Today we’re excited to announce our latest partner with StackBlitz WebContainers — Shopify!
Shopify has always been great at utilizing the best that the web has to offer in order to provide a seamless experience for building e-commerce products.
Such a web-first approach is something that lays at the core of what we do here in StackBlitz as well, so we were thrilled when Tobi Lütke revealed a sneak peek of their new React framework named “Hydrogen” earlier this year.
Why Hydrogen?
Hydrogen is built by Shopify as a commerce-focused React framework with file-based routing, which is a great foundation for a solid developer experience. But Hydrogen goes even further. Recognizing that React used only on the client-side leads to load time issues, it seamlessly incorporates server-side streaming and a combination of client and server components into the mix, so you end up with an optimized storefront application.
Traditionally, in order to start using this kind of setup, you need to leave the browser, have Node.js, Git, and a code editor installed, and only then initialize the project. But since the introduction of WebContainers earlier this year, it doesn’t have to be the case – the web can now do all that!
Shopify and WebContainers
We have been working with Shopify to reduce the number of these steps needed to play with Hydrogen and we’re happy to announce that we’ve got it down to one: visit hydrogen.new and you are all set!
You get an in-browser development environment with freshly installed dependencies, Node.js running a development server with Hydrogen starter template, a code editor, and a preview with the Hydrogen app reflecting in real-time any changes you make to its code. All this runs not on some remote virtual machine, but locally, so it’s fast, free, and still works when your internet connection drops.
Delivering great DX is a key Hydrogen objective. StackBlitz unlocks a true one-click startup experience with the full stack running in the browser—it’s a game-changer.
What’s next?
We firmly believe you should be able to build for the web with the web. We’re delighted to be working with Shopify as they share this same vision, and in the next months, we will see many other such integrations, but also substantial improvements of capabilities of WebContainers themselves – after all, it’s a technology that’s not even 6 months in the public!
Check out the Hydrogen’s developer preview announced today over at hydrogen.new and stay tuned for more… 😉
