Metafield lists

Metafield lists allow you to store multiple values in a single metafield. Use metafield lists to display additional products that complement the customer's selection, lists of ingredients, or for more powerful storefront filtering.

Metafield lists are available for the following content types:

  • text fields
  • numbers
  • color
  • url
  • weight
  • volume
  • dimension
  • rating
  • date
  • date and time

You can create a metafield list for the following reference types:

  • products
  • variants
  • files
  • pages
  • collections
  • metaobjects
  • mixed reference

Use cases

Metafield lists allow you store and display information unique to your business. Use metafield lists to display additional products that complement the customer's selection, lists of ingredients, or for more powerful storefront filtering. You can dynamically display richer content across your entire catalog, which helps your customers make better purchasing decisions on your store.

For example, a clothing boutique might want to allow customers to filter options by season. Instead of the search returning products with a single value of "Spring" or "Summer", multiple seasons can be added to a single product (for example, a sweater that's perfect for both Spring and Summer). When a customer searches for Spring clothing, the perfect sweater will be returned as a result because the product has both "Spring" and "Summer" as metafield values.

You can use metafield lists to list the ingredients in your products. For example, a bakery might want to display a full list of ingredients in a cake. You can list all the ingedients as single-line text fields, and then display them on your storefront in a Text or Rich Text section or block.

Metafield lists can also be used to augment customer data. Create a list of preset color choices ("rose", "navy", "magenta") for your customers, and store the results in the customer's profile. Use the data to wrap the customer's purchases in their favorite color of gift wrapping for a special touch.

To create a metafield list, start by creating a new custom metafield definition. Set the content type, and then check the Accept list of values box.

After you've set up the definition in your Shopify admin, go to the part of your store where you want to add a metafield value. Lists of non-reference fields can be used in text or rich text sections and blocks, whereas reference lists can be used in custom sections or a third-party theme that uses product list settings.

Metafield lists

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to the part of your store where you want to add a metafield value. For example, a specific product, collection, or customer.
  2. Navigate to the Metafields section, where the applicable metafield definitions display in a list.

  3. In the Metafields section, click the metafield.

  4. Depending on how you configured your metafield definition, do one of the following:

    • Enter your content.
    • Click Select an option, and then select a preset option from the list.
    • Repeat to add multiple values.
  5. Click Save.

Reference metafield lists

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to the part of your store where you want to add a metafield value. For example, a specific product, collection, or customer.
  2. Navigate to the Metafields section, where the applicable metafield definitions display in a list.

  3. In the Metafields section, click the reference metafield.

  4. Depending on the reference type, you'll have a few different options.

    • For product references, click Select products.
    • For file references, click Select files.
    • For page references, click Select pages.
    • For variant references, click Select variants.
    • For collection references, click Select collections.
    • For metaobject and mixed references, click Select entries.
  5. Repeat to add multiple items.

  6. Click Save.

After you add values to your metafield list, you can connect your metafields to your theme to display your custom information on your online store.

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