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/routes/builder/[handle].server.tsx for where we integrate Builder.io
• Learn more about Builder.io

Get Started

• Clone this project: git clone https://github.com/BuilderIO/builder-shopify-hydrogen
• Install dependencies: cd builder-shopify-hydrogen; yarn
• Run the server: yarn dev
• Create a free account at builder.io
• Go to builder.io/models, choose the page model and change the Editing URL to http://localhost:3000
• Create a new page with url /builder/testing
• Explore the drag and drop editor
• Hit publish, then go to http://localhost:3000/builder/testing and see your page!

Explore more in the Builder.io developer docs

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:

• Gatsby
• Next.js
• Angular
• HTML API (for any framework)

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!

Troubleshooting and feedback

Problems? Requests? Open an issue. We always want to hear feedback and interesting new use cases and are happy to help.