Christopher Dodd – Shopify Theme Developer

Shopify Theme Developer by Christopher Dodd is a downloadable course on building and customizing Shopify themes. Its 135+ video lessons move from frontend fundamentals to Liquid, Shopify APIs, and Web Components.

The course is designed for aspiring and working web developers, including freelancers, agency developers, career changers, and store owners who want to work on their own themes.

Shopify theme development skills

• Build responsive websites using modern HTML5, CSS3, Flexbox, and Grid layouts
• Master Shopify Liquid templating language with 32 comprehensive lessons
• Implement JavaScript interactivity including DOM manipulation and AJAX requests
• Use Shopify AJAX APIs for Cart, Product, and Predictive Search functionality
• Create Web Components following Shopify Dawn theme architecture patterns
• Develop custom sections and blocks for the Shopify theme customizer

Shopify Theme Developer program breakdown

The seven modules combine frontend development with Shopify platform concepts and theme-specific programming. Practical work includes five HTML and CSS exercises, responsive development from Figma designs, and projects applying the course techniques.

Module 1: HTML and CSS fundamentals

Across 35 lessons, this module introduces semantic HTML5 structure, CSS selectors, the box model, Flexbox, CSS Grid, and responsive design principles. Five practical exercises provide opportunities to apply the fundamentals.

Module 2: Frontend JavaScript

The 15 JavaScript lessons cover variables, functions, arrays, DOM traversal, event listeners, and AJAX in the context of frontend development. Web design fundamentals provide a useful foundation for this material.

Module 3: Responsive web development

In 16 lessons, you apply HTML and CSS to turn Figma designs into responsive websites. The module explores mobile-first development, media queries, and the reasoning behind responsive layouts.

Module 4: Shopify Liquid

This 32-lesson module provides more than four hours of instruction in Shopify’s templating language. It covers Liquid syntax, objects, filters, JSON templates, theme structure, and blocks.

Practical examples show how Liquid is used for menus, images, product forms, cart pages, blogs, and search.

Module 5: Shopify JavaScript

The 15 lessons cover Shopify’s Cart, Product, Product Recommendations, and Predictive Search AJAX APIs. Other topics include product variant selection, the Section Rendering API, and integration with Web Components.

Module 6: Shopify store setup

Ten lessons introduce the platform architecture behind a Shopify store. Topics include products and variants, collections, pages, navigation, themes, custom data through metafields and metaobjects, discounts, and apps.

Module 7: Web Components

The final 12 lessons cover Custom Elements, Shadow DOM, Slots and Templates, and ES Modules. The module relates these concepts to the architecture of Shopify’s Dawn theme.

Course materials and practical work

The downloadable course includes videos and PDFs, with 135+ video lessons across the seven modules. Its practical work ranges from HTML and CSS exercises to responsive Figma-to-code development and Shopify theme implementation.

About Christopher Dodd

Christopher Dodd is a self-taught web developer, YouTuber, and educator who has worked remotely since 2015. He began specializing in Shopify theme development in 2019 after joining Shopify Plus partner agency Stead Lane.

He has worked with agencies and Shopify stores in the seven- to nine-figure range. He is also a top-rated Skillshare instructor with thousands of students and has published a Shopify Liquid video on YouTube.

Frequently asked questions

What does Shopify Theme Developer cover?

The course covers HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Shopify Liquid, store setup, AJAX APIs, and Web Components across seven modules.

Do I need coding experience to start?

No prior coding experience is required. The curriculum begins with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript fundamentals before moving into Shopify-specific development.

What materials are included?

The downloadable materials include videos and PDFs. The curriculum also includes practical exercises and Figma-to-code responsive development work.

Does the course cover Online Store 2.0?

Yes. It covers Online Store 2.0 topics including JSON templates, metafields, metaobjects, and Web Components.