This email is a continuation of the previous one. You can read it by clicking here

Note: Before starting, I have an important question at the end of the email. Can you reply once you've read everything?

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Just came back from a week in Portugal.

I went from 19°C to -1°C (66.2F to 30.2F). And I'm freezing 😱

But anyway! I'm happy to be back at my desk.

Meeting people is always amazing but you can't be as productive as if you were alone in a room working.

Let's start with this email!

What's going on?

We hired a new developer

Zak joined WideBundle's team to help us build new features. It's always complicated to hire someone who will work on existing code.

They need to understand the code quickly as we already have a solid app and it's not easy for them.

That's why I've been working (and still working) on technical documentation:

• The architecture of the app

• Description of the different functions

• Explanation of complicated part of the code

• List of technical bugs and how we solved them

• Documentation on how we use all the technical tools

If you don't do it you'll feel like the developer is not good enough because he doesn't know how to update or add something to your code. When in fact the real problem is that the dev is jumping into a code he doesn't know.

That was my mistake when I hired my first developer. I had nothing about how I coded, how the architecture was or what was the deployment process.

Today Zak is refactoring the code. Because I didn't improve it for a long time.

This is a great way to onboard a dev in my opinion because:

• He gets to know the code

• He can refactor everything and see if it impacts the app's features

• He can ask me any questions while refactoring it

During weekly sprints, we just see together what parts of the code need refactoring and he gets a clear explanation on what's the goal of the function.

Installs are fewer

Here we are, end of the year, and we get way fewer installs than we used to in Q4. I was expecting it so I don't have to worry. We might even see a lower MRR and that's ok.

Wins of the week

300 reviews! 🔥

WideBundle reached 300 reviews now on the Shopify App Store! That's amazing! 300 reviews after 2,5 years

Back to 4.9/5 ⭐️

We've been at 4.8/5 for a long time now but we're back to 4.9!

Tutorial of the week

Here is a list of 20 things you have to do before submitting a Shopify App

1) Give clear instructions on how to test your app

When you are on your app listing, at the end of the page you add instructions on how to test your app. Be specific here to that the person who will test your app knows exactly what he has to do

2) Make sure the authentication process works properly

Test it before submitting, the link you added in your app listing should directly trigger the app installation process

3) Make sure all your links on your dashboard work

Shopify will check everything, even links that are not relevant. If they end up on a 404 page they will not accept your app. So go check all your dashboard links

4) If you used "Shopify" word somewhere, make sure you added an "S" in capital letter

Shopify's branding is important so you'll need to respect that

5) Don't add sentences in your description you can't prove

You're tempted to add things like "The best app for discount" or "100% satisfied users". Don't do it. It's simple: if you can't prove it, remove it.

6) Make sure you use app blocks if you add code to a theme

App blocks are the new script tags. If you need to add a code to a theme you need to use app blocks or Shopify will not accept your app.

7) Make sure you still handle themes 1.0

That goes with 6). You need to use app blocks for new themes, but old ones might not be able to accept app blocks so for these themes you'll still need to use scripttags.

8) Make sure you filled in everything in your app listing

Check your app listing, did you forget a field?

9) Make sure you don't have only keywords in your app title

Titles like: "Instagram Carousel" should be avoided. Instead prefer something like: "WideInsta - Instagram Carousel". You need a real name inside

10) Make sure your app title in the listing and in the dashboard are the same

Basically you can have a different name for your listing than for your app set up. Make sure both are the same

11) Don't wait to have a complex app to submit your app, do it as soon as you have a working MVP

The more complex your app is, the more things Shopify Approval Team will say about it. So keep it simple.

12) The initial process can take up to 14 days

If you have stuff to change, the next iterations will be faster than 14 days to be reviewed

13) Don't feel discouraged if you have many things to change during the approval process

It shows Shopify cares about the eco-system and that it's of high quality

14) Don't submit until you're sure your app is working

You might be tempted to submit it quickly, but if your app has some problems you'll just lose time during the approval process

15) You can put your app as unlisted if you want to keep working on it after approval

That's why you can definitely submit a working MVP and work on it after the approval

16) If you have a subscription on your app you need to use Shopify payment system

You can't use something like Stripe or Shopify will not accept your app

17) Ask for more details during the approval process when you're not accepted

Sometimes they will tell you to change something and you don't know what they're talking about so feel free to reply to the email you'll receive

18) By default your app should be disabled and users will enable it themselves

Shopify wants your app to be disabled in the beginning so merchants can decide themselves when they want to enable it

19) You don't necessarily need to use Polaris to be approved

Polaris is the best way to ensure your app respect Shopify's design guidelines but it's not mandatory

20) Don't use cookies sessions

Shopify doesn't want them anymore

That's it for this week!

I want to change the newsletter structure for the next ones, what do you want to see in this newsletter?

I'm waiting for your responses!

See you next week,

Mat