Since shopify is a cloud based platform where you the developer do not control the servers
the main pivot point becomes who retains control over the code before deployment and or payment for services.
You or the business that your working with.
3. use the shopify cli to work in a development theme in the merchants store, or a staging store
https://shopify.dev/docs/themes/tools/cli#development-themes
4. I haven't tested this but there is now a yet another way announced in shopify-editions-summer-23
Though not clear if this will be reserved only for plus organizations.
staging environments - copy import store data to a created production store or dev store
https://youtu.be/83M45mRTt7c?t=158
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/organization-settings/stores/create-store
A main store with staging themes, or a secondary store with published testing themes.
A secondary staging store can a better a approach when:
- a longterm relationship with high iteration but you need to retain control over the work being done until payment. i.e. if you just put code on a production store they have possession of your code.
- the business needs to build deployment process
- staging includes testing product data/content or testing apps NOT just theme changes
- no or few apps
- testing domain being different doesn't matter ie. brand.com vs brand-dev.myshopify.com (things like analytics etc have to be verified before working, or hardcoded relative urls that do not exist on the staging store,etc)
- storefront password being requiered doesn't matter.
- for testing you need the working-theme to be the live theme. Because unpublished theme previews have some diffferences such as having a redirect that can impact performance testing; or the constant preview-bar stuck to the footer(if not hidden with css)
Both stores however will need an app setup to keep as much data as possible in sync.
However this method can be problematic for stores that use lots of apps as almost all apps have no concept of staging stores, and few have their own apis letting you sync an apps settings for different stores.
5. you set it up as a dev store as a shopify-partner transferring it to the client to active a store plan.
This is best if they need a staging environ for multiple contributors where work needs to stay under the merchants control. That generally works for you only if everything is prepaid/contracted.
@Inventive_Web_D wrote:
1. Duplicate the theme and work on it in their dashboard
Specificity: duplicate the published theme to their admins theme library and work in the browser based code editor*.
This means other collaborators or staff with theme access can step on your toes or overwrite work.
Instead of working in the browser based code editor for a theme in the theme library use themekit to work on code in a local code editor, requiring
https://shopify.dev/docs/themes/tools/theme-kit
advanced: if you have permissions a custom app can be used to config theme-kit
