I recently had a request from a client to add an app to their Shopify store (that was created with the help of Udesly). While using this Shopify app, I found it very difficult to use, had terrible UI/UX, and didn’t quite seem like it was even close to it’s best possible form.
With that being said, has anyone ever explored the idea of creating the front-end for a Shopify App in Webflow and then connecting it to a back-end such as Ruby On Rails? Is something like this possible? Some of the biggest challenges would include OAuth authentication as well as connection with Shopify’s API.
Your example makes me think that Shopify isn’t really the best option in your case—is there a reason you or the client wants to go this route? I know Udesly offers exporting Webflow sites to other platforms (WordPress, Ghost, and Netlify to be specific), so I’m wondering if going down another path is the better option.
WordPress with WooCommerce is a popular e-commerce setup (although they integrate with a number of other e-commerce platforms as well), and I found an article about using BigCommerce with Netlify to create a JAMstack e-commerce storefront that you can check out here. While I wouldn’t recommend Ghost in this case, they also appear to have a number of e-commerce integrations that may help out.
Thanks for the reply. I think there’s some confusion on this topic. The Webflow to Shopify conversion has been wonderful and has produced a great product. What I’m referring to is the ability to create apps for Shopify’s marketplace that are build & hosted in Webflow. The app I’m talking about works, but it’s not a beautiful, complete experience if that makes sense. I’m merely pondering the idea of app development via Webflow
Ah I see. My apologies for misunderstanding your question.
I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to take an exported site and connect it up to work within the their app environment, although admittedly I have zero experience with creating Shopify Apps. There may be some situations where the necessary dependencies included in Webflow exports could cause some issues, but it would definitely be an interesting case study if it works.
I was even considering taking it a step further…the idea was jquery with rails, and have all click functions be created with pure jquery (not IX2) to prevent any confliction. Zestful managed to create a full scale app this way, but I’ve yet to see it done for a Shopify app. More research will need to be required for sure.
