Builder.io + Shopify Hydrogen – headless visual page building example
Example repo using Builder.io for drag and drop page building with Shopify hydrogen
- Check out the hydrogen docs
- See ./src/pages/landing/[handle].server.jsx for where we integrate Builder.io
- Learn more about Builder.io
Why Builder.io?
Hardcoding layouts for frequently changing content bottlenecks your team and makes releases messy
Using an API-driven UI allows you to:
- Decouple page updates from deploys
- Schedule, a/b test, and personalize via APIs
- Reduce code + increase composability
Who uses Builder.io?
How is the content structured?
In Builder, content is structured in models, and customized with custom fields and targeting
- Builder pages – full drag and drop control between your site’s header and footer. Try it out
- Builder sections – make a part of a page visually editable in Builder and use our targeting and scheduling to decide who sees what. Try it out
- Builder data – fetch structured data from Builder and use it anywhere in your application (e.g. menu items, structured pages). Try it out
Read more about how builder works here
See here for examples on how to structure a site with Builder
Getting started
Requirements:
- Node v14+
- Yarn
yarn
yarn dev
Remember to update shopify.config.js
with your shop’s domain and Storefront API token!
Previewing a production build
To run a local preview of your Hydrogen app in an environment similar to Oxygen, build your Hydrogen app and then run yarn preview
:
yarn build
yarn preview
Building for production
yarn build
Then, you can run a local server.js
using the production build with:
yarn serve
Structuring your site
There are a lot of ways you can use Builder for your site. Some of the main questions you’ll want to ask yourselves – what on your site should be in your code vs in Builder.
As a general rule, parts of your site that should be managed by non developers should probably be in Builder. Parts that are complex with a lot of code, should probably be in your codebase. Using custom components in your Builder content can help you strike a good balance here as well
Here are some examples we recommend for how to structure various pages on your site, for instance for a headless commerce site:
How the Builder.io platform works
Data models, components, SEO, and more
Builder.io gives you a ton more power and control than just page building. Check our guides on
- Custom models
- Custom design systems in Builder.io
- SEO optimizing Builder.io content
- Custom React components in the visual editor
- Components only mode
Additional framework support:
As well as some handy power features like:
- Symbols
- Dynamic data fetching and binding
- State handling
- Content API
- GraphQL API
- Webhooks
- Targeting and scheduling content
- Extending Builder.io with plugins
Join the community!
Questions? Requests? Feedback? Chat with us in our Discord!