Changelog

Because of changes to the Shopify API you are no longer able to set a product's handle to a value if another product already has that handle. Previously, the Shopify API would add -1 to the handle to ensure it was unique but now they reject the new handle completely. This means that running edits like "Set the product's handle to be the product's title" will fail if you have two products with the same title.

To address this we've added an option when editing handles to ensure that a handle is unique. When selected, the app will add random numbers to the end of the handle if the handle already exists in Shopify. If the new handle is already unique, no numbers will be added.

For example, if you try to set the handle for two products to my-handle: - The first product will have the handle my-handle - The second product will have a handle like my-handle-2891

Learn more about editing product handles in Shopify.

You can now search for products in Ablestar Bulk Product Editor by their country of origin. The input requires the two-letter country code for the country (ie, US or CA).

Learn more about searching for products to bulk edit.

Ablestar Bulk Product Editor now includes a metaobject's namespace/type in the export in the format metaobject_namespace.metaobject-handle. Previously, just the value metaobject-handle would be exported. This change improves compatibility with other apps that cannot automatically determine the metaobject's type from the metafield definition.

When you edit metaobject reference metafields with a spreadsheet you can now optionally include the namespace. Setting a metaobject reference can be done any of the following ways:

• my_object.my-object-a
• my-object-b
• gid://shopify/Metaobject/69540970577

And lists can be updated in a similar fashion:

• my_object.my-object-a, my_object.my-object-b, my_object.my-object-c
• my-object-b,my-object-a
• ["gid://shopify/Metaobject/69540970577", "gid://shopify/Metaobject/69540905041"]

Learn more about bulk editing metaobject references.

We’ve added a Re-run button to the Edit Detail page. You can now start a new edit with the same configuration as a previous one, making it much simpler to repeat actions in the app.

If you need to modify any search filters or change settings, you can still clone the edit just like before.

We've updated the way edits are triggered for recurring and inventory sync automations. Now, before starting a new edit, the app will check whether an existing edit is already running for that automation.

This change primarily affects long-running recurring edits and inventory sync jobs that are scheduled to run in quick succession. By preventing overlapping edits, data will stay consistent and the app can process additional background tasks more efficiently.

You can now set the published/unpublished status for your products across all sales channels in bulk. Previously the app supported publishing to the Online Store and Point of Sale (POS) sales channels but now that's been expanded to support any sales channel on your store.

As part of this change we're removing the old 'Visible on Online Store' and 'Visible on Point of Sale (POS)' fields. Previous edits configured with these fields will still work however for future edits please select the corresponding field under the 'Sales Channel' section of the field selector.

We've updated the version of the Shopify API that Ablestar Bulk Product Editor uses to support new features like the upcoming changes to Shopify Markets. As part of these changes your may need to update the Shopify permissions that you give to the app. If this is the case, you will see an 'Update permissions' button on the home page and please take a minute to update the permissions. It may be necessary to reimport data in the settings section after updating the permissions.

Only store owners and users with the ability to install apps on the Shopify store are able to update the permissions. If you don't update the permissions the app will continue to run but some features related to inventory locations may be unavailable.

Learn more about updating Shopify app permissions.

You can now use Ablestar Bulk Product Editor to bulk edit products based on their profit margin. All you need to do is use the 'Profit Margin' filter to select the variants that you need:

If the cost of a variant is blank it will not have a profit margin but you can also select those variants by searching for products where the profit margin 'is empty/blank'.

Learn more about searching for products to bulk edit.

We've added a 'Bulk edit' action to the Shopify admin products page to allow you to quick bulk edit a series of products:

This is in addition to our other integrations with the Shopify admin that allow you view a product's price history and edit history.

You may also notice some minor changes to how products are listed in the app. We've increased the page size to 50 products and updated the ordering of the products so it matches the default view in the Shopify admin.

We've updated Ablestar Bulk Product Editor to support upcoming changes to Shopify Markets. Soon, Shopify will be releasing a new version of Shopify Markets which expands support for custom price lists to shoppers from particular B2B or POS locations.

