Sharetribe Web Template

Introduction

The Sharetribe Web Template is a React template meant to function as a starting point for the development of your marketplace. It supports all the features available through the Sharetribe APIs, and is easily customized. For a complete list of features that are possible in the template, either natively or with custom development, see the features article.

We recommend you be familiar with React, Redux and CSS Modules before you start working on the template. Read more about what development skills are needed and how to install and run the template locally.

Access the GitHub repository for the template here.

Technical overview

The Sharetribe Web Template is a React application built on top of a forked version of Create React App (CRA). The modified version of CRA adds support for server-side rendering (SSR) and CSS modules. The template also includes a Node.js server, which enables SSR and other essential features which require communicating with the Sharetribe APIs without allowing the client to modify the requests.

The included Node.js server enables server-side rendering, which helps to improve search engine optimization and speed up the application's rendering. You should consider this requirement when choosing a hosting provider for your marketplace project. Serverless hosting platforms are not compatible with the template, as they are not equipped to run a server. You need to use a hosting provider that supports running a Node.js/Express.js server to run the Sharetribe Web Template without any issues.

For a complete overview of the technologies used in the template, read more in the development skills article.

Working with the template

• Familiarize yourself with the tech stack: make sure you have a good understanding of the technologies and libraries that the template is built on, including React, Redux, and CSS Modules.

• Read the documentation: the template is well-documented, and reading the documentation can be a helpful way to learn more about how the template works and how to customize it. A good place to start is the tutorial.

• Start with the configuration variables: the template includes a number of configuration variables that can be used to make quick and easy changes to the layout, branding, and functionality of the template. Experiment with these variables to see what kind of changes you can make.

• Customize the code as needed: the template is designed to be customizable, and you can make any desired changes to the code. There are no limits to how far you can customize the template. See our catalog of how-to articles or the customization checklist for advice and inspiration.

Key differences from legacy templates

Before the release of the Sharetribe Web Template, Sharetribe provided and maintained three different templates: ftw-daily, ftw-hourly and ftw-product. The Sharetribe Web Template combines the features of the previous templates into one template and allows developers to enable features from each using configuration variables. If you are looking for documentation or information regarding the legacy templates, see the legacy templates article.

The new template introduces many changes. Here is a list that details the most important of them:

• Configurations allow you to make a variety of changes without touching code. You can toggle between different layouts, change search options, add new extended data fields, and much more.
• Handling extended data is significantly easier and can be done through a configuration file. For example, you can add a new extended data field in the configuration file, and it will render a corresponding input field on the listing creation page.
• Transaction process handling is fundamentally different. Introducing new transaction processes is more straightforward, and some of the work can be done through the transaction configuration file. Read more about how adding new transaction processes works in this article.
• StateData.js files are responsible for handling transaction state data. Read more about StateData.