Unfortunately, this is not a solution as it will make the product “out of stock” and not purchasable.
Topic summary
Goal: An app auto-creates a product and must automatically be hidden from storefront collections (without relying on merchant theme filters) while remaining available in the admin and purchasable.
Proposed approach: Use the Admin API to set product field published_at to null. According to linked docs, this hides the product from the Online Store (so it won’t appear on collections) but keeps it visible in the admin.
Issue raised: Setting published_at to null is not acceptable for this use case because it results in the product being treated as out of stock and not purchasable (per poster’s experience), defeating the requirement to keep it buyable.
Open questions:
- How to hide a product from storefront collections without unpublishing it from the Online Store or impacting purchasability?
- Are there alternative workflows or resources (e.g., different publication settings, sales channel configurations, or other API fields) that meet App Review requirements?
Status: No concrete solution confirmed in the thread. References include a related forum post and Shopify Admin API documentation for product publication.