React

Liteshop hosts the static files a React build produces. This guide uses Vite, whose default output works on Liteshop without extra configuration.

Before you begin

Install Node.js 22 or later.
Sign in to the Liteshop dashboard.

Create the app

npm create vite@latest my-site -- --template react-ts
cd my-site
npm install

Add the manifest

Vite copies everything in public/ to the root of the build, so put liteshop.json there:

{
  "$schema": "https://docs.liteshop.me/schemas/site-v0.1.json",
  "specVersion": "0.1",
  "site": {
    "name": "My Site",
    "defaultLocale": "en",
    "supportedLocales": ["en"],
    "timezone": "Europe/Paris"
  },
  "frontend": {
    "entry": "index.html"
  },
  "capabilities": {
    "forms": [
      {
        "id": "contact",
        "name": { "en": "Contact" },
        "fields": [
          { "id": "email", "type": "email", "label": { "en": "Email" }, "required": true },
          { "id": "message", "type": "textarea", "label": { "en": "Message" }, "required": true }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Leave capabilities as {} if the Site has no Form. The Site Bundle reference lists every field.

Add the SDK

Install the Liteshop SDK:

npm install @liteshop.ai/sdk

Import liteshop from it wherever the Site uses Forms, bookings or the catalogue. It calls the Site’s own Liteshop endpoints and includes its TypeScript types. To try Forms with npm run dev, add the Liteshop plugin to vite.config.ts:

import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import react from "@vitejs/plugin-react";
import { liteshop } from "@liteshop.ai/sdk/vite";

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [react(), liteshop()],
});

On the dev server, the plugin answers the SDK from liteshop.json: Form submissions are checked and printed in the terminal, the catalogue lists every item as available, and nothing is saved or sent to Liteshop.

Submit a Form

Import the SDK and pass the Form ID as a literal string. Liteshop reads liteshop.forms.submit("contact", ...) from your built JavaScript to check that every declared Form has a handler.

import { useState, type FormEvent } from "react";
import { liteshop } from "@liteshop.ai/sdk";

export default function Contact() {
  const [status, setStatus] = useState<"idle" | "sent" | "error">("idle");

  async function submit(event: FormEvent<HTMLFormElement>) {
    event.preventDefault();
    const form = event.currentTarget;
    const data = new FormData(form);
    try {
      await liteshop.forms.submit("contact", {
        email: String(data.get("email")),
        message: String(data.get("message")),
      });
      form.reset();
      setStatus("sent");
    } catch {
      setStatus("error");
    }
  }

  return (
    <form onSubmit={submit}>
      <label>Email <input name="email" type="email" required /></label>
      <label>Message <textarea name="message" required /></label>
      <button type="submit">Send</button>
      {status === "sent" && <p>Thanks, your message was sent.</p>}
      {status === "error" && <p>Your message could not be sent. Try again.</p>}
    </form>
  );
}

Don’t add method="post" or an action to the form. See the Forms reference for field types and the anti-spam field.

Build and package the Site

npm run build
cd dist
zip -r ../site.zip .

The ZIP must have index.html and liteshop.json at its root, which zipping the contents of dist gives you.

Upload the Site

To publish a new Site:

In the Liteshop dashboard, click Website > Upload files.
Enter the Site name and subdomain, and select site.zip.
Click Check and publish.

To update a Site, open Website settings (the gear button on the Website page), and upload the new ZIP file in Upload an update. An update’s liteshop.json must name the live version in baseDeployment. If the value is missing or out of date, validation fails, and its repair message gives the exact value to set in public/liteshop.json. For details, see Publish and manage a Site.

Routing

For a client-side router such as React Router’s createBrowserRouter, set fallback in public/liteshop.json:

"frontend": {
  "entry": "index.html",
  "fallback": "index.html"
}

Liteshop then serves index.html with status 200 for any path without a file extension that matches no file, such as /shop/oil, and your router renders the page. Vite links its assets from the site root (/assets/…), so they load from any path. Paths with an extension, such as a missing image, still get Not Found.

What runs on Liteshop

Liteshop hosts static output only: no server rendering, API routes or server functions. The Site’s security policy blocks scripts, styles and network requests to other origins, frames, workers and eval. Validation warns when your build appears to use one of those features, and fails on external scripts and frames. React itself mentions fetch, so every React build gets that warning; you can ignore it if your own code doesn’t call fetch.

Dashboard edits

Site Owners can edit catalogue items, collections, and stock in the dashboard, which publishes a new Deployment from your files without rebuilding your app. Read the catalogue in the browser with liteshop.catalogue.list(). Don’t import liteshop.json or render catalogue items at build time; otherwise, dashboard edits don’t appear on the Site until you rebuild and upload it again. See the Catalogue reference.

Get started

Build with code

Frameworks

Reference