Shopify App

This gem builds Rails applications that can be embedded in the Shopify Admin.

Introduction | Requirements | Usage | Documentation | Contributing | License

Introduction

This gem includes a Rails engine, generators, modules, and mixins that help create Rails applications that work with Shopify APIs. The Shopify App Rails engine provides all the code required to implement OAuth with Shopify. The default Shopify App generator builds an app that can be embedded in the Shopify Admin and secures it with session tokens.

Requirements

To become a Shopify app developer, you will need a Shopify Partners account. Explore the Shopify dev docs to learn more about building Shopify apps.

This gem requires that you have the following credentials:

• Shopify API key: The API key app credential specified in your Shopify Partners dashboard.
• Shopify API secret: The API secret key app credential specified in your Shopify Partners dashboard.

Usage

[!NOTE] This package works best with the Shopify CLI. Learn more at https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/build/cli-for-apps

To get started with a Rails app already connected to the Shopify CLI, run shopify app init --template=ruby for a complete setup app. (Recommended) Follow the instructions below to use this gem with a new or existing Rails app.

1. To get started, create a new Rails app:

rails new my_shopify_app

2. Add the Shopify App gem to the app's Gemfile:

bundle add shopify_app

3. Connect the Shopify CLI to your app:

Setting up Shopify CLI

For a more detailed guide on how to set up Shopify CLI, see the Shopify CLI documentation.

To use your Rails app with Shopify CLI, you'll need to create the required configuration files and set up your project structure:

1. Create a package.json file in your app's root directory:

{
  "name": "my-shopify-app",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "Shopify app built with Rails",
  "scripts": {},
  "dependencies": {},
  "engines": {
    "node": ">=18.0.0"
  }
}

This is required for the Shopify CLI to work. It will be used if you add extension like Checkout UI extensions to your app.

2. Create a shopify.app.toml configuration file in your app's root:

# Learn more about configuring your app at https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/tools/cli/configuration

client_id = ""
name = "My Shopify App"
handle = "my-shopify-app"
application_url = "https://localhost:3000"
embedded = true

[access_scopes]
# Learn more at https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/tools/cli/configuration#access_scopes
scopes = "write_products"

[auth]
redirect_urls = [
  "https://localhost:3000/api/auth",
  "https://localhost:3000/api/auth/callback",
  "https://localhost:3000/auth/callback",
  "https://localhost:3000/auth/shopify/callback"
]

[webhooks]
api_version = "2024-10"

[[webhooks.subscriptions]]
topics = ["app/uninstalled"]
uri = "/api/webhooks"

[pos]
embedded = false

[build]
automatically_update_urls_on_dev = true
dev_store_url = "YOUR-DEV-STORE.myshopify.com"

3. Create a shopify.web.toml file to configure how Shopify CLI runs your Rails app:

# Learn more about configuring your app at https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/tools/cli/configuration

[commands]
dev = "bin/rails server -b 0.0.0.0 -e development"
build = "RAILS_ENV=production bin/rails assets:precompile"

4. (Optional) Update your Rails development configuration to allow Shopify's tunnel hosts. In config/environments/development.rb, add:

Rails.application.configure do
  # Allow ngrok tunnels for secure Shopify OAuth redirects
  config.hosts = (config.hosts rescue []) << /[-\w]+\.ngrok\.io/
  # Allow Cloudflare tunnels for secure Shopify OAuth redirects
  config.hosts = (config.hosts rescue []) << /[-\w]+\.trycloudflare\.com/
  
  # Or to allow all hosts in development (less secure):
  # config.hosts.clear
  
  # ... rest of your configuration
end

With the Shopify CLI you can use localhost development to run your app.

5. Generate your API credentials

shopify app config link
> create a new app

6. Run the default Shopify App generator to create an app that can be embedded in the Shopify Admin:

rails generate shopify_app

7. Run a migration to create the necessary tables in your database:

rails db:migrate

8. Start the dev server and install the app

shopify app dev

Clink on the Preview URL to install the app and view it in the Shopify Admin

This app implements OAuth 2.0 Token Exchange with Shopify to authenticate requests made to Shopify APIs. By default, this app is configured to use session tokens to authenticate merchants when embedded in the Shopify Admin.

See Generators for a complete list of generators available to Shopify App.

Documentation

You can find documentation on gem usage, concepts, mixins, installation, and more in /docs.

• Start with the Generators document to learn more about the generators this gem offers.
• Check out the Changelog for notes on the latest gem releases.
• See Troubleshooting for tips on common issues.
• If you are looking to upgrade your Shopify App version to a new major release, see Upgrading for important notes on breaking changes.

Overview

Quickstart

Troubleshooting

Upgrading

Shopify App

• Authentication
• Engine
• Controller Concerns
• Generators
• Sessions
• Testing
• Webhooks
• Content Security Policy
• Logging

Engine

Mounting the Shopify App Rails Engine provides the following routes. These routes are configured to help install your application on shops and implement OAuth.

These routes are configurable. See the more detailed Engine documentation to learn how you can customize the login URL or mount the Shopify App Rails engine at nested routes.

To learn more about how this gem authenticates with Shopify, see Authentication.

New embedded app authorization strategy (Token Exchange)

[!TIP] If you are building an embedded app, we strongly recommend using Shopify managed installation with token exchange instead of the legacy authorization code grant flow.

We've introduced a new installation and authorization strategy for embedded apps that eliminates the redirects that were previously necessary. It replaces the existing installation and authorization code grant flow.

This is achieved by using Shopify managed installation to handle automatic app installations and scope updates, while utilizing token exchange to retrieve an access token for authenticated API access.

Enabling this new strategy in your app

1. Enable Shopify managed installation by configuring your scopes through the Shopify CLI.

[!NOTE] Ensure you don't have use_legacy_install_flow = true in your shopify.app.toml configuration file. If use_legacy_install_flow is true, Shopify will not manage the installation process for your app. You should remove the use_legacy_install_flow line from your shopify.app.toml configuration file or set it to false.

2. Enable the new auth strategy in your app's ShopifyApp configuration file.

# config/initializers/shopify_app.rb
ShopifyApp.configure do |config|
  #.....
  config.embedded_app = true
  config.new_embedded_auth_strategy = true

  # You can enable session expiry date check so a new access token is fetched automatically when the session expires.
  # See expiry date check docs: https://github.com/Shopify/shopify_app/blob/main/docs/shopify_app/sessions.md#expiry-date
  config.check_session_expiry_date = true
  ...
end

3. Handle special callback logic. If your app has overridden the OAuth CallbackController to run special tasks post authorization, you'll need to create and configure a custom PostAuthenticateTasks class to run these tasks after the token exchange. The original OAuth CallbackController will not be triggered anymore. See Post Authenticate Tasks documentation for more information.
4. Make sure your embedded_app layout is correct. If your app has any controller which includes ShopifyApp::EnsureInstalled, they will now also include the ShopifyApp::EmbeddedApp concern, which sets layout 'embedded_app' for the current controller by default. In cases where the controller originally looked for another layout file, this can cause unexpected behavior. See EmbeddedApp concern's documentation for more information on the effects of this concern and how to disable the layout change if needed.
5. Enjoy a smoother and faster app installation process.

API Versioning

Shopify's API is versioned. With Shopify App v1.11.0, the included Shopify API gem allows developers to specify and update the Shopify API version they want their app or service to use. The Shopify API gem also surfaces warnings to Rails apps about deprecated endpoints, GraphQL fields and more.

See the Shopify API gem README for more information.