Shopify theme development

Well, not so much paid gig as potential partnership. I’ve been using Pinegrow for many versions and have a subscription going out five years but I’m really not a coder so much as a marketer and seeker of opportunities.

As a Shopify Partner focusing on advising enterprise users I’m hoping to increase my company’s profile by adding some themes and possibly some apps to their marketplace.

Since they rely upon SASS and React js components along with their Polaris SDK for apps and their helpful Liquid theme editor and Slate as a bare-bones template with helper scripts, I’m hoping that some Pinegrow coder will join me on developing and marketing something now that Matjaz and crew have made it far easier to do so.

Such help would allow me to do what I do best and let some gifted dev work his/her magic. And please, don’t sell yourself short. I’m happy to go on the unpaid journey with anyone willing to learn a new skill that might just pay off.

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What a Fab opportunity for someone. great!

More of a learning adventure than opportunity at the moment. However, sometimes a little focused effort on something no one else has done yet leads to something that people think is worth paying for.

With around 600k users, the Shopify market is an easier nut to crack than Wordpress at the moment.

Good Skills. I assume you’ve got the Market research at least started then, if not honed, but basically, if its anything like your previous venture, it’ll be morally correct!
this is good :slight_smile:

Alas, I fail the skill set :slight_smile:
currently. But if you need any finger paintings, just let me know
:smiley:

Ha. You are why I warned about selling oneself short. The world is full of brainiacs who never act and a many a successful venture has been started by those who dare to fail.

You like to help. As do I. As does anyone who contributes to an open source project.

Sometimes it’s fun to solve a problem and actually make a buck. I never did so in 17 years of warning the public about scams and I don’t regret it.

Still, I’d like to brainstorm a successful concept while motivating some shy dev to impress the world with their efforts.

Who wants to try without fear of failure?

There is a good quote…
if you don’t build your dream, then someone will hire you to build theirs instead.

Well, I’m about and available, let me just check my packed Itinery for …my life…
mmm… well, Can just about squeeze you in …this year.

is this year good?
now…back to the required skill set :slight_smile:

A good quote indeed.

Let’s work at my pace then, which is tortoise slow. We’ll do it all in the open until ready to launch.

That way everyone will learn the process as we do and can jump on board at will to encourage us on our journey or perhaps invite us on theirs in gratitude. ie. early stock options in hugely successful IPO. Ha.

Like most hair-brained and overly optimistic entrepreneurial things I do, it will all come to naught but, since I always learn something in the process, I feel I’m moving in the right direction regardless.

Let’s start a couple new topics and see what happens.

Happy days, sounds like a (hare brained) plan!
Me likes.

in other news, currently registering two domain names for a mate and currently setting up his hosting packages for him in my reseller account.

like most things… these may too, come to nought, but he has been asking for a while, so shall help him out and see if his bird actually flies.

or batters its beak into a cliff and nose dives into the compost bed below :smiley:
we are the dreamers of the new age and CAN manifest!.. (turds)

I would have thought about @itsmeleo for coding stuff (and he is terribly social and inquisitive)
and maybe @benhanna for … some of the other stuff. if he has time/inclination.
Also sociable and incredibly creative/productive but has his whole

pluginsforpinegrow.com

things going on so not sure if it would be beneficial/doable for him.
He also has some vision about him I feel… HI BEN! in this open plan discussion :smiley:

OH yeah, I am obviously biased as I like them :slight_smile:
talking of which, as Benhanna is in the land of the Emerald Isle, Ive not heard much from @Rob on here for a while. he is over there in Ireland too.
he is also really helpful and fun.

I have been chatting to him since way back! we even won our Pinegrow licences together, in a competition. back in the day :smiley:

I helped him out and then…he won! he’s a graphic designer type (and now can code some too :slight_smile: )
So the nice people at pinegrow (HI @matjaz and @Emmanuel … not sure if @mhdj was on the their team back then) awarded me the …er… Special achievers award

You know, for the … sets low standards and constantly endeavours (and usually fails) to achieve them
kind of thing for the window licking cross eyed puppy that comes in with the awkward kids and sits at the back of the class…

right, great!
now, I guess I got to learn something :slight_smile:
super.
currently studying photography on the shaw academy. Just finished the first part of my diploma this week.
yay! that any good?

ah… back to coding… sigh

And, as an aside, just how is your 5000 page, or whatever it was, anti scam site makeover going?
gone into therapy yet?

Like all never-ending tasks, I have needed the odd distraction to keep life livable. Am learning Spanish for an upcoming trip to Peru and trying to maintain a bit of Mandarin from the last. Also signed up to a couple dozen Udemy courses plus FutureLearn.

Now trying to become authority on Shopify by devoting 100 hours to research. One drawback is that it’s stimulated my entrepreneurial brain-stem to the point I’ve not properly slept for the past three nights.

I could now carry my lunch to work in the bags under my eyes.

I’ve also bought Ben’s blocks to support him but, like the multitude of other software I have, never find time use it.

I rue the day I heard about AppSumo. I just blew $200 today on neat stuff that I might use once if I’m lucky.

Hence my belief that if we can create and market something potentially useful at a good price we might just sell it to optimists like me.

No idea of how to do this in a fun and collective manner but willing to try even if I get screwed again.

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I did just burst out with laughter, reading the eyeBag Thing :slight_smile:
ah Mania! isn’t it fab? …when its this side of the coin anyway.
funnily enough I didnt sleep at all the night before and then went to the shops to get breakfast,
because I hadn’t eaten either,
that was because I had set up my very first

PINEGROW CONVENTION!

