@thevault product.published_at - Returns a timestamp for when a product was published on a store.
https://shopify.dev/docs/themes/liquid/reference/objects/product#product-published_at
Topic summary
Main issue: Sort collection products by publish date (published_at) instead of created date in Shopify (Debut theme). Users want newest-by-publish-date ordering across collections.
What works for many: Use Liquid to sort collection.products by published_at and loop over a reassigned array (e.g., collection_products). Some tie it to the sort_by parameter (created-ascending/descending) to reuse Shopify’s UI options. product.published_at is the publish timestamp; created_at can’t be changed. Draft → publish can reset published_at; scheduling sets future publish times.
Key limitations and pitfalls:
- Front-end sorting conflicts with pagination. Shopify paginates collection.products server-side, so sorting often affects only items within a page, causing wrong order and blank grid gaps. Arrays like reassigned lists can’t be paginated. A suggested workaround is wrapping with paginate all_products by 50, but it only helps when total products < 1000 and Shopify now limits loops to ~50 per page.
- Large catalogs (>1000) and pagination: no reliable theme-only solution; removing pagination can work but may hurt performance.
- Metafield-based date sorting didn’t work for some.
Alternatives/outcomes:
- Apps (e.g., Advanced Collections) sort on the backend and avoid pagination issues.
- Some use Mechanic to automate ordering.
Status: No native Shopify option; partial code workarounds exist, but large catalogs/pagination remain unresolved.