Episode 049 - Dave Warrington, Senior Demo Engineer at Shopify

In this episode of the Liquid Weekly Podcast, hosts Karl Meisterheim and Taylor Page are joined by Dave Warrington, a senior demo engineer at Shopify. The conversation explores various aspects of development within the Shopify ecosystem, particularly focusing on Liquid, demo engineering, and the evolution of theme development. Dave shares his journey into the development world, his experiences at Shopify, and insights into performance considerations when working with Liquid. The trio also discuss the importance of community engagement, public speaking, and the latest updates in the Shopify changelog, including new developer tools and features.

Find Dave Online
Website: https://ellodave.dev/
LinkedIn:   / david-warrington  
Twitter(X): https://x.com/warringtondavid

Timestamps
00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Guests
02:02 Dave Warrington's Journey into Development
04:52 Exploring Liquid and Its Applications
07:49 The Role of a Demo Engineer at Shopify
11:01 Building Internal Tools and Demos
13:32 The Benefits of Using JavaScript in Liquid Development
17:01 Theme Development: Agency vs. Public Themes
20:11 Understanding Theme Blocks and Their Limitations
23:16 Navigating the Challenges of Theme Blocks
25:52 Feedback on Theme Development and User Experience
28:49 Liquid Hacks and Best Practices
34:30 Exploring Visible If in Shopify
36:04 The Evolution of Theme Development
39:23 Performance Considerations in Liquid
41:17 Best Practices for Liquid Coding
47:27 The Growth of Shopify's Platform
51:14 Public Speaking and Community Engagement
54:30 The Importance of In-Person Interactions
01:01:57 Dev changelog
01:06:07 Picks of the week

Resources
Nick Weselman's Next Gen Developer Platform migration video: https://x.com/ShopifyDevs/status/1962...
Horizon theme (now open source): https://github.com/Shopify/horizon
Building Sections schemas with JS: https://ellodave.dev/blog/article/bui...
ESBuild Plugin Liquid Schemas: https://www.npmjs.com/package/esbuild...
Shopify Schema Utils: https://www.npmjs.com/package/shopify...
Leeds Shopify Partners Meetup details: https://partnersnorthmeetup.uk/produc...

Dev Changelog
Setting permitsSkuSharing argument to false when creating a fulfillment service returns an error - https://shopify.dev/changelog/setting...
Next-Gen developer platform now available to all app developers - https://shopify.dev/changelog/next-ge...
Build an Announcement Bar Extension for the Thank You page or Customer Account Pages - https://shopify.dev/changelog/build-a...
@inContext directive supports visitor consent for privacy-compliant checkouts - https://shopify.dev/changelog/inconte...
Global HS code is now supported in GraphQL Admin API - https://shopify.dev/changelog/country...

Picks of the Week
Karl: "Danger UXB" by James Owen (book about WWII bomb disposal)
Dave: Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War Definitive Edition
Taylor: Andrea Morone's Attributes Pro and SupaEasy App for payment method-based discounts

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