Using metaobjects to create a category specific FAQ to display on my product pages.

Store Design
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Topic summary

A merchant wants to display category-specific FAQs on product pages for three categories (Candles, Wax Melts, Reed Diffusers). They created three metaobjects with 8-10 FAQ entries each (question/answer pairs).

The Problem:

  • Cannot assign metaobject-based metafields directly to product categories
  • Cannot link metaobjects at the category level to automatically populate on relevant products
  • Current workaround requires manually selecting all FAQ entries individually across 60+ products
  • Attempted custom section (dynamic-faqs.liquid) couldn’t access metaobject data despite storefront permissions

Key Technical Limitation:
Metaobjects lack auto-population and conditional looping capabilities in Shopify’s theme editor. They cannot automatically repeat content blocks based on category assignments.

Suggested Workarounds:

  • Manually configure dynamic sources in theme editor for each template
  • Edit template JSON files directly to reference metaobject entry handles
  • Export metaobjects, extract handles via spreadsheet, generate template JSON programmatically
  • Embed metaobject webpages as iframes
  • Build a custom section as an advanced theme customization

Status: Unresolved. One responder offered paid customization services. The issue highlights fundamental limitations in Shopify’s metaobject implementation for category-level content automation.

Summarized with AI on November 1. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hello all.

I want to add an FAQ to my product page, but I want the FAQ displayed on the product page to be specific to each product category. I have only three main product categories: Candles, Wax Melts, and Reed Diffusers.

As a result, I have created three FAQ metaobjects:

  • Candles FAQ
  • Wax Melts FAQ
  • Reed Diffuser FAQ

Each of these FAQ metaobjects has around 8-10 entries. Each entry comprises two fields: a question and an answer.

What I had hoped I could do, is create a product metafield definition, called Candle FAQ, for example, assigned to the category of ‘Candles’ and then anytime a user was on a product page for a candle, I could use the FAQ metaobject in a collapsible row.

Nope, not that simple. You can’t do that.

So I then thought I’d have to go into each product itself, select the metaobject from the category metafields section so it’s at least linked to the FAQ. Not the end of the world.

Nope, not that simple. You can’t do that.

What it appears I have to do, is set the candle FAQs metafield definition to the metaobject Candle FAQs, as a list of entries, and then go into my 60+ products, and select every entry within the FAQ for it to appear on the product page.

There has to be an easier way… Surely?

Does anyone know the simplest way to create an FAQ list, and link it to a product category to make it show on a product page that is specific to the product category? I’d really appreciate some help here. I even went as far as to try and create a new section called dynamic-faqs.liquid, but it couldn’t read the metaobject data for some reason, it knew there was data but couldn’t access it, despite allowing storefront access.

Any help greatly appreciated, thanks.

Rosalind.

1 Like
2

Hello @OliviaMichaelCo

Thank you for submitting your query to the Shopify community. I’d be happy to assist you. Could you please provide the store URL and password (if it’s password-protected) so I can review and get back to you with an update?

3

I’ve not added anything to my store yet, so there’s nothing on the store to see that would help answer this question. Everything is in the backend at the moment, all in metaobjects.

1 Like
4

Hello @OliviaMichaelCo
Okay, so please let me know how I can check, or you can send me store access so I can review the backend and provide you with the details.

5

Hi @OliviaMichaelCo Metaobjects(MOBS) are flexible but not automagic.

As you’ve found MOBS don’t auto-populate|auto-repeat blocks or content in parts of a themes UI for each MOB entry.

The themes editor/settings system, for the online sales channels, has no concept for that type of conditional looping behavior, submit use cases and feature requests to shopify support directly. It basically has to be done custom to be effective.

The klunky way shopify has done MOBS makes them third class data citizens. Beyond the most crudest reductive narrow use cases MOB are really there to be leveraged in creating a process that consumes them*. We can’t even do simple setups like usinga MOB that represents an archived product without heavy theme work because of the .value and entry looping nonsense means every sub property/object has to be hard changed in templates instead of a simple object swap.

*kinda like custom-post-types in wordpress in a very abstract abstracted way.

Approaches:

  • For resource templates manually setup each dynamic source in the theme editor :nauseated_face:
  • or for resource templates manually edit the templates JSON file to enter values :nauseated_face: . :man_technologist: :martial_arts_uniform: If excel-fu is strong export the MOBs , get the entry handles, and output a template JSON with settings using the entries as dynamic sources.
  • Or do that for a MOB webpage templates and embed the MOB webpage as an iframe elsewhere and deal with the dominoes of that approach.
  • Or create a custom section as an advanced theme customization

If you need this as a theme customization then contact me for services.
Contact info in forum signature.
ALWAYS please provide context, examples: store url, theme name, post url(s) , or any further detail in ALL correspondence.