Awesome
BETA VERSION
<hr>SYNCIFY
A lightening fast, extensible and superior alternative Shopify CLI (Theme Development) tool. Syncify provides developers with a powerful CLI and employs an intuitive approach for creating Shopify themes. It's batteries included solution designed for advanced theme development.
Demos
Key Features
- Watch, upload, import and export to multiple storefronts and themes.
- Intelligent path mapping resolutions that support custom directory structures.
- HOT Reloading of assets, section, snippets, templates and layouts.
- Shared section schema support with IntelliSense support in VSCode Liquid.
- Clear, concise, informative and beautiful TUI/CLI logging.
- An elegant global directory based metafields sync approach using JSON files.
- Supports spawned processing with existing build tools.
- Additional resource controls for syncing Files, Pages and Redirects.
- Provides a simple Reusable Sections approach for shared section references
Why?
I have been working on the Shopify platform for several years and nothing the Shopify team have produced has increased my productivity. Despite the advancements Shopify has made in recent years I still find their developer tooling to be missing the mark and a clear disconnect is apparent. The Shopify CLI is cool and all but for me the approach to theme development fails to achieve fluidity. Syncify is how I believe theme creation, development and maintenance should be done.
This tool provides you with essential stack tooling for producing lean, performant and refined themes. It's fast, flexible, extensible, scalable but most importantly, it's an un-restrictive workflow.
Installation
Syncify is distributed as both an ESM and CJS module. It is recommended that you install as a development dependency in your project opposed to installing globally. Please consider choosing and adopting pnpm as your package manager for most optimal usage.
PNPM
pnpm add @syncify/cli -D
Use
pnpx @syncify/cli
for remote execution
NPM
npm i @syncify/cli --save-dev
Use
npx @syncify/cli
for remote execution
Yarn
yarn add @syncify/cli --dev
Setup
After installing you will need to configure a connection to your shopify store and provide an ngrok auth token. Syncify requires you provide either an Admin API Access Token (recommended) or API Key and Secret as credentials. The ngrok auth token is optional, but required if you plan to publish themes to stores.
Shopify Authorization
Syncify requires Admin API access to your store/s.
<details> <summary> <strong>Authorize</strong> </summary> <p>You will need to create a private app to obtain this information from Shopify. If you are coming from Theme Kit you might be able to port those settings but it is recommended that you generate API access information specifically for usage with Syncify.
There are plans to provide an official Syncify Shopify App to make this easier in future releases.
Steps:
- From your Shopify admin, go to Apps.
- Click Develop apps.
- Click Create an app.
- Provide an App name (eg:
Syncify
) and click Create app - The app will be created, then click Configure Admin API Scope
- Select the required scopes (listed below)
- Click Save
- Goto the API credentials tab,
- Under Access Tokens press the Install app button.
- Press Reveal token once and copy the token into an
.env
file.
You need to provide Syncify read and write access to a couple of admin endpoints so it can perform operations. Below are the required scopes you will need to enable within in your private app.
Files
- write_files
- read_files
Pages
- write_online_store_pages
- read_online_store_pages
Themes
- write_themes
- read_themes
Ngrok Authorization
If you are planning to deploy themes using Syncify, you will need to provide an ngrok auth token. This is simple, easy and free to acquire. Follow the below steps:
- Create a
.env
file in your project root - Sign-up to ngrok
- You have an auth token
Provide the ngrok auth token within your .env
file as follows:
NGROK_AUTH_TOKEN = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwz'
Credentials
Shop credentials and your ngrok authorization can be stored within a .env
file. You can also provide credentials at runtime using process.env
variables. The preferred approach is to store this information within a .env
file.
Syncify also supports
.env.syncify
or.env.syncify.json
environment files.
Using a .env
file
When using a .env
file, you can provide shop credentials in either uppercase of lowercase format. The .env
values must begin with the shop name following an underscore _
character. If you are syncing to multiple storefronts just follow the pattern for each store.
Using an API Access Token
FOO_API_TOKEN = 'shpat_abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwz' # FOO > foo.myshopify.com
Using an API key and API Secret
FOO-BAR_API_KEY = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwz' # FOO-BAR > foo-bar.myshopify.com
FOO-BAR_API_SECRET = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwz' # FOO-BAR > foo-bar.myshopify.com
Using process.env
variables
Syncify also supports runtime credential assignment. This approach allows you to set credentials via the command line or within a script executable. This is highly discouraged and rather insecure.
Using an API Access Token
// Using an API Access Token
process.env['FOO_API_TOKEN'] = 'shpat_abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwz';
Using an API key and API Secret
// Using an API Key and API Secret
process.env['FOO-BAR_API_KEY'] = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwz';
process.env['FOO-BAR_API_SECRET'] = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwz';
Defining ngrok
// Using an API Key and API Secret
process.env['NGROK_AUTH_TOKEN'] = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwz';
<!--
### Testing Scopes
Once you've configured credentials, it's a good idea to **test** your connection to ensure that Syncify has got access to your store/s and you've provided the correct scopes. Open up your terminal and run the following command:
```bash
$ pnpm syncify doctor
```
The `syncify doctor` command instructs Syncify to tests your credentials, scopes and general setup. If Syncify has encountered an error or it cannot access certain store resources you will be informed. -->
Stores
Once you've configured credentials, you will need to provide store references. Stores references are provided within your projects package.json
file on the syncify > stores
key property. Syncify exposes a helpful command which you can use to automatically setup stores and themes.
Open up your terminal and run the following command:
$ pnpm syncify themes
You will be prompted
{
"syncify": {
"stores": {
"domain": "shop-1", // equivalent of shop-1.myshopify.com
"themes": {
"dev": 123456789,
"prod": 123456789,
"test": 123456789
}
}
}
}
The option accepts an object or array type. Each item will hold reference to your shopify store/s and their theme/s. For each store you define, you will provide the shop name, theme target name and id. The themes
object uses a key > value structure, where the key represent a theme name (target) and the value a theme id.
The information you provide to this option can be used via the CLI when targeting and executing operations. Please refer to the commands portion of this readme for more information on CLI usage.
Note
The theme target name does need to match that defined in your online store and can be anything you like.
Config File
Below is an example of how a store reference can be defined. In the example, we have only provided a store domain shop-1.myshopify.com
and 3 themes to connect and interface with. You can provide reference to multiple stores by passing an array list using the same structure.
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli';
export default defineConfig({
stores: {
domain: 'shop-1', // equivalent of shop-1.myshopify.com
themes: {
dev: 123456789,
prod: 123456789,
test: 123456789
}
}
});
Stores
Once you've configured credentials, you will need to provide store references. Syncify requires that you provide stores references within your projects package.json
file.
Configuration
Syncify supports syncify.config.ts
and package.json
configurations. Depending on your preference, either option suffices and no restrictions are imposed. If you are defining options within your projects package.json
file you can assign options on the syncify.config
property.
Supported Files
Syncify supports the following configuration file types. The recommended approach is the TypeScript syncify.config.ts
configuration file type.
syncify.config.ts
syncify.config.js
syncify.config.ts
syncify.config.mjs
syncify.config.cjs
syncify.config.json
Default Options
Below are the default configurations. Options commented out within transform, processors and terser require peer dependencies to be installed for usage.
