In generating a data feed from your Shopify store, we pull 4 types of fields from Shopify:
- Core fields
- Variant fields
- Tags
- Metafields
Core Fields
Core fields are the default fields that Shopify creates when you add a new product to your store. These fields include, but are not limited to: 'Title', 'Description', 'Image', 'Product Type', and 'Vendor'. Essentially, the basic information about the product you are adding.
Core fields are the most necessary fields for us to generate a successful data feed.
If you export your product database to a CSV file, Shopify will generate titles for each of the fields. I've listed the core fields we require to the left with the related Shopify field to the right.
- Unique ID: this is pulled from the 'id' field
- Product Name: this is pulled from the 'title' field
- Product URL: Searchspring generates a custom field for this by grabbing the 'handle' field and inputing it into the following url: http://sitename.myshopify.com/products/%handle%
- Price: this is pulled from the 'variant_price' field (notice: this is a 'variant' field, but is created by Shopify whenever a product is created)
- image: this is pulled from the 'image' field
Searchspring will grab this information to generate the required Core fields for indexing your data.
Variant Fields
Variants are user-defined variations of a product, such as color options and available sizes. When you create a product in Shopify, you can add these variations under the 'Variants' tab.
Searchspring has the ability to grab this variant data to use for searching, creating filters or sort options
Samples of Variant fields generated by Searchspring from provided Shopify data:
- variant_color
- variant_size
- variant_finish
- variant_fabric
Note: Each variant you create in Shopify will generate its own field in the data feed.
Tags
Tags are additional descriptive data for your product, such as a Brand name. Tags for a product are viewed in the right sidebar of the Shopify Product data screen. By adding tags, you provide additional searchable data for the product.
Searchspring can use the tag data to provide additional search information and filter for your site.
For Searchspring to make use of the tag data, it must be structured as following:
'Brand:Nike', 'Brand:'Sony', or 'Color:Red', 'Color:Blue' such as in the image below:
Note: Tag data is combined into one field in your data, with the Key:Value pairs separated with commas (Material:Brass,Thread_Size:3/4,Shape:Octagonal).
Metafields
Metafields are a great way to store additional important information about a product, such as instructions for washing. For instructions on creating Metafields from Shopify, click here.
We strongly recommend limiting the number of products with metafields to 20,000 or fewer, as this can drastically increase the time it takes your store's data to sync with Searchspring.
Metafields contain the following user-defined information: 'Namespace', 'Key', and 'Value'
When Searchspring grabs metafield data, it creates a field with this name: mfield_namespace_key
The value is the information pulled in for that field.
Sample image from 'MetaFields Editor':
The result of the first metafield above would be a field name of mtfld_product_best_seller and the value would be 'false'.
Shopify does not include an option to create metafields for a product on the product page. To create a metafield in Shopify you need to use an app like 'MetaFields Editor', 'Metafields2' or 'Accentuate Custom Fields' (you can install these apps via the 'Apps' section of your admin panel).
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