Metaobjects

Metaobjects help you add and store additional structured information for your store. For example, you can store information for a product, such as features, specifications, and size charts.

You can retrieve and edit the data that's stored in metaobjects from the Shopify admin. Apps can access metaobjects through the metaobject API. You can also access metaobjects in themes using Liquid and through the Storefront API. Learn more about the metaobject API

There are two key components to metaobjects:

• Definition: the group of fields that defines the object’s structure. This is managed in Settings > Custom data in your Shopify admin.
• Entries: the content or data for the metaobject. Entries are created and managed in Content > Metaobjects in your Shopify admin.

When you create a metaobject definition, you specify the following information:

• Name: used to identify the metaobject in your Shopify admin, such as Authors.
• Type: the type of data that the metaobject stores, such as text, file, or URL.
• Fields: define the type of content you want to display in the metaobject
  • Each field has a name (required), description, type, and validation rules, such as character limits, minimum and maximum values, or preset values.
  • Display name is assigned to a single field name and is used to identify an individual metaobject entry. You can change the field that the display name is assigned to at any time. The display name is automatically assigned to the first text field in a metaobject entry, or autogenerated if there are no text fields in the metaobject definition.
  • For example, you might add a field for text and indicate it as a display name, a field for an image, and a field for color.
• Options: where the metaobject is available to use. Learn more about options for custom data.

The fields in your metaobject definition determine the fields in your metaobject entries. For example, if you create a metaobject for ambassador program profiles with a name, biography, an image for the fields, then your metaobject entries will have a field to enter the name, biography, and upload an image. Every entry in this example would be a single ambassador program profile.

Shopify's Standard Product Taxonomy and standard categories use metaobjects. When you add a product category to a product, you can add category metafields specific to that product. Each category metafield has default entries, which is built with metaobject definitions. For example, if you add the product category Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Clothing Tops > Shirts, then you can add category metafields for size, neckline, sleeve length type, top length type, age group, fabric, target gender, clothing features, and color

In this section

• Building a metaobject

• Creating entries

• Referencing metaobjects

• Displaying metaobjects on your online store

Building a metaobject

You can create metaobjects from either of the following locations in your Shopify admin:

• From Content > Metaobjects
• From Settings > Custom data

When you create a metaobject definition, you specify the following information:

• Name: used to identify the metaobject in your Shopify admin, such as Authors.
• Type: the type of data that the metaobject stores, such as text, file, or URL.
• Fields: define the type of content you want to display in the metaobject
  • Each field has a name (required), description, type, and validation rules, such as character limits, minimum and maximum values, or preset values.
  • Display name is assigned to a single field name and is used to identify an individual metaobject entry. You can change the field that the display name is assigned to at any time. The display name is automatically assigned to the first text field in a metaobject entry, or autogenerated if there are no text fields in the metaobject definition.
  • For example, you might add a field for text and indicate it as a display name, a field for an image, and a field for color.
• Options: where the metaobject is available to use. Learn more about options for custom data.

Create a metaobject

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Content > Metaobjects or Settings > Custom data.
2. Click Add definition.
3. In the Name field, enter a name for your definition. A type for your metaobject is automatically generated, and can be edited prior to saving the metaobject.
4. Click Add field and select the content type you want to contain in this metaobject. For example, single line text. Each field has its own set of options and validation rules.
5. Configure the field and its validation information:
   1. Enter the Name of the entry.
   2. Optional: In the Description field, enter a description for your metaobject.
   3. Optional: Select Use this field as display name to use the field as the display name to search in the index.
   4. Configure the validation rules for the field, and then click Done.
6. Add additional fields to your metaobject as needed.
7. Optional: To turn off storefront access, deselect Storefronts from the Access section.
8. Optional: To allow entries from this metaobject to be published as stand-alone pages, select Web pages under Features.
9. Click Save.

After your metaobject has been saved, you can start creating entries.

Delete a metaobject

Deleting a metaobject can't be undone. If you delete a metaobject, then all the entries for that metaobject will also be deleted.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Metafields and metaobjects

2. In the Metaobjects section, click the metaobject that you want to delete.

3. Click Delete. A confirmation dialog displays to confirm that you want delete the definition.

4. Click Delete to remove the definition.