What is the Shopify Public App Install Flow?

Question

So I've been building a Shopify App.

Currently I've gotten to the point where I get the permanent access code.

My question lies with the flow of installation.

Currently the store owner would create an account on my website, then click a button to install our shopify app.

taken to shopify app install prompt -> clicks install -> redirects to my site where I exchange code for access code.

This works fine. But where I am having trouble is what if once my app is on the Shopify Store.

A store installs it from shopify directly (meaning they don't have an existing account with me) I then have no account to save the data to.

How do I go about this?

I looked at other apps on the store. Some apps like Shippo can take you straight to their site first to create an account and then install their app.

What's the solution?

Answer 1

You misunderstand the install from Shopify. When someone installs from Shopify, they come knocking on your door. They introduce themselves as being ***.myshopify.com. Once they approve your App and accept your terms of service, you get to confirm their account, and hence you persist their data in your database exactly the same as someone that installed your App outside Shopify.

So when you say you no account to save the data to, well of course. They are a new install. So make a new record. Instead of an update, you to a create.