422 error when trying to add/update metafields of a product variant

[daanvdj]

Hi!

So I'm trying to add/update the metafields that a product variant has.

My attempt at doing it through a PUT request:

  client.put({

          path: `variants/${response.body.variant.id}`,

          data: {"variant":{"id":`${response.body.variant.id}`,"metafields":[{"key":"new","value":"testingtheput","type":"single_line_text_field","namespace":"global"}]}},

          type: "application/json"

        }).then( response => {

          console.log(response);

        });

My attempt to do it through a POST request to add it is as follows:

      client.post({

        path: `products/${productId}/variants/${response.body.variant.id}/metafields`,

        data: {"metafield":{"namespace":"test","key":"testingpost","value":"testingthepost","type":"single_line_text_field"}},

        type: "application/json"

      }).then(response => {

        console.log(response);

      });

Both PUT and POST both return a 422 error, hinting at the metafield parameters not being correct. I specifically tried to follow the API doc examples for both types of request. The links for the docs used are:

https://shopify.dev/api/admin-rest/2021-10/resources/product-variant#[put]/admin/api/2021-10/variant... -> for the PUT of the variant (specifically "Add a metafield to an existing variant" )

https://shopify.dev/api/admin-rest/2021-10/resources/metafield#[post]/admin/api/2021-10/metafields.j... -> for the POST request to add metafields to a resource.

I'm not sure what else I can try, so I'm hoping someone from this community might be able to help.

[Jason]

What tech stack are you using to make the API calls?

[daanvdj · Accepted solution]

Hi Jason,

I was able to fix the issue with some good old pair programming with a colleague!

Thanks either way for jumping in on the issue.

I am using the nodeJs boilerplate app that one can generate by using the shopify CLI.

For future reference if people may be experiencing the same issue:

- Check what API version the boilerplate app is running on, mine was per default running on a super old version that isn't even referenced in the API docs anymore. You can find this setting in your 'server.js' file when using the NodeJs boilerplate:

Shopify.Context.initialize({

  API_KEY: process.env.SHOPIFY_API_KEY,

  API_SECRET_KEY: process.env.SHOPIFY_API_SECRET,

  SCOPES: process.env.SCOPES.split(","),

  HOST_NAME: process.env.HOST.replace(/https:\/\/|\/$/g, ""),

  API_VERSION: ApiVersion.October20,

  IS_EMBEDDED_APP: true,

  // This should be replaced with your preferred storage strategy

  SESSION_STORAGE: new Shopify.Session.MemorySessionStorage(),

});

It uses an enum and the newest version that the enum has (april 21) is referenced in the API docs.  When I switched to the newer version and rechecked what values it was expecting for metafieldsm I found out that the older versions still use 'value_type' instead of 'type'. So if anyone is running into the same issue, try switching to a newer version of the API OR switch to using 'value_type' instead of 'type'. Below is an example of the difference:

  const data = {"metafield":{"namespace":"configuration","key":`${arr[0]}`,"value":`${arr[1]}`,"value_type":"string"}};

      const metafield = client.post({

        path: `products/${productId}/variants/${newVariant.body.variant.id}/metafields`,

        data: data,

        type: "application/json"

      }

Above is the correct way to format data for metafields in older versions ^^

 And below is the way that the most recent docs describe it.

  data: {"metafield":{"namespace":"test","key":"testingpost","value":"testingthepost","type":"single_line_text_field"}},

 Hope this possibly helps someone in the future!