Introduction to Shopify templating syntax

Overview

You can use templating syntax to insert dynamic data from the payloads of events that trigger certain Shopify automations. Read on to learn about how to use templating syntax in Shopify automations.

Available data types in Shopify automations

Order and product data can be dynamically inserted into certain Shopify automation emails, depending on the automation's trigger.

When specified events occur, such as a website visitor clicking an "add to cart" button, a webhook sends a payload of related data to Sendlane. That data can be dynamically inserted into automation emails.

The data you can render in an automation email depends on the event that triggers the automation and that event's place in the buying cycle:

Standard Shopify data

The order, customer, and product data below are standard for Shopify stores. Your Shopify store may provide additional useful data not covered in this section; see Other Shopify data below for more information.

Product data

The following product data can be inserted into emails in automations using a Shopify Abandoned Product Viewed, Added to Cart, or Abandoned Cart.

To insert any of the following syntax into your email, paste the following assignment tag in a text element at the very top of your email:  {% set product = trigger.getProduct() %}

Checkout data

The following customer data can be inserted into emails in automations using a Shopify Abandoned Checkout trigger.

To insert any of the following syntax into your email, paste the following assignment tag in a text element at the very top of your email: {% set checkout = trigger.getCheckout() %}

Order data

The following order data can be inserted into emails in automations using a Shopify Order Placed trigger.

Paste the following assignment tag in a text element at the very top of your email: {% set order = trigger.getOrder() %}

Formatting and rendering templating syntax

Prepare your email for templating syntax with an assignment tag

The assignment tag tells the email builder to look out for templating syntax that needs to be rendered into plain language. Without the assignment tag, your templating syntax will not render and will appear to contacts as raw templating syntax.

Insert the appropriate assignment tag according to the table above in a text element at the very top of your email. The assignment tag will not be visible in email previews, test emails, or live emails.

All other elements in your email must be below the text element containing the assignment tag.

The screenshots below show a draft email with an assignment tag correctly set, templating syntax that renders basic information about an order, and the results of previewing the draft:

Create loops to display all products in an order

If you use product related templating syntax without a loop, only the first product from the order or checkout will be rendered in the email.

To add a loop function:

1. Copy the following loop tag {% for product in order.line_items %}

2. Paste the loop tag directly above the beginning of your product related syntax

3. Copy the following end loop tag {% endfor %}

4. Paste the end loop tag directly below the end of your product related syntax

For example, the syntax below will display a list containing the name of each product in the randomly selected order or checkout used by the email builder preview:

Order

{% for product in order.line_items %}
{{product.title}}
{% endfor %}

Checkout

{% for product in checkout.line_items %}
{{product.title}}
{% endfor %}

Provide context for all templating syntax in your email

Templating syntax returns raw data without contextual labels

For example, the order number tag {{order.name}} returns a raw order number without indication that it is an order number.

If you do not include text that provides context for your templating syntax, your email will be difficult to understand.

The table below shows the results of templating syntax with and without manually added contextual labels:

Other Shopify data

The examples and references above represent the most commonly available and valuable data that can be dynamically pulled into emails using templating syntax. However, Shopify may provide more useful data that you can take advantage of!

Advanced users can use the json_encode function to look at all data available with a given automation trigger.

To see available data:

1. Open an automation

2. Select an order or checkout related trigger

3. Add an email node

4. Set the email node’s name and subject line to anything you like

5. Click Edit Email

6. Click Start From Scratch

7. Add a text box to your email

8. Copy the following snippet depending on whether your trigger is order or checkout based:

   1. Checkout: {{ trigger.checkout | json_encode }}

   2. Order: {{ trigger.order | json_encode }}

9. Paste the snippet into the text box

10. Click Preview

In the email preview, you’ll see a large block of JSON that is difficult to read. Copy the entire block, then paste it into a JSON parser, like jsonformatter.org, to see your data in a structured format:

You can now select items to render in your automation emails from the parsed JSON. For example, let's grab that order_status_url towards the bottom of the parsed JSON above.

An order status URL would only be appropriate in an order placed automation, so we'll use the {% set order = trigger.getOrder() %} assignment tag in a text element at the very top of the email.

If we paste order_status_url into our email at this point, nothing will happen even though we have the correct assignment tag set. We need to format the syntax properly first.

Now, we need to show the assignment tag where to look for syntax that needs to be rendered. Since we're using the order assignment tag, we'll add the word order and a period before order_status_url to get order.order_status_url, and finish with a space plus two curly brackets surrounding the syntax: {{ order.order_status_url }}