Yes!

Well, there was just about enough room for us all - er… as we both sat upstairs… in the the other guys house
Hi there Mark!

:smiley: he has now bought PG Pro WP edition. just a few days before the 4.6 came out.
so I went and explained that latin is no longer the main programming language,
Web sites and their construction has changed a little since FrontPage and … the early 90’s

and then, the icing on the cake,
the PineGrow Interface!

yeah!
Its really quite fab now, but when you don’t know what Bootstrap is, Frameworks, Blocks, the difference between Element Attributes (ie, WHY …is a h1 and and a bootstrap blocks properties/elements in the SAME tab? aren’t those blocks attibutes actually styles? and should be under the styles tab? … going to be a long night)

and, well, just actual Styles themselves!!

why are they written with the html code, oh hang on they are at the top now… hey! whats this extra stuff,
myStyles.css… how are they in a different place/file? how do. get them into my html page.

WOW!
How things really have changed!

So , it was actually great to explain some /lots of this stuff to my mate to help him out, as he was obviously really into this stuff back in the day… but, my, how it has all changed.

so the PG interface now covers SO MUCH stuff, in an awesome way… and and and… the docs are now getting there!

BUT its so easy to for get how overwhelming it can be when you are SUDDENLY presented with INSTANT access to all the past 20 years of web dev in a MODERN interface that presents you with a direct method to manipulate ALL THESE THINGS… in an intuitive manner (mostly)… if

You don’t know what these things actually are and ALL the best practice principles.

we were there for about 4 hours.
We didnt write a line of code.

WE dragged one block!
and then had to find how to style it (oops I mean Edit its *Element Attributes (ie, background image)

So yep!
I’m up for helping others. that is my payback. if we can’t help each other without a perceived hey! whats in this for me? WHERE IS MY MONEY?
then really… what is the point?
Life then boils down to a totally mercenary survival situation.

I am lucky, although I whine about stuff sometimes, I am not living in sub saharan Africa
or a Jungle or the Antarctic.

I am probably NOT going to die of starvation , even though I don’t alway even have enough money for food, but my currency is KNOWLEDGE and my main Tour de Force is my extensive KNOWLEDGE base and skillsets
Diverse!

BUt, we can also have the P*ss taken out of his and those OTHER mercenary types can try and take us for a ride. - I kind of avoid those like the plague - after explaining to them what that situation is like, if they don’t get it, I’m gone.

So, its. fine balance of selecting who to assist, realise what is in it …for yourself, *payback or just the good feeling of helping someone else, who will then, undoubtedly, go on to better their own lives, or helps others to do likewise, or… best scenario … both - and then maybe come back and help you out too :).

oh. my! what a an early morning discourse!
Should I actually shut up and let some proper devs and coders get in here and actually contribute the stuff you initially requested?

oops, sorry :slight_smile:

It may be far more fun and less stressful to just figure it out on our own. I’m confident we can but I always need some motivation for sticking with it. I see that many devs create great stuff but lack the confidence or social skills to market it.

We are all made equal by the balancing of our individual attributes and faults. It’s great when you can line up your strengths to support another’s weakness.

Since we sound the same in many respects we can at least form another two man club.

I built my first site with Frontpage in 2000. Then had to convert it to Dreamweaver and on an on. That’s why I jumped on Pinegrow. No more proprietary code to extract.

A boatload of stuff to keep learning though. I missed several years of tech when I had to become a lawyer. Luckily Matjaz does a great job of guiding all skill levels.

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I’m following this thread with a bit of interest. What kind of skillset are you looking for at the moment? Haven’t really dove into Shopify. I must admit that my leanings are much more toward coding and less toward making them look good.

I currently have no idea what any of us can or need to bring to the table. I just figure that we might use Pinegrow to gain an advantage over other theme and app developers in some way, in a growing market that isn’t as over-saturated with competition.

I’m working on a bit of a roadmap to understand the process while also trying to determine a market need that has yet to be properly addressed.

Shopify is really supportive so it’s just a matter of me getting things rolling so that we can have intelligent discussions on who is needed where and when.

For now I suggest people review the assets at https://developers.shopify.com/ and https://www.shopify.ca/partners/blog/topics/shopify-theme-development

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A couple of free SkillShare courses on Shopify that may be of interest.

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I’m also following this discussion with interest. My skill set is primarily design, but since getting Pinegrow, I’ve become extremely interested in coding. I’ve got a basic understanding of HTML and CSS, and much less of an understanding of Javascript. I’ve designed and built over a hundred websites for my clients, roughly over the past 8 years.

Unfortunately, I made a huge mistake and didn’t embrace responsive design quickly enough. Instead I continued to build static sites, so that now I’m way behind the curve, and my clients want their sites to work on mobile. At least Pinegrow is helping me to get caught up more quickly than I expected. I’ve already built my first responsive site for a client with Pinegrow. Nothing fantastic, just a simple, three page site, but it’s a start. Right now, I’ve got two other sites under construction, both paying gigs.

I’d like to hear more about your venture, Farscaper, if you do manage to get something going.

Hey @Farscaper - still playing in the Shopify universe? I’m curious if you are still thinking about co-developing something. I would be interested!

I’m afraid that that boat already sailed when I failed to get enough passengers.

I’ve moved on to NLP chatbots using DialogFlow and ActiveChat, but also have a hardware-based project on the go, just to make sure I am fully distracted to the point of being immobilised.

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perhaps, but… “When the student is ready the master will appear.”