Developer Digest: November 30, 2018

Welcome to the December edition of Developer Digest, your guide to all the changes and updates that affect you as a Shopify app developer. In this edition, we look at updates to Shopify App Store functionalities, new opportunities for you as a developer, and API updates impacting your work.

Welcome back to Developer Digest!

As the dust begins to settle from Black Friday/Cyber Monday and we round the bend into the busy holiday season, we intend to keep you up to speed with our most recent changes.

In this edition, we explore our latest API updates, tutorials, and new features in the Shopify App Store. Want to know how to get richer data on your app’s performance? Haven’t migrated to multi-currency yet? Curious about GraphQL in Shopify app development?

Read on.

Shopify App Store

Your app’s discoverability in the Shopify App Store is important to us. We’re rounding up the latest updates to make this easier for you.

Get richer data in Google Analytics

When we launched the new Shopify App Store, we made updates to the browsing and search experience to help improve app discoverability and provided tips on how to make the most of these improvements. To further help you optimize your listings, we’re now sharing more detailed insights into Google Analytics on how merchants find your app page.

Learn more on how to access this richer data by following the instructions in our Help Center.

Preview your app listing before it goes live

We’re enabling you to preview your app listing to see what it will look like when it’s live. Whether you are submitting a new app or updating an existing one, you can preview your listing before submitting to make sure that all of the content, imagery, and formatting looks as expected.

New opportunities

We’re committed to sharing our newest app development and educational opportunities with you. Here we highlight our most popular tutorial of the month and new opportunities with Shopify Flow.

Connectors for Shopify Flow now available for partners

Shopify Flow is a visual workflow builder that automates tasks and processes in just a few clicks. To date, Shopify Plus merchants have automated over 500 million workflows inside of Shopify.

To bring this automation power to the whole ecosystem, we announced Connectors for Shopify Flow at Unite.

Using the app extension platform, you can now extend the functionality of your app into Shopify Flow, creating a connector that consists of triggers and actions that start or end automated workflows.

Since launch, 26 partners and counting have built for Flow, allowing their apps to be connected in ways that weren’t possible previously, without needing to individually build first-party integrations with each other. This allows merchants to proactively improve a customer’s negative experience using tools they already use to run their business.

Building a connector is quick and easy, and uses language you’re already familiar with, right within the Partner Dashboard. Learn how to build a connector today.

You might also like: Developer Digest: November 1, 2018.

The Shopify GraphQL API Learning Kit

Are you looking to better understand GraphQL in the context of Shopify App Development? Head on over to our latest blog tutorial by Shopify App and Partner Platform Developer Advocate Alex Bradley, and see how fast and flexible the Shopify GraphQL Admin API can be. With the ability to access data from multiple objects in a single call, to getting the specific data you need, GraphQL is guaranteed to improve your app’s capabilities and save you a few REST calls along the way.

Check out the The Shopify GraphQL Learning Kit on our blog.

You might also like: What’s New: November 16, 2018.

API updates

Greater transparency into our API changes is very important to us at Shopify. Below are the most recent changes you should be aware of.

Billing API improvement: Double-billing prevention

Previously, if merchants were to install an app with a RecurringApplicationCharge, uninstall it and then reinstall, all within a 30 day window, a merchant could be subject to paying twice for the same app. Merchants would have to call in and ask for refunds, which slowed their workflow and caused confusion and frustration.

With this update, we now either resume the original install’s billing cycle and don’t charge the merchant until the end of the cycle, or charge the merchant a prorated fee. No more confusion.

POS SDK now supports discount codes

With the latest update to the POS SDK, partners can call setDiscount with a discount code created in the Discounts section of the Shopify Admin. This reads as an Edit Cart action for merchants who have Shopify POS Android v3.1.3 or POS iOS v5.2.1 installed.

Older versions of Shopify POS will not support the ability to setDiscount with a code. This means that it is up to you, the developer, to support older Shopify POS clients. We encourage you to try setting cart discounts with a code.

Stay informed of important API changes in real-time and subscribe to our API changelog.

Selling in multiple currencies rolls out this December

In early December, we will begin rolling out the ability for Shopify Plus merchants who use Shopify Payments to sell in multiples currencies.

By adding support for multiple currencies, Shopify has made changes to several core areas, including products, checkouts, transaction, refunds, and orders. These changes are not breaking in the conventional sense, but they do mean that values might not represent what they have in the past. For example, you might retrieve a different line item price depending on whether you retrieve it using the Checkout resource or the Order resource.

If you don't update your app, then you might display inconsistent or unexpected values to merchants and customers. This can provide a negative user experience with your app.

For more context on making the switch with multi-currency, please visit the following resources:

• Multi-currency migration guide (Shopify Developers document)
• Selling in Multiple Currencies with Shopify Payments: What this Means for App Developers(blog post)
• Switch between multiple currencies (Shopify Help Center document)

Sunsetting legacy inventory APIs

An important reminder that all apps that update, fulfill, or restock inventory need to be updated to work with stores using multiple locations by January 6th, 2019.

After January 6th, 2019:

• All apps will no longer be able to set inventory_quantity or inventory_quantity_adjustment on the product variant
• All apps will no longer be able to create fulfillments without specifying a location_id
• All apps will no longer be able to refund and restock without specifying a location_id

If you have not migrated to support the new Inventory APIs in time, all requests to the deprecated API will return errors.

Learn more in our inventory migration guide.

Creating the best experience for your clients

More transparency into updates means you’re able to respond faster with the appropriate changes as a developer. We hope this information helps you create the best possible experiences for your clients and enables you to grow your business as a Shopify app developer.

Thanks for tuning in, we’ll see you next time.

What updates are you most excited about? Questions about changes coming your way? Let us know in the comments below!