<!-- prettier-ignore -->import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli';
export default defineConfig({
input: 'source',
output: 'theme',
export: 'export',
import: 'import',
config: '.',
clean: true,
paths: {
redirects: 'redirects.yaml',
assets: 'assets/**/*',
files: 'files/**/*',
config: 'config/*.json',
locales: 'locales/*.json',
layout: 'layouts/*.liquid',
sections: 'sections/*.liquid',
snippets: 'snippets/*.liquid',
metafields: 'metafields/**/*.json',
metaobject: [
'templates/metaobject/*.json'
],
customers: [
'templates/customers/*.json',
'templates/customers/*.liquid'
],
pages: [
'pages/*.md',
'pages/*.html'
],
templates: [
'templates/*.json',
'templates/*.liquid'
],
},
hot: {
label: 'visible',
history: true,
method: 'hot',
inject: true,
strategy: 'hydrate',
scroll: 'preserved',
server: 3000,
socket: 8089,
layouts: [
'theme.liquid'
],
},
log: {
clear: true,
silent: false,
stats: true,
warnings: true
},
spawn: {
build: {},
watch: {},
},
views: {
snippets: {
separator: '-',
global: [],
prefixDir: false,
renamePatterns: {}
},
sections: {
separator: '-',
prefixDir: false,
global: [],
renamePatterns: {}
},
pages: {
safeSync: true,
author: '',
importLanguage: 'html',
suffixDir: false,
global: []
}
},
transform: {
script: {},
style: {},
svg: {},
image: {}
},
processors: {
json: {
crlf: false,
indent: 2,
useTab: false,
exclude: []
}
// Refer to transforms section for usage
//
// esbuild: {},
// sass: {},
// postcss: [],
// tailwind: {},
// svgo: {},
// sprite: {},
// sharp: {},
},
terser: {
json: {
assets: true,
config: true,
locales: true,
metafields: true,
templates: true,
exclude: []
},
views: {
collapseWhitespace: true,
minifySchema: true,
minifyScript: true,
minifyStyle: true,
removeComments: true,
stripDashes: true,
exclude: []
},
// Refer to terser section for usage
//
// script: {},
// style: {},
}
});
Getting Started
It is relatively easy to get started developing Shopify themes using Syncify. If you are converting an existing project and using Theme Kit, Shopify CLI or another build environment you can progressively adapt it into your workflow by manually configuring how Syncify should behave. Whatever the case, have a look at the Syncify Dawn (Basic) example repository as a starting point.
Pre-requisites
Before going over the features Syncify provides, it is assumed that you have done the following:
- Installed Syncify as a development Dependency
- Created a private app and added API credentials
- Added a
syncify.config.ts
file in the root of your project
Contents
Directories
Syncify requires you to define custom base directory paths that point to theme files. The values you provide will refer to a directory name that is relative to the root of your project. You cannot define multi-level directories (eg: some/dir
) or reverse paths (eg: ../dir
). You can pass these references within your syncify configuration file or via the CLI.
Note
References passed in via the CLI will overwrite those provided in syncify configuration files.
Input → Output
Syncify expects projects to have an input directory path which contains theme source files. Files contained within an input directory are written to your defined output directory path. The generated output will be reflective of your online store and in most cases you will add the output directory to your .gitignore
file (because it can always be rebuilt from input). If you have become accustomed to working from a single directory structure (i.e: Shopify Dawn) it is important that you understand the difference between the input and output directory approach.
Single directory structures are not a viable approach when building modern and performant Shopify themes. Client-side (front-end) development is not SaaS specific and thus, with the proper tooling, Shopify theme development does not require one to adhere to the imposed approach of Shopify Dawn (via Shopify CLI). The argument for multi-directory architecture rests upon the millions of projects which isolate source ~ distribution variations and appropriate such logic.
Default Structure
Below is an example of a Syncify theme structure using the defaults. Syncify will assume this directory structure if you do not provide any customizations via the CLI or within your syncify config file.
├─ source # The src directory where you develop and theme files exist
├─ theme # The output directory where source files will be written
├─ .env # Shop credentials, such as Admin API Token or API key and secret
├─ .gitignore # Files to be ignored by git, e.g: your .env file
├─ package.json # The package.json file common in all Node projects, self explanatory
├─ syncify.config.ts # The syncify config file, you can optionally use package.json
└─ tsconfig.json # TypeScript configurations, this is optional but preferred.
<!-- prettier-ignore -->
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="500px">Config File</th>
<th width="500px">CLI Flags</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<!-- prettier-ignore -->
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli';
export default defineConfig({
input: 'source',
output: 'theme',
import: 'import',
export: 'export',
config: '.'
})
</td>
<td height="200px">
<!-- prettier-ignore -->
--input -i # Input Path
--output -o # Output Path
--config -c # Config Path
--export -e # Export Path
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
CLI Usage
Based on the above example configuration, this is how we would target and perform operations with the store and its theme/s using the CLI. In Syncify, when performing a sync action, you pass the store name as the first argument, followed by any --flags
.
# FLAGS
--theme, -t <target> # Theme name or comma separated list of theme names to target
# EXAMPLES
$ syncify shop-1 -t dev --watch # Running watch mode and targeting dev theme
$ syncify shop-1 -t dev,prod --upload # Uploading to the dev and prod themes of shop-1
Options
<details> <summary> <strong><code>Domain</code></strong> </summary> <p>The domain
option expects a string value, which is your Shopify store name without the myshopify.com
portion. The domain will be used by the CLI as a target argument. Each store (domain) can have multiple themes.
The themes
option refers to theme ids the store contains. This option is an object type which uses key > value mappings. The theme keys represent a unique target name, this can be any alpha numeric value. The key value is used by the CLI as target reference. The value should be the theme id.
Paths
The paths
option allows you to define your theme/projects structure within the defined input
directory. Syncify does not require you set a development structure required by Shopify and you should begin to decouple from that logic as it is generally flawed and restrictive when building advanced or large scale stores.
Each path key represents a theme directory or resource point. Path options accept either a string
or string[]
array list of glob anymatch patterns and can point to files contained within sub-directories of infinite depth. All defined references will automatically resolve to the defined input
directory starting point, so you do not need to include it within your path definitions.
There is no restrictions or limitations imposed on structures other than input relativity. Syncify will obtain full resolution and build a valid theme structure that Shopify understands when generating an output.
Config File
By default, Syncify assumes you are using a basic (defaults) structure. This structure is certainly not the preferred format and when leveraging Syncify you are encouraged to establish a structure which suits your project and adheres to your workflow or tastes.
<!-- prettier-ignore -->import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli';
export default defineConfig({
input: 'source',
output: 'theme',
paths: {
assets: 'assets/**',
config: 'config/*.json',
locales: 'locales/*.json',
layout: 'layout/.liquid',
metafields: 'metafields/**/*.json',
sections: 'sections/*.liquid',
snippets: 'snippets/*.liquid',
templates: 'templates/*.liquid',
customers: 'templates/customers/*',
// pages: 'pages/*',
// redirects: 'redirects.yaml',
}
})
Custom Structures
Below are 2 different input structures and an output structure. The default structure is what Syncify will use (as above) if no paths
have been defined in your configuration (the tool defaults to this). The customized structure is an example of how you could arrange an input
directory using the Syncify paths
option. The output structure is what Syncify will generated as an output which Shopify can digest.
