GraphQL to enable Inventory Tracking

Shopify Discussion
1

I’m adding products with the productSet Mutation and then trying to update inventory with the ActivateInventoryItem mutation

I’m trying to enable inventory tracking and set the inventorytracker to shopify but I don’t see any way to do this.

The ActivteInventoryItem mutation doesn’t create any errors but also seems to be completely ignored by the system since none information included in the mutation exists after running the mutation

See mutation below:

mutation ActivateInventoryItem($inventoryItemId: ID!, $locationId: ID!, $available: Int) {
inventoryActivate(inventoryItemId: $inventoryItemId, locationId: $locationId, available: $available) {
inventoryLevel {
id
quantities(names: [“available”,“on_hand”]) {
name
quantity
}
item {
id
tracked
}
}
}
}

{
“inventoryItemId”:“gid://shopify/InventoryItem/” + productInventoryID,
“inventoryItemTracked”:“true”,
“locationId”:gidLocation,
“available”:11,
“onHand”:11
}

2

The issue likely lies in how the Shopify API handles inventory tracking and inventory updates. Here’s a breakdown of your situation and how to address it:

1. Activating Inventory Tracking

To enable inventory tracking for an item, you need to ensure the inventory item is associated with a location and has tracking enabled. This requires a combination of the inventorySet mutation (to enable tracking) and inventoryActivate mutation (to activate the inventory at a location).

Correct Steps:1. Enable Inventory Tracking: Use the inventorySet mutation to update the inventory tracking of your product. Example mutation:

graphql

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mutation UpdateInventoryItem($inventoryItemId: ID!, $tracked: Boolean!) { inventoryItemUpdate(input: { id: $inventoryItemId, tracked: $tracked }) { inventoryItem { id tracked } userErrors { field message } } }

Variables:

json

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{ “inventoryItemId”: “gid://shopify/InventoryItem/”, “tracked”: true }

  1. Associate Inventory with a Location: Use the inventoryActivate mutation to set up the inventory at a specific location.

    graphql

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    mutation ActivateInventoryItem($inventoryItemId: ID!, $locationId: ID!, $available: Int!) { inventoryActivate(inventoryItemId: $inventoryItemId, locationId: $locationId, available: $available) { inventoryLevel { id quantities(names: [“available”, “on_hand”]) { name quantity } item { id tracked } } userErrors { field message } } }

    Variables:

    json

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    { “inventoryItemId”: “gid://shopify/InventoryItem/”, “locationId”: “gid://shopify/Location/”, “available”: 11 }

2. Check Shopify Location ID

Ensure the locationId corresponds to a valid location in your Shopify store. You can query available locations using:

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query GetLocations { locations(first: 10) { edges { node { id name } } } }

 

3. Verify Inventory Item ID

Ensure productInventoryID is correctly retrieved when creating the product. You can confirm it by querying the product details:

graphql

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query GetProductInventoryID($productId: ID!) { product(id: $productId) { variants(first: 1) { edges { node { inventoryItem { id } } } } } }

 

4. Debugging Tips- Ensure there are no errors in the userErrors field of the response.

  • Confirm the inventory changes by querying the inventory levels:

    graphql

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    query InventoryLevels($inventoryItemId: ID!) { inventoryItem(id: $inventoryItemId) { id tracked inventoryLevels(first: 10) { edges { node { id location { id name } available } } } } }

5. Notes- The ActivateInventoryItem mutation you shared may not work correctly if tracking isn’t enabled beforehand.

  • Shopify’s inventory operations often require specific conditions to be met (e.g., locations must be set up, products must have variants, etc.).
3

The UpdateInventoryItem mutation let me enable inventory tracking.

The ActivateInventoryItem mutation still doesn’t do anything but I can set the initial inventory quantity in the productSet mutation so I will just stop using ActivateInventoryItem

Thank you