We’re working on updating our theme to a horizon based one and have added custom code. Updates for Horizon are frequent, and there doesn’t appear to be an easy way to apply these updates with our custom code flowing through.
Could you advise on the recommended workflow to safely update Horizon while preserving customisations?
Wondering the same thing!
Hi @homestore349 ! Theme updates + custom code = headaches, we know. We’re currently working on ways to make it easier to update your theme to the latest version when you’ve added custom code. Stay tuned.
Whats the ETA on this matter would you say?
Until Shopify ships what Nick described, the workflow that survives frequent Horizon updates is to treat your customisations as a list of files, not as a theme.
Keep every custom piece in its own snippet, section or asset where Horizon’s structure allows it, and write down the handful of core files you had to edit directly. Those are the only ones an update can overwrite. Before each update, take a versioned copy of the current theme. Update into a new copy as Shopify recommends, then compare your list against the new version and re-apply only those files.
The comparison is the step people skip, and it is where a versioned copy pays for itself. Two versions of the same file side by side show whether Shopify changed that file too, and that is exactly the case where copying your old file over would break the update.
The app I maintain, StoreVault, keeps daily versions of theme files for that comparison and, since 8 September, can write your files back into the theme they came from through a plan that names each file. It does not create or publish themes, so the update itself stays a manual step you control.