There is no distributed difference between the default and customized structures illustrated above. Both would generate an output that Shopify understands, requires and reasons with. Only the input source locations differ. The output Syncify creates will always be written to a standard Shopify theme structure regardless of how you may decide to organize input paths. Custom structures give you creative freedom and does not impose a restrictive workflow you may have become behest to working with Dawn and the Shopify CLI.
Welcome to the better approach, you're welcome.
Options
<details> <summary> <strong><code>Assets</code></strong> </summary> <p>An array list of glob path patterns for asset files. These will be written in the assets
directory of your defined output
path. Please note that you if you transforming CSS, SCSS, SASS or SVG file types using Syncify then you do not need to define those paths here as the transforms
option will automatically route them, this is the same for assets being processed by spawns.
Understanding Spawns in watch mode
Syncify will automatically set watch paths of assets when running in watch mode. It will glob match all files being written to your defined {output}/assets
path but exclude those which you have set to be handled or transformed. For example, if you are using a JavaScript bundler like webpack of rollup, Syncify will watch for any files that are written and handled by these tools or any other spawned process for that matter and once written will trigger an upload.
An array list of glob path patterns to .liquid
or .json
customer template files. These will be written to the {output}/templates/customers
directory of your defined output
path.
An array list of glob path patterns to .json
locale files. These will be written to the {output}/locales
directory of your defined output
path.
An array list of glob path patterns to .json
config files. These will be written to the {output}/config
directory of your defined output
path.
An array list of glob path patterns to .liquid
layout files. These will be written to the {output}/layout
directory of your defined output
path.
An array list of glob path patterns to .liquid
section files. These will be written to the sections
directory of your defined output
path. Sections can be structured within sub-directories. If a section file is determined to be deeply nested in such a way then this option will enable parent directory name prefixing to be applied the output filenames.
Understanding Section Processing
If the section input path is source/sections/index/some-file.liquid
then the filename will be prefixed with index
so when referencing it within themes you'd need to use index-some-file.liquid
in {% section %}
tags. Prefixing is helpful when you have a large number of sections and want to avoid name collusion.
See also Views.
</p> </details> <details> <summary> <strong><code>Snippets</code></strong> </summary> <p>An array list of glob path patterns to .liquid
snippet files. These will be written to the snippets
directory of your defined output
path.
See also Views.
</p> </details> <details> <summary> <strong><code>Templates</code></strong> </summary> <p>An array list of glob path patterns to .json
or .liquid
template files. These will be written to the templates
directory of your defined output
path.
An array list of glob path patterns to .json
metaobject template files. These will be written to the {output}/templates/metaobject
directory of your defined output
path.
Shared Section Schema
Syncify provides an elegant and simple solution for shared section schema. Shared section schema provides developers an easy way to re-use section contents between section files containing schema.
Use the VSCode Liquid extension and take advantage of the Syncify Shared Section Schema approach with IntelliSense capabilities.
How it works?
Shared Section Schemas
Structures
There are several different structures you can use for defining shared schemas.
Setting Singleton
{
"example": {
"$description": "An optional internal description used by VSCode Liquid",
"type": "textarea",
"id": "items",
"label": "items",
"default": "Item 1\nItem 2\nItem 3\netc etc",
"info": "Separate each item to render on newline"
}
}
Settings Spread
Below is an example of a shared schema settings spread. The approach accepts an array list of settings and when referenced in sections will spread the output.
// source/schema/test.json
{
"example": [
{
"type": "text",
"id": "foo",
"label": "Example 1"
},
{
"type": "text",
"id": "bar",
"label": "Example 2"
}
]
}
<details>
<summary>
<strong>Reference Example</strong>
</summary>
<p>
Referencing the above shared schema in your section {% schema %}
tag
{% schema %}
{
"settings": [
{
"$ref": "test.example"
}
]
}
{% endschema %}
</details>
<details>
<summary>
<strong>Output Example</strong>
</summary>
<p>
The generated output will inject and spread the schemas you've defined.
{% schema %}
{
"settings": [
{
"type": "text",
"id": "foo",
"label": "Example 1"
},
{
"type": "text",
"id": "bar",
"label": "Example 2"
}
]
}
{% endschema %}
</p>
</details>
Settings Collection
{
"example": {
"$description": "An optional internal description used by VSCode Liquid",
"settings": [
{
"type": "text",
"id": "foo",
"label": "Example",
"default": "Hello World",
"info": "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet"
}
]
}
}
Block Singleton
{
"block_singleton": {
"$description": "An optional internal description used by VSCode Liquid",
"name": "",
"type": "",
"settings": []
}
}
Block Collection
{
"example": [
{
"$description": "An optional internal description used by VSCode Liquid",
"name": "foo",
"type": "bar",
"settings": [
{
"type": "article",
"id": "something",
"label": "Something"
}
]
},
{
"$description": "An optional internal description used by VSCode Liquid",
"name": "bar",
"type": "baz",
"settings": [
{
"type": "text",
"id": "foo",
"label": "Example",
"default": "Hello World",
"info": "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet"
}
]
}
]
}
HOT
Live reloading is supported in watch mode. Syncify leverages websocket's, XHR and statically served endpoints to provide this capability with zero configuration or the need to install or setup additional tooling. No extensions and no complexities. Syncify will listen for messages sent via websocket on the client and carry out HOT replacements of Assets, Sections, Snippets, Layouts and Templates without triggering full-page refreshes. HOT Reloads can be enabled by passing the --hot
flag via the CLI.
The HOT reload approach Syncify employs tends to be considerably faster than HOT reloading with the Shopify CLI.
Assets
SASS/CSS, TypeScript/JavaScript and SVG asset file types are HOT reloaded by swapping out the URL's or containing source with localhost equivalents served statically by Syncify.
Section
Dynamic sections, static sections of a combination of both are fetched via the Ajax Section rendering API. Replacements are applied to fragments in real-time and surrounding nodes are left intact.
Snippets, Layouts and Templates
In order to provide HOT replacements Syncify employs a mild form of DOM hydration. Snippets, templates and Liquid/JSON layout files will inject HTML comments <!-- hot:1aa4f32cf9 -->
containing a UUID before they are uploaded to themes. Syncify will pass this UUID to the client via websocket and once received an XHR (fetch) will be triggered. The response of the XHR request is then parsed and all nodes which proceed the injected UUID comment/s are plucked and swapped in the persisted DOM while leaving unchanged elements intact. The approach employed by Syncify is a mild form DOM hydration that's 10x faster than invoking a hard-refresh.
Programmatic Control
Running in HOT mode will result in Syncify injecting a snippet into layouts. The snippet is the socket receiver that is responsible for executing replacements/morphs and exposes programmatic control for developers who can to customize or hook into the HOT reload rendering cycles.
