Why no Variant ID

[HunkyBill]

I have asked this before, and I am not sure I ever got an answer.

When Shopify bundles up a product and sends it the subscription create code, it only ever sends the product ID not the variant ID. If a product has only one variant why is that not included in the payload? Anytime I use the mutation sellingPlanGroupCreate I am expected to provide a variant ID and it seems like Shopify is making that difficult. Am I wrong? Here is my console log, so if anyone has any filler info on this, I would appreciate what I am missing here. Must be something obvious.

[qc11]

Hi,

Would you mind offering me the mutation that doesn't return the variant ID so I can have a closer look?

Thanks!

[HunkyBill]

I don't think you understand. This is an internal Shopify Subscription extension API issue. Shopify supplies data about the product for creating a subscription to the extension, and I am seeing it send a product ID but NO variant ID. Therefore when I want to USE a mutation like the one I pointed out, I do not have the information I need from Shopify. Can you explain why that is? Why do I not get a variant ID here? And how does this work when there are > 1 variants and we want to set a subscription against only 1 of many variants?

Shopify is lacking a lot of clarity here it seems?

[qc11 · Accepted solution]

Hi, just to be clear, you are talking about extensions on the product details page, is that correct?

After investigating, I confirmed that the presence of the variant id depends on which page you are.

Detailed behaviors of these extension points were implemented as follows:

- Product admin page `e.g. https://example.myshopify.com/admin/products/12345` 

•  Admin::Product::SubscriptionPlan::Edit:
  • sellingPlanGroupId : the SellingPlanGroup id of the group being edited
  • productId : the product id of the current product admin page
  • variantId : the variant id is null
• Admin::Product::SubscriptionPlan::Create:
  • productId : the product id of the current product admin page
  • variantId : the variant id is null
•  Admin::Product::SubscriptionPlan::Remove:
  • sellingPlanGroupId : the SellingPlanGroup id of the group being removed from the product
  • productId : the product id of the current product admin page - variantId : the variant id is null
  • variantIds : an array of the product's child variant ids for which we should also remove the selling plan group association
•  Admin::Product::SubscriptionPlan::Add:
  • productId : the product id of the current product admin page
  • variantId : the variant id is null

-  Variant admin page `e.g. https://example.myshopify.com/admin/products/12345/variants/6789` 

• Admin::Product::SubscriptionPlan::Edit:
  • sellingPlanGroupId : the SellingPlanGroup id of the group being edited
  • productId : the product id of the parent product
  • variantId : the variant id of the current variant admin page
• Admin::Product::SubscriptionPlan::Create:
  • productId : the product id of the parent product
  • variantId : the variant id of the current variant admin page
• Admin::Product::SubscriptionPlan::Remove:
  • sellingPlanGroupId : the SellingPlanGroup id of the group being removed from the variant
  • productId : the product id of the parent product
  • variantId : the variant id of the current variant admin page
  • variantIds : this will be empty because the variant has no "child" variants
• Admin::Product::SubscriptionPlan::Add:
  • productId : the product id of the parent product
  • variantId : the variant id of the current variant admin page

We also realized that this information is not documented anywhere. We will update the page accordingly.

Hope this helps!

[HunkyBill]

One thing does not really make sense here, and it seems like an undercooked turkey in the oven, bear with me, I may be wrong... you have a case where the variant is selected, for example the variant admin page versions. However, when only the default variant exists, that has no analog. Why not? If I say "create me a plan", from this aspect, I do not get the luxury of having the variantId? Seems like an oversight remains.

But yes, thanks for more clarity as per that above explanation.

[qc11]

I see, so the ask here is to include the default `variantId` when product doesn't have variants.
I will take your feedback back to the team!

[HunkyBill]

I think it makes sense this ask. So I appreciate your understanding here! Thanks.