Add Line Item Properties to Order after Checkout

[billyaternesta]

Hello,

I've seen this question raised here, but I wanted to add some context to it.  

Why can't we update line item properties (aka customAttributes) in the Shopify Admin UI or using the Admin API (Graphql or REST)?  The reason I think this is necessary, is because for some reason you are able to delete them in the UI when viewing an existing order:

Reviewing this documentation about editing existing orders,  it's clear that the type of edits you can make are limited.  Updating customAttributes on order line items is not one of the choices, neither is deleting them, unless you are in the Admin UI of course.  This allows store owners to enter an irrecoverable state.  

We should either be able to edit custom attributes of an order, or we should not be able to delete them in the UI.  I'm sure you've guessed by now that we have lost some data on an order 😎.

Thanks for your help.

[Liam]

Hi Billyaternesta,

Thanks for providing this context on managing/ updating line item properties. As you've noticed, Shopify does not support the modification of customAttributes through the Admin API, either in GraphQL or REST. The ability to edit customAttributes was not initially included in the API's design, and this is why it's not listed as an option in the documentation.

As for the ability to delete customAttributes in the Admin UI - I believe this feature was included in the UI to provide store owners with more flexibility in managing their orders. If you've lost data in an order I totally understand the inconvenience this may cause - I'll bring your feedback to our product teams on this! 

[Rosstheboss]

Hi Liam,

Does Shopify have any plans on letting merchants manage line item properties of orders? A lot of customers want to change orders (which is why Shopify has an edit order feature) and merchants can't edit orders without either refunding the customer or completely messing up their accounting, making it impossible to reconcile sales and payouts. 

Hopefully this is recognized as a serious need.

[Kristen_Z]

I agree. adding & changing line item properties in the admin backend is very important to our products

[Rosstheboss]

Hi Liam,

I see that Shopify has been releasing API updates on a semi-annual basis now and has updated the draft orders and other parts of the API. Do you know if editing the line item properties is on the horizon? This is such a huge oversight to allow merchants to utilize a powerful tool, but then hamstring them by only allowing the creation and not editing of those fields. There are a lot of customers that this would change the way that they do business (myself included) because natively editing orders would allow us to properly reconcile our books/accounting.

[Wizaniac]

Hi Liam,
I'd also like to weigh in on this feature request as a developer. It would be greatly beneficial if the suggested API change will let us add line items to an already checked out order. Hoping to see this feature get implemented super fast.
Thanks!

[Stot]

Just adding and extra reply and use case for this.   

We use custom attributes for personalisation and often have customers contact us because they have typed something wrong or want to change it for some other reason.  Its always best if the order matches what was produced for clarity and in case of errors so It would be great If we could update the customAttributes on the line item to reflect the correction.

Cheers

[Evan_Henshaw]

One more vote for 'I really want this' for more or less the same explanations as below. 

I would settle for the ability to ADD line item properties post checkout vs. edit as we can always delete the one that is being changed. 

We have the ability to do this in Draft orders at this point, so I imagine we're most of the way there. 

[jchops]

Has there been any updates on this? This would really help us to keep our systems in sync. We use some line item props to capture personalized information for line items that sometimes customers type in incorrectly (names and emails). We even give them an opportunity to edit on the cart page before they checkout but it still happens. We can correct this in our other systems but there's no way to tie it back to the line item. We would really benefit from this change in the API so we can properly sync up our systems.

[Rosstheboss]

Hey Liam,

It's been almost a year since you've answered anyone on this page. Can you please give us an update. It makes no sense that you can delete a line item property for an order but not add a line item property to an order. We need this feature!!!

[NicoRi]

As to raise some more attention, I'd just like to chime in on this feature request - and it would be absolutely marvelous if this change, should it come to the Admin UI (which likely uses the API anyway), could also be reflected in the POS app for creating new orders.

[zhuddart]

I wouldn't count on Shopify to update features based on what their customer base actually requests, I have been waiting for this for 3 years! I even raised it with our Plus account manager. It seems they would rather waste their resources on subpar AI and flashy ui updates

[jamalsoueidan]

Love to see edit attribute properties feature added to shopify!