// STATUS
//
window.syncify.ready: boolean
window.syncify.connected: boolean;
// RELOADS
//
window.syncify.assets(): void;
window.syncify.reload(): void;
window.syncify.refresh(): void
// SECTIONS
//
window.syncify.sections.get()
window.syncify.sections.list()
window.syncify.sections.load()
// LABEL
//
window.syncify.style.parent({ /* CSS */ });
window.syncify.style.label({ /* CSS */ });
Pages
Syncify supports page sync and employs an intuitive approach to working with static pages for stores. The paths pages option is where you can provide path file references to be synced. Pages in Syncify can be either .html
(markup) or .md
(markdown) files and cannot contain Liquid syntax (Shopify does not support Liquid in pages only static markup). Syncify also support frontmatter in page files, this allows you to pass in additional data when syncing to store/s.
Options
The pages
setting available in the views
option of your syncify.config.ts
file allows you to configure page processing and transforms. In Syncify, frontmatter can be used to configure per-page control.
import { defaultConfig } from '@syncify/cli'
export default defineConfig({
...,
paths: {
// Set the location of page files
pages: [
'pages/*.md',
'pages/*.html'
]
},
views: {
pages: {
suffixDir: false, // When true, directory name will be used for template_suffix
safeSync: true, // Ensure local and remote versions are aligned
author: '', // Fallback author name
global: [], // List of directories to exclude from applying template_suffix
importLanguage: 'html' // Set the import language when remote sources sync to local ones
}
}
})
Remote and Local sources
By default, syncify will perform safe synchronization. The safeSync
option instructs syncify to pull down remote versions before uploading local ones in watch and upload modes. This operation ensures that you do not overwrite page content in situations where changes have been applied in your store since the last sync was performed on your local machine. Syncify will prompt you when misalignment is detected and allow you to pull in the remote versions.
Markdown Support
Pages can be written in markdown, Syncify will transform .md
page files into valid HTML markup when syncing. Markdown pages are parsed and transformed using the the powerful markdown-it and support Github flavored markdown syntax. In addition to Markdown → HTML generation, Syncify can also perform reversed conversion (HTML → Markdown). Using the importLanguage
option, any time a remote to local alignment is carried out, files will be written in markdown.
Frontmatter Support
You can pass frontmatter data in page files. Page frontmatter can be used to control per-page publishing settings and allows for additional request payloads to be passed. Syncify supports a modest schema structure for page frontmatter.
<!-- prettier-ignore -->---
title: 'Lorem Ipsum' # The page title
handle: '/some-handle' # Custom page handle
template: 'example' # Specify a template_suffix
published: true # Whether the page is published
links: false # Auto-convert URL-like
breaks: true # Convert '\n' into `<br>`
metafields: # Pass in additional metafields
- namespace: 'foo'
key: 'greeting'
type: 'single_line_text_field'
value: 'Hello World!'
- namespace: 'bar'
key: 'some_condition'
type: 'boolean'
value: true
---
Metafields
NOT YET AVAILABLE
The metafields
directory path
reference is where you can provide global JSON metafield files that can be synced to your Shopify store. Metafield sync capabilities provided by Syncify use a simple directory > file based approach. The sub-directory names represent a metafield namespace
value and JSON file names contained within represent metafield key
values.
Syncify will keep your remote and local metafield references aligned with one another and warn you when local versions do not match remote versions. This will help prevent you from overwriting changes that may have been applied by third-party apps or online within your store.
Pull Metafields
Syncify provides you with simple interactive prompt based approach for importing pre-existing metafields from your online store. You can optionally choose which metafields you'd like to maintain. Use the -m
or --metafields
flag together with the --pull
flag on the command line to download metafields:
$ syncify --metafields --pull
Merge Metafields
Working with metafields from your local machine may have result in unexpected overwrites if changes were made to remote versions that conflict with local versions. In order to combat this Syncify support merge capabilities which can be used to merge changes when metafield modification timestamps differ. Use the -m
or --metafields
flag together with the --merge
flag on the command line perform local and remote alignments.
$ syncify --metafields --merge
Structure
In order to best illustrate how the metafield sync capabilities work it is important that you understand the structure logic. The directory based approach and naming conventions employed are imperative and strict. Syncify wants to prevent irreversible overwrites or deletions from occurring, so please be mindful and wary when using this feature.
<table> <thead> <tr> <th align="left" width="300px"> Metafield Structure</th> <th align="left" width="700px"> Description</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <td> <pre> <code> source │ └── metafields │ ├── garment │ ├── fits.json │ ├── sizes.json │ └── fabrics.json ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ │ └── details ├── colors.json └── weight.json </code> </pre> </td> <td> Metafields will be published to the global <code>shop</code> object.<br> Syncify will use the sub-directory names as the metafield<br> <code>namespace</code> and the JSON file names contained within<br> each namespace directory are used as the metafield <code>key</code> name.<br><br> <strong>Example:</strong><br><br> <ul> <li><code>{{ shop.metafields.garment.fits.value }}</code></li> <li><code>{{ shop.metafields.garment.sizes.value }}</code></li> <li><code>{{ shop.metafields.garment.fabrics.value }}</code></li> <li><code>{{ shop.metafields.details.colors.value }}</code></li> <li><code>{{ shop.metafields.details.weight.value }}</code></li> </ul> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table>Options
<details> <summary> <strong><code>Input</code></strong> </summary> <p>The input
option refers to your projects src location This is the directory where your development theme files exist. Syncify defaults this directory to source
. The value defined here will be prepended to any path you define within paths
.
The output
option refers to your project dist location. This is the directory where transformed theme files from input
will be written. Syncify defaults this to theme
. The output
directory will be reflective of your online shop. You should point any asset files executing via spawned processes to the assets
directory contained within this location.
The config
option refers to a directory within your project where configuration files exist, like (for example) a rollup.config.js
or webpack.config.js
file. Syncify by default (when this option is undefined) will look for config files in the root of your project but this might not always be ideal as it can create clutter in the workspace. The config
directory allows you to optionally place spawned config files within a sub-directory and informs Syncify to look for these files from that location.
</p> </details> <details> <summary> <strong><code>Import</code></strong> </summary> <p>Typically this is directory is named
scripts
in node projects.
The import
option refers to a directory where downloaded themes will be written. Syncify provides the ability to download themes from your online store and it is within this directory the files are created.
The export
option refers to a directory where packaged (.zip
) themes will be written when running the package
command. Packaged themes will be prepended with the version number defined in the projects package.json
file.
The metafields
option refers to a directory within your project which can contain global JSON metafield files. The path location you reference here should point to a directory of sub-directories. Please refer to the Metafields section for more information.
Correct
{
"dirs": {
"metafields": "source/metafields"
}
}
Invalid
{
"dirs": {
"metafields": "source/metafields/**/*.json"
}
}
</p>
</details>
Spawn
The spawn option accepts a key > value list of commands (i.e: scripts) which can be used when running in watch (--watch
) or build (--build
) modes. The Spawn configuration option allows you to leverage additional build tools and have them execute in parallel with Syncify as child processes.