When those changes are rolled out you'll continue to be able to bulk edit prices for the new markets in the same way you do today. The only change you should notice is that now instead of just updating a 'Shopify Market', now you'll be updating a 'Shopify Market Catalog'. Existing catalogs should have the same name as the catalog's market. We've made this change because going forwards a single Shopify market can have multiple catalogs.

Learn more about using Shopify Markets with Ablestar.

We've made improvements to the page that shows you the status of a site scan for broken links. Now, while the scan is running, you are able to see the current page being scanned and any broken links found so far. No more waiting for the scan to complete.

Learn more about scanning your Shopify store for broken links.

It's now possible to change the time of a scheduled edit without having to clone the edit first. You can modify the start time of a scheduled edit anytime until it starts. After an edit runs you can still schedule an undo, even if you didn't schedule one when creating the edit.

To edit the start or undo time go to the edit's detail page and either: - Click on the pencil icon next to the scheduled time - Select 'More actions → Edit schedule' from the top menu

This should make the process of managing sales easier and remove the need to clone edits when you want to modify an edit's schedule.

Learn more about scheduling edits.

We've improved the collection search for products in Ablestar Bulk Product Editor. Now collections are matched by ID and include an icon next to them to identify if they are a smart collection (star icon) or a manual collection (tag icon). This should make it more easy to distinguish between collections with similar names.

Learn more about searching for products to bulk edit.

On March 8, starting at 05:30 UTC, we will be performing database maintenance which will result in the Shopify apps being briefly unavailable. Scheduled tasks will run automatically once the maintenance completes but bulk edits running during that time may be interrupted and need to be restarted. We are trying our best to schedule the maintenance during periods of low usage, if you have any questions please reach out.

The next time you log into Ablestar WooCommerce Importer you may notice that Shopify prompts you to accept updated permissions for the app. These updates are necessary in order for the app to stay compatible with the latest versions of the Shopify API. Specifically, the permissions allow the app to continue to see the locations on your store and to publish uploaded products to your online store (if the products are active).

If you are unable to upgrade the permissions yourself you may need to ask the owner of the Shopify store to open up the app and accept the new permissions.

We've upgraded the Shopify APIs that are used to bulk edit product categories. For the most part these changes should be transparent however there are a few things to note:

• The 'Product category' field is now renamed to 'Category' to stay consistent with how Shopify calls it
• Recurring edits, code snippets, and product rules that are configured to use the old category IDs should continue to work
• Code snippets now have access to a taxonomy_category field where you can see the category in Shopify's product taxonomy format.

Learn more about editing product categories.

We've made a large update to how we handle product images across our apps. While you shouldn't notice any immediate changes, this paves the way for supporting additional types of product media like external videos and 3d models. If you do encounter any issues product images not updating in our apps please let us know and we'll get them fixed right away.

If you are using Ablestar Bulk Product Editor you may need to update the app's permissions for edits to work. You can do this by going to the Settings section of the app. If you see a yellow banner prompting you to update the permissions follow those steps.

We've made two improvements to importing products with Ablestar Bulk Product Editor:

1. When you configure the fields to map into Shopify we now display the column letter on the left. This can help when mapping files with a large amount of columns
2. When the app encounters an error creating a product on Shopify (for example if you're trying to set a numeric metafield to a value like "shoes") the app will display that error message immediately and the row number from your file.

Together these should make it easier to configure and import product data. Learn more about creating products in Shopify.

Because of changes to Shopify's API, it is no longer possible to directly edit the Fulfillment Service field for product variants. Originally, variants could only be stocked with a single fulfillment service, and you could bulk edit that field through the app.

With changes starting in 2022, variants can now be stocked at multiple fulfillment services. As a result, the upcoming version of the Shopify API has removed the ability to modify the Fulfillment Service field.

As a replacement, you can connect or disconnect the variants from specific locations managed by different fulfillment services.

Learn more about connecting and disconnecting inventory locations.

We've improved the edit logs when running an inventory level edit. Now, the location of the inventory will be shown to the right of the 'Inventory Level' label. This will make it easier to see what data has been changed, especially if the edit is updating multiple inventory levels at once.

Learn more about editing inventory levels.