Adding Custom Fields to the Shopify Dashboard

[Jason]

What is this madness?

In short, a tool to add Custom Fields to the admin dashboard. Since my other Dashboard tools are proving to be to super handy I figured Store Owners could do with a smaller version for adding metafields. Developers (and the brave) should stick with ShopifyFD. 

How to install:
http://freakdesign.com.au/blogs/news/how-to-setup-the-custom-fields-for-shopify-chrome-extension

Important starting note:

THIS TOOL IS UNDER DEVELOPMENT AND 
MAY CHANGE AT ANY TIME. USE AT YOUR
OWN RISK ON CLIENT STORES.

Rough User Guide (still incomplete)

This tool requires that certain metafields already exist before running the tool. If the whole concept of adding metafields is confusing or just plain scary, this is something you should get your code happy designer or developer to help you with. 

Once some metafields have been created, this tool will show something like this in your dashboard:

When we call these custom fields I am not being quite truthful - these are just standard metafields under a default namespace name, or one that your define yourself. It sure does make editing faster when you need to add the same sort of metafield (like a product youtube link) over and over again.

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So err, where is it?

1. You can nab it from the product home page over on freakdesign, or
2. Grab the extension from the Chrome store.
3. or manually install it as a bookmarklet from the github page.

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Usage notes:

The namespace for all metafields is currently "c_f", though the legacy "custom_fields" version is still available.
Custom namespaces can be made also. 

There are special markers that help us know what sort of field we are showing.

• "[a]": limit display to articles only
• "[c]": limit display to collections only
• "[g]": limit display to pages only
• "[p]": limit display to products only
• "[_c]": mark as a collection field
• "[_t]": mark as a textarea
• "[_n]": mark as a number field
• "[_co]": mark as a color field
• "[_d]": mark as a date field 

Planned to be added (if possible):

• "[_f]": mark as a file field
• "[_g]": mark as a page field
• "[_p]": mark as a product field

Using metafields in liquid is easy. A basic example is shown below where c_f is the default custom fields namespace, and youtube is the key name. If you have brackets in the key name remember to use it as a string. 

{{ product.metafields.c_f.youtube.value }}

# If your key name is using brackets:
{{ product.metafields.c_f['[p][_t]some-key'].value }}

If you used a custom namespace (and setup the whitelist) you do not have to use the c_f namespace.

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What's on the todo / research list?

• file upload fields (very unlikely here, unless we are talking about uploading to the assets folder)
• product picker (underway)
• adding a simple html editor to a textarea field. This won't support images.

[Jason]

Tool and basic and rough user guide is now online for adding custom fields.

[Jason]

Chrome extension is in testing now so that guide above is now a little redundant. I don't think that devs would push the bookmarklet option on a store owner when the extension is a far easier install process.

[Jason]

Adding this one to github too:
https://github.com/freakdesign/shopify-custom-fields

The chrome extension will start using the files from github when it next does its update cycle.

[rickydazla]

4kin awesome;)

[Jason]

Totally handy for avoiding 'store owner brain explosions' when talking about metafields. I need to get the file uploads working for an future project so I might have that (plus some of the other todo items) in over the weekend.

[rickydazla]

bulk export / import?

[Jason]

For this tool - no way. I really don't want to make it have too many features. That's when brains explode. All I want is for this to show a field and the store admin fills it in. Simples.

That said, bulk import and export of metafield data is something I've been looking at for the other tool (shopifyFD), along with doing bulk shipping updates. No one has annoyed for me for it, but if it would be useful I can add it to the list no probs.

Do you see a need for a store owner to have a bulk export with this one?

[rickydazla]

Ah yes, noodles all over the wall for sure. Please add it to the list for shopifyFD though - would be sweet.

[HunkyBill]

I have learned a ton of lessons by offering up bulk import/export of metafields. My experience has been that it is something I do not want to ever get into again. Far too many ways merchants can screw it up. Not worth the trouble.