Spawned processes allow you use your preferred asset bundlers such as Rollup, Webpack, Gulp and many more without having to run multiple npm-scripts.
Overview
There are 2 available modes from which you can trigger a spawned process. When a process is spawned in watch
mode it will run along side Syncify in parallel and execute sequentially in the order of which each spawn is defined. You need to provide any --flags your command (build tool or bundler) requires when running. Spawning a process in build
mode will trigger spawned commands only 1 time, so it is here where you would provide the compile-only or build-only command, ie: not using watch flags/arguments.
The Syncify build mode re-builds the entire theme and you might choose to run this mode using the Syncify --prod
flag, if you require context of the environment, mode or action taking place within spawned config files, then take a look at the available Utilities which Syncify exposes to help conditionally load plugins or trigger different build types in accordance with the Syncify execution cycle.
CLI
--spawn, -s <name> # spawn targeting
Configuration
<!-- prettier-ignore -->import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli';
export default defineConfig({
// ...
spawn: {
build: {},
watch: {}
}
}
})
Usage
In most situations you will leverage the spawn option to compile something like TypeScript or JavaScript but it is important to note that this capability is not specific to these assets types. Syncify is using cross-spawn under the hood to help negate any cross-platform issues that may arise. Below are a couple examples where we spawn up 2 well known JavaScript bundlers and lastly we illustrate how to spawn multiple processes.
All stdout/stderr/stdio from spawned processes will be piped through and intercepted by Syncify, which might result in output being stripped of color.
Rollup Example
If you are processing JavaScript asset files using the Rollup bundler you can spawn build and watch processes by providing the rollup commands to each mode accordingly. Rollup is a fantastic choice for handling .js
files. In this example, it is assumed that a rollup.config.js
file is located in the root of your project.
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli';
export default defineConfig({
spawn: {
build: {
rollup: 'rollup -c'
},
watch: {
rollup: 'rollup -c -w'
}
}
}
})
Webpack Example
If you are processing JavaScript asset files using the Webpack bundler you can spawn build and watch processes by providing the webpack commands to each mode accordingly. You will need to be using the Webpack CLI module to ensure a successful spawn is triggered.
<!-- prettier-ignore -->Notice how we also provide the
--color
flag in the spawn. If you omit this flag then the webpack logs will be printed to the CLI without colors, when using webpack you should provide this flag.
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli';
export default defineConfig({
spawn: {
build: {
webpack: 'webpack --color'
},
watch: {
webpack: 'webpack --watch --color'
}
}
}
})
Multiple Processes
Though it is unlikely you'd ever need to include 2 different JavaScript bundlers in a project there is nothing stopping you from doing such a thing. For the sake of brevity, the below example illustrates how we can execute multiple spawned child processes to run in parallel with Syncify. Notice how we have also included an additional gulp spawn in build
and watch
modes. Syncify will trigger these processes in sequentially order, Rollup (1), Gulp (2) and Webpack (3).
<!-- prettier-ignore -->Aside from attempting to spawn Syncify itself, there is no limitation or restrictions imposed on what you choose to run along side Syncify.
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli';
export default defineConfig({
spawn: {
build: {
rollup: 'rollup -c',
webpack: 'webpack --color',
gulp: 'gulp watch-task'
},
watch: {
webpack: 'webpack --watch --color',
rollup: 'rollup -c -w',
gulp: 'gulp watch-task'
}
}
}
})
Transform
In Syncify, asset files can be transformed before being written to the defined output
directory and uploaded to your Shopify store. The transform
option provides users with control of the "asset pipeline" and Syncify exposes configuration wrappers for handling files together with modern developer tooling. Transforms are totally optional, and require you to provide additional modules in your project.
Syncify supports built-in and partial processing for the following file types:
.json
.js
.ts
.jsx
.tsx
.css
.scss
.sass
.svg
Script
Syncify exposes a script
transform option which supports TypeScript (.ts
and .tsx
) and/or JavaScript (.js
and .jsx
) bundling using ESBuild. Script transforms use a pre-defined set of processing configurations and will produce lean JavaScript bundles designed to work seamlessly in development mode or when leveraging HOT reloads. Syncify will also apply refinements to distribution bundles focused on performance when generating production builds for your Shopify theme.
ESBuild is the same bundler used under the hood by tools like vite and tsup. If you are using existing tools like Webpack or Rollup, consider adopting ESBuild as its a far superior option.
Installing ESBuild
In order for you to leverage script transforms, you will need to install ESBuild as a development dependency. Syncify will complain if you try to use script options without esbuild installed.
pnpm add esbuild -D
Bundling TypeScript
The script transform option aims to make bundling easy but also extensible for more advanced use cases. Syncify will automatically detect tsconfig.json
(or jsconfig.json
) files located in your workspace and respect processing options defined within. By default, Syncify will produce ESM module formats that output in ES2016 but you can also generate IIFE bundles and even inline code as a snippets within <script></script>
tags.
The script
options accepts several different structures and it is up to you how you wish to provide settings. The below code sample depicts the default configuration structure:
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli';
export default defineConfig({
transform: {
script: [
{
input: [],
format: 'esm',
target: 'es2016',
snippet: false,
rename: '',
external: [],
watch: [],
esbuild: {}
}
]
}
})
You may prefer to use rename (entry point) structures instead. When we are using rename entry points the prefix path expects either snippets/
or assets/
be provided. When passing snippets/
then a snippet will be generated, whereas assets/
will generate a .js
file.
<!--prettier-ignore-->Rename entry points accept
[file]
,[dir]
and[ext]
placeholders.
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli';
export default defineConfig({
transform: {
script: {
// Producing 2 inline snippet <script> bundles
// Output will be slideshow.js.liquid and search-form.js.liquid
'snippets/[file][ext]': [
'scripts/sections/slideshow.ts',
'scripts/sections/search-form.ts'
]
// Producing an IIFE script as an asset
// The return value is accessible via window.Foo
'assets/foo.min.js': {
input: 'scripts/index.ts',
format: 'iife',
globalName: 'window.Foo,
}
}
}
})
Styles
TAILWIND IS NOT YET SUPPORT
Syncify exposes a style
transform option which can be used for CSS (.css
) and SCSS/SASS (.scss
or .sass
) bundling. Style transform support is made possible by using compilers like Dart SASS, PostCSS and/or Tailwind. The style
option provides developers with replicated configuration control but you may also prefer to use standard config files (e.g: postcss.config.js
) which Syncify also supports.
Style transforms help alleviate the complexities sometimes involved in setting up these tools so you can easily process asset specific stylesheets or generate output as a snippet within <style></style>
tags.
SASS Support
Syncify provides SCSS/SASS transform support for .scss
and .sass
file types using Dart SASS. Using SASS required you to install the Dart module as a development dependency in your project. Syncify will complain if you try to use SASS transforms without Dart SASS installed.
pnpm add sass -D
Tailwind Support ~ COMING SOON
Syncify supports TailwindCSS for CSS processing. If you require transform support for Tailwind, you need to install the TailwindCSS module as a development dependency in your project. Syncify will ignore Tailwind class name occurrences without the module installed.
pnpm add tailwindcss -D
Tailwind is not yet available in the beta.
