database especially if your end goal is to create Shopify apps. Most of the time, when you do Shopify app development, you will be saving the session of the merchant to your database. Then, you will be using that session from your database to authenticate the merchant before they can access your Shopify app.Once you have learned all of that, you're pretty much ready to go and learn Shopify development. Learning Shopify development Good job! You have finally learned web development. The next thing that you will be learning is Shopify development. However, before you learn Shopify development, let's understand first what is Shopify development. What is Shopify development? Shopify development is a way for Shopify developers to create applications or features to improve a Shopify store.Now, there are two things that you can create with Shopify development: Shopify appShopify theme What is a Shopify app? A Shopify app is what you call the "plugin" and mostly used or installed to improve a Shopify store. You can usually find these apps from the Shopify app store and so if you plan to create public Shopify apps, then this is where your apps are going to end up. Otherwise, if you only wish to improve your personal Shopify store, then you can just create a private Shopify app. What is a Shopify theme? Now, what about Shopify themes? What are they? Well, Shopify themes are what most Shopify stores used to properly display the storefront. They are the ones that control what to display and what not to display in your browser. If you're familiar with WordPress, then WordPress theme is similar to Shopify theme. The only difference is Shopify theme development uses its own programming language which is called Liquid.If you want to learn more about Shopify theme development, you can enroll in our course by clicking the button below. Shopify Theme Development Course So now that you at least have an idea of what is Shopify development, the next thing that you should learn is Shopify especially if you haven't truly touched a Shopify store.Don't worry, you don't have to purchase a Shopify store to learn Shopify. You can go to the Shopify Developers page and there you can create an account so you can create a development store.So, you might be confused a little, what is a development store?A development store is a Shopify store meant to be used for testing your Shopify apps and Shopify themes. That's why it's called a "development" store.So, what should you learn in your Shopify store? Well, you should obviously learn how to navigate through a Shopify store. You should know how to create a product, how to go to the customizer page, how to access the locales, etc. In fact, you should really master all of the sections of a Shopify store. Otherwise, you'll end up confused about where to find these sections. Doing Shopify development Okay, so let's assume that you have done everything I mentioned above. Now what?Well, obviously, you can start making Shopify development projects but like I mentioned earlier, there are two things that you can create with Shopify development, Shopify app and Shopify theme.Now, the question is... Which one should you make? Apps or Themes? I highly recommend you to start with Shopify theme development because that's where you will be learning everything about Liquid programming and Liquid programming is very important especially if you're going to create a Shopify app that customizes a Shopify store. Conclusion I know it looked pretty simple but learning Shopify development can take a lot of time. I remember it took me 1 month to learn how to create a Shopify app but obviously, everyone is not the same. So my advice for you is to just take it easy and don't pressure yourself a lot. Learn Shopify development when you feel like it and sooner or later, you'll realize that you are now able to develop Shopify themes or apps.If you're interested, you can check out my courses here, I have put out a few courses that teach you how to create Shopify apps and Shopify themes.

Bernard Polidario

Biography

Courses

Shopify Theme Development: Online Store 2.0 + TailwindCSS

Shopify Development – Learn Shopify Liquid Programming

Shopify App Development – Vanilla PHP, GraphQL, App Bridge & REST API

Shopify Theme Development Masterclass: Learn How To Create Shopify Themes

Shopify App Development with Node, React, REST API & GraphQL

WordPress Theme Development with Bootstrap

Quick Links

Resources