Introduction

On June 18, 2024, Shopify hosted an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session with developers on the new GraphQL Product APIs, which debuted in the 2024-04 stable API release. These APIs support up to 2,000 product variants, marking a significant update aimed at merchants managing extensive and diverse inventories. This article explores the latest features, API changes, and key takeaways from the AMA session.

1. What’s New in Shopify GraphQL Product APIs

The new GraphQL Product APIs enhance Shopify’s capabilities to support up to 2,000 variants per product. This change is part of Shopify’s shift from REST to GraphQL, facilitating more efficient data queries and improved support for complex catalogs. The update benefits large retailers and developers working with high-variant products, streamlining catalog management and eliminating the need for multiple products to represent diverse variations.

2. Deprecation of REST API for Product Management

As part of this release, Shopify announced the deprecation of specific REST API endpoints related to products and variants. Starting February 2025, only the new GraphQL API will support listing, creating, updating, and deleting products, meaning Shopify developers must adapt to GraphQL for product management. The change reflects Shopify’s commitment to GraphQL as the primary API protocol, offering more control over data requests and responses.

3. Key Advantages of GraphQL over REST API

GraphQL provides several advantages over REST for Shopify developers:

• Efficiency: GraphQL reduces the number of requests by allowing developers to specify precisely the data they need, reducing payload size and speeding up responses.
• Flexibility: Developers can request multiple resources in a single call, avoiding the over-fetching and under-fetching issues common with REST APIs.
• Structured Queries: GraphQL’s query structure enables fetching related resources without additional API requests, ideal for complex, high-variant products.

4. Important Changes in the New GraphQL Product APIs

This latest update includes significant changes affecting how developers handle products and variants:

• Variant Limit: Support for up to 2,000 variants per product, eliminating the need to create multiple products for different variations.
• Webhooks and Triggers: Updates to product webhooks, including only changed variant IDs for improved efficiency when products have hundreds or thousands of variants.
• Field Adjustments: Certain fields, such as publishedAt and productUpdateMedia, are being restructured or deprecated in favor of new methods.

5. Optimizing for 2,000 Variants Support

To ensure that the API can manage high-variant products smoothly, Shopify recommends specific changes to theme code for handling 2,000 variants. Developers need to:

• Use the latest Shopify Theme v15.0.0 for support of larger variant sets.
• Adjust AJAX and Liquid API calls, as these are still limited to 100 variants per product.
• Follow Shopify’s best practices for managing large datasets, such as using productOptions arrays and variant pagination.

6. Understanding Webhook Updates

To accommodate high-variant products, Shopify adjusted product webhooks to only include variant IDs of changed variants rather than full variant details. This update reduces the size of webhook payloads and improves performance. Additionally, the new `metafieldNamespaces` parameter allows specific namespaces to be included in webhooks, reducing the need for multiple API calls and simplifying data synchronization.

7. Common Questions from the Shopify AMA

During the AMA, developers posed numerous questions about the GraphQL Product APIs. Here are a few notable inquiries:

• Can GraphQL IDs remain consistent with REST IDs?
  Shopify confirmed they would align with REST IDs, though discrepancies may arise. Parsing them as URIs is recommended.
• Will product webhooks improve for data accuracy?
  Product webhooks now include only variant IDs of changed variants, minimizing redundant data and unnecessary API calls.
• Why limit the `productsCount` query to 10,000 products?
  The limit addresses performance concerns, but Shopify is working on lifting it to support larger inventories.
• How does the `productUpdateMedia` mutation work?
  This mutation no longer supports extension changes (e.g., JPG to PNG). Developers may need to use fileUpdate for extension changes.

Conclusion

The transition to Shopify’s new GraphQL Product APIs is a significant step forward for merchants with large, complex catalogs. Supporting up to 2,000 variants per product, these APIs provide increased flexibility and performance. Developers should familiarize themselves with these updates and begin transitioning to GraphQL from REST APIs as product management capabilities in REST will be phased out by 2025. The insights from the AMA offer valuable guidance on optimizing for these new APIs and maximizing Shopify’s high-variant support.

FAQs

• When will REST APIs for products be fully deprecated?
  The REST product APIs will be deprecated in February 2025.
• Can I query more than 10,000 products?
  Shopify currently limits queries to 10,000 products for performance reasons, though they plan to increase this limit.
• How do I handle 2,000 variants in themes?
  Update to Shopify Theme v15.0.0 and adjust AJAX and Liquid API calls to manage large variant sets.
• What’s the difference between product webhooks now?
  Product webhooks now send only the changed variant IDs, improving efficiency for large inventories.
• Do I need to re-authorize my app for publishing products?
  Yes, publishing will require additional permissions, and users may need to re-authorize for updated access scopes.