PostCSS Support
In addition to SASS transformation, Syncify also support CSS (post)-processing using PostCSS. If you wish have Syncify handle CSS transforms then you need to install PostCSS as a development dependency. Syncify will complain if you try to use PostCSS transforms without PostCSS installed.
Provide PostCSS plugins and any specific settings within the
postcss.config.js
file.
pnpm add postcss -D
Please note: If you are using Syncify to compile SASS files, then by default the transformed CSS will be passed to PostCSS.
Usage
In the below example we are generating multiple stylesheets and compiling both SCSS and CSS file types. The example illustrates how one can leverage Syncify together with Dart SASS, PostCSS and additional node modules like the Bootstrap framework.
<!-- prettier-ignore-->Please Note You will need to remove the comments from the code example if you are copy and pasting it into your
package.json
file. JSON with Comments is not supported inpackage.json
files.
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli'
export default defineConfig({
transform: {
style: {
'assets/stylesheet.min.css': {
input: 'styles/stylesheet.scss',
watch: ['styles/sections/*'],
postcss: true,
sass: true
},
'snippets/css.liquid': {
input: 'styles/vars.css.liquid',
postcss: true,
sass: true
},
'assets/bootstrap.min.scss': {
input: 'styles/vendors/bootstrap.scss',
style: 'expanded',
includePaths: ['node_modules/bootstrap']
}
}
}
})
Views
The views
transform option controls how .liquid
file types should be handled. Snippets, Templates, Sections and Layout paths are typically where liquid files are used. Options defined here will be used when Syncify is processing such types.
Sections
Syncify provides sub-directory grouping and rename prefixing capabilities when handling theme sections. You might be accustom to storing sections within a single directory and despite Shopify using this approach in their Dawn theme, it is restrictive and rather chaotic to the developer experience. A far better approach is to take advantage of the sub-directory grouping feature which Syncify provides.
Sub-directory Grouping
Shopify shipped "sections everywhere" capabilities in Online Store 2.0 and while this is a great feature to have it opens the door to inconsistent structures. The logic of Shopify here has been to provide store developers "freedom" but it is a double edged sword. Sections everywhere has consequently resulted in developers indirectly facilitating merchants the ability to leverage sections on pages where they should otherwise be avoided. For instance, enabling merchants to add a featured-collection, featured-blog or full-screen hero image to product pages is not necessarily a good idea. Developers may be more inclined to provide such section types when working from within a single directory structure that is without organized order.
Shopify tends to push a DRY infrastructure approach for the theme development wherein store sections should be capable of appropriation within any template. This is great in theory but in order to achieve aesthetic fluidity it is not realistic when we go beyond a Dawn structure and even there we find the utter chaos. Approaching things in a compartmentalized manner is just better approach but this is difficult when working from a single level structured directory.
Grouping section into sub-directories results is far better consideration, organization and order at the development level. Syncify provides these capabilities while still respecting developer personal preferences. Below is an example of how you can leverage Syncify to use sub-directories together with pre-fixing capabilities.
<!-- prettier-ignore --> <table> <thead> <tr> <th>Syncify Options</th> <th>Source Structure</th> <th>Theme Output</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <td> <!-- prettier-ignore -->{
"paths": {
"sections": [
"sections/**/*"
]
},
"sections": {
"prefix": true,
"prefixSeparator": "-",
"prefixDuplicates": true,
"globals": [
"shared",
"layout",
"related.liquid"
]
}
}
</code>
</td>
<td>
<pre>
<code>ㅤ
source
│
└─ sections
├─ collection
│ ├─ filter.liquid
│ └─ search.liquid
├─ product
│ ├─ images.liquid
│ ├─ on-sale.liquid
│ └─ related.liquid
├─ layout
│ ├─ header.liquid
│ └─ footer.liquid
└─ shared
├─ banner.liquid
└─ slideshow.liquid
</code>
</pre>
</td>
<td>
<pre>
<code>
ㅤ
ㅤ
theme
│
└─ sections
├─ banner.liquid
├─ collection-filter.liquid
├─ collection-search.liquid
├─ footer.liquid
├─ header.liquid
├─ product-images.liquid
├─ product-on-sale.liquid
├─ related.liquid
└─ slideshow.liquid
ㅤ
ㅤ
</code>
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Notice how we can nest sections within sub-directories and also apply prefixing to the section output filenames. We also inform Syncify that some of our sections should be considered global and this allows those defined there to pass through without name augmentation (prefixing). We passed a true
value to the prefix
option, this informed Syncify that section files which are not explicitly defined as global should have their output filename prefixed with the parent directory name they are contained within.
prefix
prefixDuplicates
prefixSeparator
globals
</p> </details> <details> <summary> <strong><code>Minify</code></strong> </summary> <p>env
never
minifyJS
boolean
minifyCSS
boolean
removeComments
boolean
collapseWhitespace
boolean
trimCustomFragments
boolean
ignoreCustomFragments
string[]
minifySectionSchema
boolean
removeLiquidComments
boolean
removeAttributeNewlines
boolean
removeRedundantDashTrims
boolean
ignoredLiquidTags
string[]
exclude
string[]
Json
The json
transform option controls how .json
files should be processed. Templates, Config, Locales and Metafields paths typically where JSON files are used. Options defined here will be used when Syncify is processing these file types. In addition, Syncify will also apply handle any Assets that have .json
extension using these options.
Beautification 2
Minification options
env
never
removeSchemaRefs
true
exclude
string[]
Styles
The styles
transform option accepts an array type. This option requires you have Dart SASS and/or PostCSS installed as a development dependencies in your project. Syncify supports the handling of .sass
, .scss
and .css
file types using these tools and the options are convenience wrappers for them.
Path string[]
or string
Rename Options
string[]
Watch Options
string[]
boolean
PostCSS options
env
all
, dev
, prod
never
logWarnings
boolean
sourcemap
boolean
style
compressed
or expanded
Processors
In Syncify, processors refer to the external tools used in Transforms (i.e: SVGO, ESBuild SASS etc). The processors
configuration option provides developers a point of control for configuring these (supported) third party modules. The configurations defined in processors will used as the defaults bundling options of each transform and allows developers to retain a single point of control from which all third party processor operations will refer, this saves you having to include multiple external config files in your projects workspace.
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli'
export default defineConfig({
// ...
processors: {
json: {}, // applied to json transforms
esbuild: {}, // applied to script transforms
sass: {}, // applied to style transforms
postcss: [], // applied to style transforms
tailwind: {}, // applied to style transforms
svgo: {}, // applied to svg transforms
sprite: {}, // applied to svg transforms
sharp: {}, // applied to image transforms
}
})
Using processors requires installing the relative module you'd like to leverage. This is an opt-in capability.
External Config Files
Some third party tools allow (or require) config file usage (e.g: postcss.config.js
, tailwind.config.js
etc etc). Syncify will check for the existence of configuration files in the workspace and use them as the processor defaults. In situations where an external config file is detected and you've defined custom processor
settings which differ from the Syncify defaults then options of the external config will overwritten (or merged) by those defined on processor
configuration.
