How to use Shopify metafields with Calcurates

What is Shopify metafield

Shopify metafields help you add additional parameters to your Products and Variants such as Dimensions (Length, Width, Height), pre-calculated Volume or Volumetric Weight, Shipping Type, Package Type or other that you can then use in Calcurates for shipping methods and rates conditioniong. Metafields can be added on the Product and Variant levels from your Shopify admin settings: Settings > Metafields and metaobjects.

Learn more about Metafields from the official Shopify guide

Supported metafield types

Calcurates supports the most common metafield types:

Text (String) - One value
Text (String) - List of values
Decimal. If using this metafield type for dimensions, then values are interpreted directly in the dimensional unit configured in your Calcurates account > Store > Edit Store (cm or in).
Integer. If using this metafield type for dimensions, then values are interpreted directly in the dimensional unit configured in your Calcurates account > Store > Edit Store (cm or in).
Dimension (Measurement > Dimension). This type stores a value together with a unit (mm, cm, m, in, ft or yd). Calcurates reads both and converts the value automatically to the dimensional unit set in your Calcurates account > Store > Edit Store (cm or in), so you can use whatever unit you prefer in Shopify without changing your Calcurates settings.

How to set Product's and Variant's dimensions

Scenario 1: you don't have products with Variants or all product Variants have same dimensions

You may proceed with Product dimension metafields only
Use them for Smart Packaging or Volumetric Weight mapping settings in Calcurates

Scenario 2: you have products with Variants and they have their own dimensions

Proceed with Product dimension metafields and Variant dimension metafields
Make sure you use the same namespace and key for both metafield definitions. Example: for "length" use custom.length for Product metafield and custom.length for Variant metafield. Metafield names can be different.
Use any metafield (Variant or Product) for Smart Packaging or Volumetric Weight mapping settings in Calcurates. The app will give a higher priority to Variant dimension metafields.

How to add dimension metafields in Shopify? Check our Loom video below

I don't see a certain metafield in my Calcurates account

If you don't see a certain Shopify metafield in Segment, Smart Packaging or Volumetric Weight mapping settings, then there are 2 possible reasons:

You haven't sync your Shopify store with Calcurates after you have added a new metafield in Shopify. Sync can be done in your Calcurates account > Store > Edit Store.
Metafield type is not supported

How to update metafields in bulk

There are a few Shopify apps such as Matrixify that can help you update metafields in bulk across all your Shopify catalog.