Hey @FNamdarian,
Can you please provide some more information like code snippets, errors, screenshots…
If you have zero experience on building React or HubSpot apps, you’ll have quite a challenging time.
A little bit of explenation/knowledge:
HubSpot has a lot of development opportunities which might be overwhelming and sometimes a bit confusing if you’re just starting.
Private apps:
(small) addon-like functions that are bound to a single portal. They’re good for handling data and mostly CRM stuff.
Public apps:
can be addon-like but also full-blown integrations. Good if you want to have a seemless integration of external tools in HubSpot or move data from HubSpot to external via API. You’ll need a developer account to host it and then go through the marketplace app verification process.
UI Extensions:
A UI Extension(or UIE) are basically CRM cards. A UIE can be developed independently but also be part of a public/private app. UIE are great for displaying data in a contact/company/object view.
Themes:
A theme is a collection of all sort of files like css, js, modules, sections, templates. Everything that is required for creating landing-/webpages in HubSpot. If you have worked with something like WordPress - it’s basically the same.
Also - there are 3 types of themes:
- HubSpot themes: The ones that are developed and managed by HubSpot. They provide you with a good starting experience in HubSpot page creation. Can be found in the @hubspot folder inside the Design-Manager)
- Marketplace themes: Developed and managed by individuals or companies/partners outside of HubSpot. There are free and paid ones. Good themes often have a ton more functionality than HubSpot themes. They can be found in the @marketplace folder inside the Design-Manager
- Custom themes: Developed and managed by individuals or companies/partners outside of HubSpot or yourself for your portal. Basically a “no-strings-attached” approach to create a perfect fitting solution to your project. Custom themes are great if you don’t want to rely on something finished and want to do your own thing. Downside of custom themes is that it’s most times way more time consuming to set up than starting with a HubSpot or Marketplace theme.
Important note: To have the ability to modify a HubSpot or a Marketplace theme, you have to create a Child-theme of the theme and move the assets you’d like to modify to the child-theme.
Themes are usually written in HubL - the templating language of HubSpot. HubL is based on Jinja2.
Theme projects:
A quite new addition to CMS development. Theme projects allow you to write custom themes with React instead of HubL. A huge downside - imo - is that those themes are not visible/accessible via the Design-Manager. This makes it extremly hard for beginners or non-developers to create a theme as you have to go through the “Set up your local environment” process.
Child-Themes:
Essential to create for almost every project before starting building pages based on a HubSpot or Marketplace theme. Another benefit of child-themes is that you can have a parent theme that will have all layouts, modules … and add minor changes to each child-themes.
Example:
- Company website is based on a parent theme
- Subbrand of the company is using a child-theme because it uses different colors
Depending on your portal plan you can have up to 10 child-themes
Modules:
Those are the “functions” of every theme. Can be something simple like a “Headline-Text” combination but also something like whole rows (Text, Image, Form, Button… combinations)
My recommendation:
If you’re just starting and don’t have that much React knowledge - use a Marketplace theme with a Child-theme or create your own small custom theme with HubL.
Also - if you haven’t already: I’ll recommend to look at the current CMS for developers certification(there will be a new coming soon) in the HubSpot Academy.
best,
Anton
