Quickstart guide to a working Site theme

In the following guide, you’ll start by signing up with Ecwid and will end up with a fully working Site theme code deployed to your test store.

You need a good knowledge of Typescript and its Vue framework to build themes. Site themes are built locally and then deployed to the Ecwid environment. After deploying, you can find and install your template in the website Editor. To apply any deployed changes, you need to reinstall the template.

Step 1. Sign up with Ecwid

You need a store on any paid plan to start working with IS themes. Sign up with Ecwid

We will provide you with a free test store with API access if you:

• Work on a Site customization for one of our clients

• Want to develop a public section or a theme for our App Market

Email us to get a test store.

If you already have a working store, you can safely build themes in a local environment and check them with website Editor without applying any changes. Preview mode in the Editor allows it.

Step 2. Set up an application

Working with Site themes requires authorization and access to Ecwid API. We have a platform called application where you can configure permissions called access scopes and authorize different APIs. A private application that gives access to your store API only is called a custom application.

Get up a custom app right from your Ecwid admin on the app dashboard.

Step 3. Get access scope

With the app, you can access store data with API. However, you need to request additional permissions to build Site themes: add_custom_blocks and add_custom_templates.

Email us with your application name or client_id and required access scopes, so we can update the app for you.

Step 4. Install Node.js and npm

Use CLI (Command Line Interface) to deploy the theme code to Ecwid. If your CLI doesn't yet support npm/npx commands, install the required package from the Node.js official website.

Please make sure that your local node version matches the minimum version required by the crane tool. Check the node and npm version by running the following commands:

node -v
npm -v

We recommend using Node.js LTS version 22+ to ensure stability and avoid compatibility issues.

Crane is a CLI tool for developing Site themes. Learn more about the Crane tool

With Crane, you can get a template code working locally and control its deployment with CLI. Use the following commands to set up a project folder, install all dependencies, and get the theme template code.

• Create a project folder and go into it:

mkdir my-theme-project // create the project
cd my-theme-project // go inside the project

• Initialize a new app inside the project folder:

npx @lightspeed/crane@latest init --app my-app

• Go to the app folder, initialize the theme template code:

cd my-app // go inside the app
npx @lightspeed/crane@latest init --template example-template // name it however you want

• Initialize the exemple section code:

npx @lightspeed/crane@latest init --section my-section

• Go into the example section folder and install Sass style package (you can switch to another package later):

cd my-section
npm install -D sass

Now you have a project folder with all the required files and modules to start theme development.

Step 6. Set up a project in IDE

We recommend using the free VS Code application with Vue and TypeScript extensions. Open the project folder there and check the file structure inside. Learn more about the structure

First, you need to set up the crane.config.json file, it will connect the themes you build locally with the application on our side. Open it and copy the client_id and client_secret from your custom application to the file. Find these values at the bottom of the Ecwid admin > #develop-apps > Details page.

After the changes, your file should look like this:

{
    "app_client_id": "custom-app-1003-1",
    "app_secret_key": "HHLmjxjjQrRpDPrC5Uzx2BooUQeeesEmr"
}

Step 7. Deploy theme template to Ecwid

From this point, you can start developing custom themes. To start, deploy the template theme to Ecwid as it is.

To do so, make sure your application is installed in the Ecwid admin. Go to Ecwid admin > My apps and check if your custom app is listed there. After that, run the build and deploy commands in CLI.

Go to the app folder inside the project:

$ cd ~/{proj_folder}/my-app

Build templates on your local machine:

$ npx @lightspeed/crane@latest build

Deploy built templates to Ecwid:

$ npx @lightspeed/crane@latest deploy

You should see build logs and a deploy success message in CLI. Email us with details about your application and store if you have any errors in this step.

Now you can find your custom template in the website Editor in your Ecwid admin. Go to Settings > Templates in the top left Editor menu.

Next steps

Learn more about all the files in the project folder and building public templates:

Learn the structure of your project

Publish your templates