Creating a Custom API for Product Information in Shopify?

Retired Boards Appdev Partners Discussion

Topic summary

A store owner wants a way for third-party partners to fetch detailed product data and asks for steps, tools/plugins, and pitfalls for creating a custom API beyond Shopify’s defaults.

Proposed approach:

  • Use Shopify’s Storefront API (for custom storefronts) with a dedicated API key shared to the third party.
  • Restrict permissions to read-only product details.
  • Control which products are visible by publishing/unpublishing them to the Storefront API’s sales channel (a screenshot link shows the channel publishing setting).

Next steps/clarifications:

  • If this approach doesn’t meet the “detailed product info” needs, the responder asks for more specific requirements to suggest alternatives.

Status:

  • No final decision yet; discussion remains open pending more detail from the requester.
Summarized with AI on January 14. AI used: gpt-5.
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I’ve been running my Shopify store for a while now, and I’ve come across a need that I’m hoping someone here can guide me with.

I’m looking to create a custom API that can allow third-party partners to fetch specific product information from my store. While I’m aware that Shopify already has its default APIs, I’m interested in creating one tailored to my needs, especially focusing on detailed products information.

Has anyone here ever set up something similar or can guide me on how to go about this?

  • What are the primary steps to consider?
  • Are there any specific tools or plugins that make the process easier?
  • Any potential pitfalls or challenges I should be aware of?

Any guidance, references, or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help!

1 Like
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Hey @adilzh

Depending on the information you’d like to share with the third party, one approach would be to create a Storefront API key to share with the third party. You could adjust the permissions to only allow them to read product details and control which products they were able to view in the admin by publishing/not publishing to this channel (screenshot).

If this doesn’t suit, can you elaborate on your specific requirements?