Say you're using a postcss.config.js
file to provide a couple of plugins in your project, for example:
// postcss.config.js
module.exports = {
plugins: [
require('postcss-nested')(),
require('autoprefixer')()
]
};
Syncify will automatically detect and digest this file at runtime. It will use the export value when processing CSS with PostCSS and will consider it the default value, assigning it to processors.postcss
. Instead of providing a postcss.config.js
file, you could instead just pass this to the postcss processor option, for example:
// syncify.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli';
export default defineConfig({
// ...
processors: {
postcss: [
require('postcss-nested')(),
require('autoprefixer')()
]
}
});
Transform Overrides
You can overwrite processor defaults on a per-file basis at the transform level. Each transform exposes a processor property which accepts the same options which will apply an immutable merge with processor defaults. This is helpful when you require file specific transforms.
Take the following code sample, notice how we've passed an SASS override on certain files. In this example the style.scss
transform will use the processor.sass
configuration, whereas the the example.scss
file will override the processor.sass
defaults and use a different set of configuration options.
// syncify.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli';
export default defineConfig({
// ...
processor: {
sass: {
sourcemap: true,
style: 'compressed',
include: ['node_modules/'], // the style.scss include path
}
},
transform: {
style: [
{
input: 'styles/style.scss',
postcss: true
},
{
input: 'styles/example.scss',
snippet: true,
sass: {
style: 'expanded', // we override the output style
include: ['some/dir'] // we override the include path
}
}
]
}
});
Usage Proposition
Processors (and transforms) are optional in Syncify and may not fit your use case but there is an added benefit to using them. If you are leveraging HOT reloads or require different outputs be generated, then they are a great help. They also take a lot of the guess work out of bundling, so you can focus on writing code without worrying about bundler configurations.
Spawn processes are another option available for cases where you require a different complier which is not supported by Syncify, but please note that spawned processes will not apply HOT reloads and execute in child process. Whatever the case may be, it is important you weigh up the usage proposition for your project and determine which works best for you and your development workflow.
Supported Processors
Syncify provides extendable support with the following build tools:
ESBuild
Syncify provides integrated support with ESBuild for processing TypeScript, JavaScript, JSX and TSX file types. ESBuild provides wonderful capabilities like code splitting and tree shaking.
See also Script Transforms.
Using Config File
ESBuild Configuration files esbuild.config.js
are not supported for script transforms.
Using Processors
The esbuild
property is were ESBuild configuration option defaults can be provided.
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli'
export default defineConfig({
processors: {
esbuild: {} // ESBuild Options
}
})
SASS
Syncify provides integrated support with SASS Dart for processing SASS/SCSS file types. Syncify implements its own handling when for usage with SASS and allows you to use it together with PostCSS.
See also Style Transforms.
Config File is not supported
SASS Configuration files are not supported for style transforms.
Using Processors
The sass
property is were SASS configuration option defaults can be provided.
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli'
export default defineConfig({
processors: {
sass: {} // SASS Options
}
})
PostCSS
Syncify provides integrated support with PostCSS for processing CSS file types. You can leverage PostCSS together with the SASS processor for CSS files.
See also Style Transforms.
Using Config File
Provide a postcss.config.js
file in the root of your project or within the defined config
path.
Using Processors
The postcss
property accepts an array list of PostCSS plugins.
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli'
export default defineConfig({
processors: {
postCSS: [] // PostCSS Plugins
}
})
SVGO
Syncify provides integrated support with SVGO for processing SVG file types. If you would like to produce SVG Sprites, then refer to Sprites section which uses SVGO under the hood.
See also SVG Transforms.
Using Config File
Provide a svgo.config.js
file in the root of your project or within the defined config
path.
Using Processors
The svgo
property accepts SVGO configuration options.
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli'
export default defineConfig({
processors: {
svgo: {} // SVGO Options
}
})
Sprite
Syncify provides integrated support for creating SVG Sprites using SVG Sprites. SVG Sprite is a low level module that optimizes SVGs and bakes them into sprites that Syncify can inline and output.
See also SVG Transforms.
Config File is not supported
SVG Sprites Configuration files are not supported for Sprite transforms.
Using Processors
The sprite
property accepts SVG Sprite configuration options.
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli'
export default defineConfig({
processors: {
sprite: {} // SVG Sprite Options
}
})
Sharp
Syncify provides integrated support for convert large images in common formats to smaller, web-friendly JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF and AVIF images of varying dimensions using the Sharp.
See also Image Transforms
Config File is not supported
Sharp Configuration files are not supported for Image transforms.
Using Processors
The sharp
property accepts Sharp configuration options.
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli'
export default defineConfig({
processors: {
sharp: {} // Sharp Options
}
})
Terser
The Terser option is for minification configuration options. Syncify supports minification and compression of Liquid, HTML JSON and also provides handling around Script and Style transform file types. Terse output is core to theme development using Syncify and developers should indeed get into a habit a distributing themes in terse a format.
Does Liquid Minification Matter?
When we are talking about Liquid syntax specifically, there is no real measurable performance increase one gets removing whitespace and newlines but Syncify does more than just strip whitespace, it also performs code elimination. The Syncify minification process will remove comments, strip extraneous delimiter trims and where possible it replaces syntax occurrences for faster equivalents.
Usage
Produce terse output by passing the --terse
command flag. The --prod
flag will also produce terse output. You can pass a boolean false
to options to skip minification. The terser
options defined within your Syncify configuration file will be used when performing minification. If all terser options are set to false
then (logically) terse minification will not be applied.
Terse Options
Below is is the default configuration Syncify uses for minification. The json
, liquid
, markup
and script
options accept either an object or a boolean value. Passing boolean true
will use defaults, whereas boolean false
will skip minification.
import { defineConfig } from '@syncify/cli'
export default defineConfig({
terser: {
json: {
assets: true,
config: true,
locales: true,
metafields: true,
metaobject: true,
groups: true,
templates: true,
exclude: []
},
liquid: {
collapseWhitespace: true,
collapseInner: false,
removeComments: true,
minifyJavascript: false,
minifySchema: false,
minifyStyle: false,
minifyStylesheet: false,
stripDashes: true,
exclude: []
},
markup: {
collapseWhitespace: true,
minifyScriptJSON: true,
minifyScript: true,
minifyStyle: true,
removeComments: true,
exclude: []
},
// Requires ESBuild to be installed
script: {
mangleProps: true,
keepNames: false,
legalComments: true,
keepNames: false,
legalComments: "inline",
mangleProps: undefined,
minifyIdentifiers: true,
minifySyntax: true,
minifyWhitespace: true,
mangleQuoted: true,
exclude: []
}
}
});
CLI Usage
Syncify ships with a powerful command line interface that supports prompt execution. If you have installed Syncify globally, you can call syncify
or sync
from any project but you should avoid this and instead install the module as a development dependency on a per-project basis.
If you are using a package manager like pnpm you can simply call pnpm syncify
(or pnpm sync
) but if you are using npm or yarn then you may need to create reference script within your package.json
file, eg:
{
"scripts": {
"syncify": "syncify"
}
}
If you are not using pnpm then you should really consider adopting it within your stack. It is a wonderful addition to any JavaScript project.
