Help! Metaobject list of files show up as "no image" using Custom Liquid

Store Design

Topic summary

Issue: Images from a metaobject “list of files” field render as Shopify’s “no image” placeholder when looped via Custom Liquid.

Context: The metaobject (Influencer) stores a gallery of images. Names render correctly, but images do not. Screenshots show the placeholder output and the metaobject field setup.

Cause: The code treats the gallery as a comma‑separated string and uses split, producing strings instead of file objects. The img_url filter expects a file/media object, not a string.

Fix: Access the metaobject’s file list as an array and iterate it directly.

  • Use influencer.gallery.value to get the array of file references.
  • Loop over that array and apply img_url (e.g., image | img_url: ‘500x’).
  • No split is needed.

Outcome: The corrected approach renders images successfully.

Notes:

  • Metaobject: a custom data type in Shopify; metafields: custom fields on objects.
  • The discussion reached resolution with a working code pattern; no further open questions mentioned.
Summarized with AI on December 26. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi all,

I’m trying to print a list of files (images) through custom liquid code and for some reason, Shopify recognizes what I’m trying to do but only displays the placeholder “no image” instead of the images I added to the metaobject. As seen below:

Scherm­afbeelding 2024-06-24 om 10.01.54.png
Scherm­afbeelding 2024-06-24 om 10.01.54.png3838×1880 315 KB

The reason I’m doing it this way is because I want to be able to select a list of pictures I already uploaded for specific Influencers we partner with and doing it this way makes it easier for my co-workers to select pictures for each influencer, instead of having 9 different metafields inside the metaobject for each picture. I’ve shown my metaobject structure below:

Scherm­afbeelding 2024-06-24 om 10.02.54.png
Scherm­afbeelding 2024-06-24 om 10.02.54.png1412×1410 63.3 KB

Scherm­afbeelding 2024-06-24 om 10.03.15.png
Scherm­afbeelding 2024-06-24 om 10.03.15.png1262×1760 197 KB

I don’t understand why it is not working as I can access the metaobject information fine (the following code prints the name fine:

{% assign influencers = shop.metaobjects.influencer.values %}

{% for influencer in influencers %}

{{ influencer.name }}

{% endfor %} ) The code I'm using for the printing of the images is:

{% assign influencers = shop.metaobjects.influencer.values %}

{% for influencer in influencers %}

{{ influencer.name }}

{% assign gallery = influencer.gallery | split: ‘,’ %}
{% for image in gallery %}
{% assign image_url = image | img_url: ‘500x’ %}
{{ influencer.name }}
{% endfor %}
{% endfor %}

If anyone has any idea what I’m doing wrong or how I can approach this differently, please help. I have been stuck on this for quite some while and feel like this should be doable. If not, also please tell me.

Thanks for ANY help in advance!

2

Why add this?

wo_0-1719218237413.png
wo_0-1719218237413.png525×132 9.74 KB

3

It is supposed to split the influencer.gallery values from a string to an array. If I remove that part, the code doesn’t work anymore.

4 
{% assign influencers = shop.metaobjects.influencer.values %}
{% for influencer in influencers %}
## {{ influencer.name }}

{% assign gallery = influencer.gallery.value %}
{% for image in gallery %}
{% assign image_url = image | img_url: '500x' %}

{% endfor %}
{% endfor %}
5

Thanks! This seem to work! Can you explain to me what I did wrong?