The BigCommerce team has developed an array of sample apps and tools to assist developers in the initial phase of app development. In this article, we’ll introduce those tools and go over how to begin app development by installing and registering a draft app.
Here’s a few things you’ll need before beginning app development:
The fastest way to begin app development is by starting with one of our sample apps. You can follow our Building Apps Quick Start Tutorial, either alone or in conjunction with spinning up a Heroku instance that runs our Node / React / Next.js sample app.
Alternatively, you can clone the GitHub repo for your preferred stack:
You can use ngrok to test apps locally. It’s easy to install and works well with Express:
For step-by-step instructions, see How to Test App Authentication Locally with ngrok on our developer blog.
Once you’ve exposed your app to the internet, you can register it as a draft app in the Developer Portal using the app’s callback URLs. Use the following steps to register:
https://4022ffe4.ngrok.io/authhttps://4022ffe4.ngrok.io/loadhttps://4022ffe4.ngrok.io/uninstallclient_id and client_secret.Any store registered to the same email as your Developer Portal account can install your draft apps. Use the following steps to install:
GET request to the app’s /auth callback URL. If the app handles all the requests successfully, the app has been installed, and you can begin feature development.