Changelog

Ablestar Bulk Product Editor can download files from an FTP server on a recurring basis. Many Shopify stores use this feature to keep their prices, inventory or other data up-to-date.

We've improved the way that wildcards are handled so that the app will always download the most recent version of the matching file. For example, ftp://user:[email protected]/STOCK_UPDATE_*.csv will use the most recent file available each time it is run.

Learn more about syncing your Shopify data from an FTP server.

When you setup a Google Shopping feed in Ablestar Bulk Product Editor you can limit it to products that match certain filters. If the feed exports daily, it's possible that one day no products will match the filters and so there would be no products to include in the Google Shopping feed.

Previously, if this was the case, the URL for the Google Shopping feed would continue to show the last version of the feed that had products in it. Now, if there's no products that match the filters, the Google Shopping feed will be updated with a blank Google Shopping feed file (that includes the required headers). This will prevent products that no longer exist from being listed in Google Shopping.

Learn more about creating a Google Shopping feed for Shopify.

We've updated the layout of the Code snippets page to show a wider code editor. Now, when you're using the Code snippet editor on a smaller screen, such as a laptop, the code editor will span the full width of the screen with the preview information shown below. This should make it easier to read the lines of code without having to continously scroll back and forth.

Learn more about editing products with code snippets.

When you run an edit that only updates inventory levels the Bulk Product Editor is able to take advantage of a different Shopify API and will update inventory levels in batches of 100. This is significantly faster than updating them one-by-one.

Previously, if you undid an inventory level edit, the app would go through the inventory levels one-by-one to revert them. Now, undoing an inventory level edit will also process the inventory levels in batches of 100, leading to faster inventory level edit undos.

If you have difficulties with undoing an inventory level edit you can also click on Export Log to download a CSV file of the previous inventory levels and then create a new spreadsheet edit using that.

When editing prices with a spreadsheet the app will no longer accept prices with a space in between the numbers. If you upload a spreadsheet with a number like "1 234" and try to edit the price, compare-at price or cost fields, the app will show an error instead of trying to process the number:

This will ensure that the prices are updated as intended and will prevent upstream data issues from affecting your pricing.

You can now edit, export, and import ShipperHQ fields with Ablestar Bulk Product Editor. This allows you to quickly and safely manage ShipperHQ fields like such as Origins, Shipping Groups, and Dimensions. To see the ShipperHQ field you will need to enable the integration under Settings -> Integrations. After doing so, the app will show the ShipperHQ fields whenever you edit, export or import data.

Learn more about bulk editing ShipperHQ fields in Shopify.

When you create Shopify products from a spreadsheet you can have the columns named whatever you want, you don't need to rename them to match a specific convention. Then, when you upload the spreadsheet you can choose which columns matches to which field.

To make this process easier we have an auto-detect button which will attempt to match the column names with the Shopify fields for you. We've made several updates to this auto-detect function to save you more time, especially with detecting image, metafield and Google Shopping fields.

Learn more about how to import products to Shopify with a spreadsheet.

We're very pleased to announce that now the Ablestar Link Manager is now 'Built for Shopify'. According to Shopify, the "Built for Shopify status is the highest level of recognition and achievement that an app can reach" and requires the app to meet specific design and performance standards. With this milestone you can be sure that the app has very low impact on your store's speed and will function well within the Shopify admin.

Learn more about Ablestar Link Manager on the Shopify App Store.

We've added several more frequency options for when you generate repeating product exports. Now when you create a repeating export you can have it run:

• Every 4 hours
• Every 12 hours
• Daily
• Weekly
• Monthly

This should help stores that need to keep their data or product export feeds more up-to-date. Learn more about creating repeating product exports in Shopify.

When you import product images into Shopify you can specify a URL for the new images. In most cases Shopify is able to download these images directly but in some situations this fails and no product images get imported. We've noticed this with Dropbox images hosted on the dl.dropboxusercontent.com domain.

We've added a work-around to this in the app so now any Dropbox images should import correctly, even if they're from the dl.dropboxusercontent.com domain.

Learn import about importing products to Shopify.

You can now search for products based on when they were last updated on Shopify. We've supported searching on the created date for a while but held off on adding the updated date because the results can be counter-intuitive.

The updated date for a product represents the last time any of the fields relating to the product, including inventory, were changed. Inventory levels can change when the product is ordered which means a popular product could have an updated date that's more recent than expected.

Despite this, searching for Shopify products by the updated date should be useful for identifying old products on your store.

We've updated the app to support editing variant reference list metafields with an in-app edit. Now you can choose from the following options when editing this type of metafield:

• Add a variant reference to the start or end of the list
• Set the metafield to a new list of variant references
• Remove x entries from the start or end of the list

We have made some optimizations to how the app searches for products based on their inventory at a specific location. This should result in faster searches for things like "Inventory at Warehouse B < 1". The improvements should be most noticable on stores with a large number of products.

We have made improvements to the code to download spreadsheet files from an FTP server with implicit SSL enabled. When you download a file from an FTP server there are two different connections taking place, one for the commands and one for the actual data being transfered. Some FTP servers require the SSL session to be reused between both of these connections.

The app will now reuse the SSL session in these situations. This should not affect any existing FTP downloads in the app but will make it so that the app can download files from a wider range of FTP servers.

Learn more about downloading files from an FTP server into the Bulk Product Editor app.

You can now edit Shopify metafields that are a list of URLs directly in the app. Just select the metafield from the 'Field to Edit' popup and you can:

• Add an URL to the start or end of the list
• Set the metafield to a new list of URLs
• Remove x entries from the start or end of the list

Learn more about bulk editing metafields in Shopify.

We're happy to announce that the Ablestar Link Manager is now embedded within the Shopify admin. This means that you can access your broken link reports without leaving the Shopify admin and also give you the option to pin the app to the sidebar.

This update involved a significant rewrite of our application. If you encounter any issues while using the app please contact us and we'll resolve them as quickly as possible.

Ablestar Link Manager now uses app embed blocks instead of script tags to track visits to 404 error pages. App embed blocks provide a better-performing way to track broken link visits and ensure that the app will remain compatible with the newest themes and versions of the Shopify API.

App embed blocks require a store administrator to enable the block within the Shopify admin. For existing users of the app, tracking will continue to work using the script tags but we recommend that you log in to the app and enable the app block instead.

Learn more about enabling the app embed block to track broken link visits.

When you export your data to the Google Shopping feed format, the values of the price and sale_price fields depend on whether Shopify's compare-at price field is set.

Going forwards, if the compare-at price in Shopify is zero, the app will treat that the same as if the compare-at price was not set. This will prevent prices of zero from unintentionally making their way into the Google Shopping feed.

Learn more about the Google Shopping feed format for Shopify.

We've add a 'View Configuration' button on the product export detail page.

Clicking this button will show you the configuration for the export including:

• The search filters for the export
• The format of the export
• All the fields included in the export

This is similar to the 'View Configuration' buttons that already exist for the edit and import detail screens.

We've made several optimizations to how spreadsheet edits are processed. Due to this changes you may noticed increased speeds when runnning spreadsheet edits, especially for those that are only updating inventory or that have the 'skip unchanged rows' option selected.