Developers are seeking guidance on creating product variants after the fulfillment_service field deprecation. The main concern is how to connect variants to fulfillment service locations under the new API structure.
Current Status:
fulfillment_service and inventory_management fields on variants are deprecated but still functionalKey Technical Points:
fetch_stock endpoint has no immediate deprecation plansinventoryAdjustQuantities mutation to push inventory updatesOngoing Challenges:
Shopify support recommends reviewing fulfillment service and inventory management app guides, plus testing with the GraphiQL app to replicate required scopes.
Hello. We have a dropshipping app that allows users to add our products to their catalog.
We used to set the fulfillment_service field on variants to our service’s handle when creating Products and their Variants. I understand that this field is now deprecated. I’m a bit confused by how the new process works. Can someone provide guidance on how to create Product Variants under these changes?
If you do not support SKU sharing, you can still do this, but it will be removed in the future. For a fulfillment service that can share SKUs with a merchant managed location, you set the location by setting the inventory level at the fulfillment service location for the variant.
Thanks @RobZone for your response.
My goal is to just have the system working with the latest API updates, since features we use (such as the fulfillment_service field on variants) are being deprecated. We also do not support SKU sharing.
As for inventory management, can we continue to set the inventory_management field on Variants to our fulfillment service handle? I am assuming that will still work in conjunction with the fetch_stock endpoint. Could you help me understand the difference between Variant.fulfillment_service and Variant.inventory_management. Thanks again.
If your app does not support SKU sharing, you will still use the inventory_management and fulfillment_service fields on the variant. While this behaviour has been marked deprecated, it has not yet been removed from the API.
A future deprecation will require you to adopt SKU sharing and use the InventoryLevel API to manage inventory at your fulfillment service location. The timeline for this has not been announced or decided yet.
@RobZone Thanks. One more clarification.
So in the future, the fetch_stock endpoint will be deprecated? We have a large number of stores that carry our products. To update their inventory count, we would have to use the InventoryLevel API to update the inventory count at all of the stores’ fulfillment service locations? Or is there a central source that can be updated?
There are no immediate plans to deprecate fetch_stock inventory synchronization. The API may evolve to include the new inventory states.
An alternative is to call the inventoryAdjustQuantities if fetch_stock is not meeting your needs. That lets you push in inventory adjustments instead of waiting for Shopify to call fetch_stock periodically.
Hi @RobZone
We use the products API to create products in our users’ stores. We need to use the inventory_management field on Variants. When I remove the fulfillment_service field on Variants, I get the following error:
{“errors”:{“inventory_management”:[“is ****, so fulfillment service must also be ****”]}}
We are not specifying API version in the endpoint. Can we omit fulfillment_service and still use inventory_management in 2023-01? Thanks!
Hello. The new fulfillment flow is incredibly confusing. Can you please provide better documentation?
We switched to the fulfillment order based flow, but when users click on the Request Fulfillment button, it breaks everything. My script to add tracking now is trying to check first if there is a fulfillment object associated with each order. If there is a fulfillment, we try to update tracking there. If there is no fulfillment object, we do the fulfillment order based flow.
This is not well documented, unless I am just dumb here.
Secondly, now I have fulfillments stuck in pending status. How do I update them?
Hey @daveluke ,
@RobZone shared some great links and information earlier, and I wanted to pass along a few more resources based on your recent replies. If you’re looking for guidance on fulfillment app processes, we have more documentation available that provides a great foundation to build from.
Check out this guide for an overview of fulfillment processes and flows; there are some great visuals. Additionally, this doc links to separate guides available for each type of fulfillment app it covers. Based on the goals mentioned, you may want to focus on the extended guides for fulfillment services, as well as inventory management apps.
Regarding your question about pending fulfillments, it sounds like they may need to be accepted - more information here: https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/fulfillment/fulfillment-service-apps/manage-fulfillments#accept-a-fulfillment-request.
Wanted to make one more suggestion for testing, as I have personally found that replicating required scopes in the Shopify GraphiQL app to be a helpful tool when problem solving specific calls laid out in guides.
Hope this offers some additional insights that help while you work towards a solution - Cheers!
@awwdam
Shopify Developer Support
@ShopifyDevSup Thanks for the information.
How do I connect a Product Variant to a location if the fulfillment_service field is being deprecated?
It seems that I need this field, because to do the fulfillment order workflow, variants must be connected to our app’s fulfillment service location.
Thanks.
Hi @daveluke , you can use the InventoryActivate mutation to make the location assignments for a Product Variant. Hope this helps!
Hello,
I have the same problem as mentioned above by Daveluke.
Our app also uses “fulfillment_service” field to do the fulfillment order workflow.
The difference is that we use the “REST Admin API”, not the “GraphQL Admin API”, so how should we connect a Product Variant to a location as the “fulfillment_service” field is being deprecated?
inventory_management and fulfillment_service ，Create fulfillment returns the value of the parameter handle,
中文：inventory_management and fulfillment_service 的填写一样的值，填写创建履行fulfillment 时返回的handle参数的值，
shopify的文档真需要迭代了。解决个问题需要找3个地方