Commands
PARTIALLY INCOMPLETE - NOT ALL COMMANDS WORK
The Syncify CLI supports the following commands.
Default:
syncify Starts interactive CLI command prompt
Aliases:
sync An alias of syncify (can be used instead of syncify)
Commands:
syncify Starts interactive CLI command prompt
syncify <store> --flags Store name or comma separated list of stores and flags
Flags:
-t, --theme <targets> A comma separated list of theme targets
-b, --build Triggers a build, use with upload to run build before uploading
-w, --watch Starts watching for changes of files building when they occur
-u, --upload Uploads theme to online store, use with -t to target theme
-d, --download Downloads themes/s from specified stores
-c, --config <path> An optional config path to the syncify.config.js file.
-h, --hot HOT Reloading (available in watch mode only)
-p, --package Package theme and export to a .zip file
-s, --spawn, <name> Target a specific spawn (use with -w or -b flags to specify mode)
-o, --output <path> A path value (used in download and build mode only)
-h, --help, Prints command list and some help information
-f, --filter <filter> Query online store data API, eg: themes, metafields assets
-v, --version <action> Version control resource mode (see version arguments)
Resource Modes:
--metafields Metafields resource mode
--locales Locales resource mode
--settings Settings resource mode
--redirects Redirects resource mode
Version Arguments:
patch Increments the package.json version patch, eg: 1.0.0 > 1.0.1
minor Increments the package.json version minor, eg: 1.0.0 > 1.1.0
major Increments the package.json version major, eg: 1.0.0 > 2.0.0
Operation Flags:
--clean Removes all output files, use with --build to clean before bundling
--status Checks development environment and connections are valid.
--pull Pull data from online store
--merge Merge online data with local references
--force Forces a sync, replacing remote source with local one
--silent Silence the logger, omit only errors
Generator Flags:
--vsc Generates JSON schema spec for vscode users
--strap <name> Generates a Syncify theme strap, eg: --strap dawn
Environment Flags:
--dev, --development Run in development mode (default)
--prod, --production Run in production mode
Please keep in mind that not all commands are active as the project is still in beta.
Examples
CLI usage aims to be as simple as possible. A typical project will be targeting a single Shopify theme but you can target multiple themes and stores in a seamless manner. When targeting multiple stores or themes the CLI employs a flag based naming approach.
Generate theme targets
$ syncify store-name -q themes
Prompt interface will be initialized
- Target store-name
- Initialize Query resource
- Inform query we want the "themes" endpoint
Generate local metafields
$ syncify store-name --metafields --pull
Prompt interface will be initialized
- Target store-name
- Initialize Metafields resource
- Pull data from online-store
Upload theme to online store
$ syncify store-name -t theme-1,theme-2 --clean -b -u --prod
Exchange interface will be initialized
- Target store-name
- Theme targets are theme-1 and theme-2
- Trigger Clean
- Trigger Build (production build because of --prod flag)
- Trigger Upload
Watching 1 store and 1 theme
$ syncify shop -w -t dev
<details>
<summary>
Breakdown
</summary>
The above command is calling watch
on a store named cool-shop
and will upload changes to a theme named dev
. We are using the shorthand --theme
flag (-t
) to inform upon the theme we want changes uploaded.
The package.json
configuration for the command would look like this:
{
"syncify": {
"stores": {
"domain": "cool-shop", // The store name
"themes": {
"dev": 123456789 // The theme id and target name
}
}
}
}
</details>
Watching 1 store and 2 themes
$ syncify shop -t dev,prod -w
<details>
<summary>
Breakdown
</summary>
The above command is calling watch
on a store named my-shop
and will upload changes to 2 different themes in that store we have named dev
and prod
.
The package.json
configuration for the command would look like this:
{
"syncify": {
"stores": {
"domain": "my-shop", // The store name
"themes": {
"dev": 123456789, // The theme id and target name
"prod": 123456789 // The theme id and target name
}
}
}
}
</details>
Watching 2 stores and multiple themes
$ syncify shop1,shop2 --shop1=test --shop2=dev,stage,prod -w
<details>
<summary>
Breakdown
</summary>
The above command is calling watch
on 2 stores, shop1
and shop2
. We are targeting a theme named test
in the store shop1
and 3 different themes in shop2
named dev
, stage
and prod
. Syncify will upload changes to both store and all the defined themes. Notice how we target different store themes in the command using the store name as a flag.
The package.json
configuration for the command would look like this:
{
"syncify": {
"stores": [
{
"domain": "shop1", // The store name
"themes": {
"test": 123456789 // The theme id and target name
}
},
{
"domain": "shop2", // The store name
"themes": {
"dev": 123456789,
"stage": 123456789,
"prod": 123456789
}
}
]
}
}
</details>
Prompts
Syncify provides a helpful command prompt feature. Running syncify
will provide you a simple prompt interface from which you can use to explore endpoints directly from your CLI or trigger commands.
Options
Queries
API
Syncify can be initialized within scripts. This approach is a little more feature-full and allows you to integrate it with different build tools. You can hook into the transit process of files and apply modifications before they are uploaded to your store/s with this approach.
Usage
Syncify exports a function that has several methods which you can use to trigger specific modes. The default export can also target multiple hooks in accordance with what was passed from the command line.
import { syncify } from '@syncify/cli';
// Build hook
syncify.build(options: {}, async function(content?: Buffer): Promise<Buffer|string|void|false>);
// Watch hook
syncify.watch(options: {}, async function(content?: Buffer): Promise<Buffer|string|void|false>);
// Upload hook
syncify.upload(options: {}, async function(content?: Buffer): Promise<Buffer|string|void|false>);
// Download hook
syncify.download(options: {}, async function(content?: Buffer): Promise<Buffer|string|void|false>);
// Targeting all hooks
syncify(options: {})({
async build(content?: Buffer): Promise<Buffer|string|void|false>,
async watch(content?: Buffer): Promise<Buffer|string|void|false>,
async upload(content?: Buffer): Promise<Buffer|string|void|false>,
async download(content?: Buffer): Promise<Buffer|string|void|false>,
});
Utilities
Utilities will return some basic information about the Syncify instance. These are extremely helpful when when you are executing spawned processes and need to control what feature to load. For example, if you are spawning a webpack process for compiling JavaScript assets and need to inform upon watch mode you'd use util.resource('watch')
utility which returns a boolean value when running in watch mode.
import { util, env } from '@syncify/cli'
// Environment Conditions
env.prod: boolean;
env.dev: boolean;
env.build: boolean;
env.watch: boolean;
env.download: boolean;
env.upload: boolean;
// Returns environment
util.env('dev' | 'prod'): boolean
// Returns the current resource
util.mode('build' | 'watch' | 'upload' | 'download'): boolean
// Returns spawns
util.spawned(): string[]
Contributing
This project uses pnpm. Fork the project, run pnpm i
and you're good to go.
Author
Created by Nίκος Σαβίδης.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to a couple of talented developers that helped work through ideas and edge-cases on the project.
Changelog
Refer to the Changelog for each per-version update and/or fixes.