Use metaobject capabilities

Capabilities power optional features for metaobject definitions. You can enable the following capabilities:

• publishable: Set metaobjects as either DRAFT or ACTIVE to control visibility in storefronts.
• translatable: Allow metaobject translations through Shopify's translation APIs.
• renderable: Set SEO metadata attributes on your metaobjects.
• onlineStore: Assign a theme template and define a URL to make your metaobjects render web pages in the online store.

Anchor to Draft custom contentDraft custom content

The publishable capability enables users of your metaobject to set its status to either DRAFT or ACTIVE. This can be useful for providing users a way to stage their content before making it available to their storefronts - even if you defined it to be available to storefronts using access controls.

In the following example, the metaobjectDefinitionCreate mutation is called with publishable set to true to enable this capability:

[metaobjects.app.custom_article]
name = "Custom Article"
access.admin = "merchant_read_write"
access.storefront = "public_read"
capabilities.publishable = true

[metaobjects.app.custom_article.fields.title]
name = "Title"
type = "single_line_text_field"

[metaobjects.app.custom_article.fields.body]
name = "Body"
type = "rich_text_field"

[metaobjects.app.custom_article.fields.author]
name = "Author"
type = "single_line_text_field"

mutation {
  metaobjectDefinitionCreate(definition: {
    name: "Custom Article"
    type: "$app:custom_article"
    access: {
      admin: MERCHANT_READ_WRITE
      storefront: PUBLIC_READ
    }
    capabilities: {
      publishable: {
        enabled: true
      }
    }
    fieldDefinitions: [
      { key: "title", name: "Title", type: "single_line_text_field" }
      { key: "body", name: "Body", type: "rich_text_field" }
      { key: "author", name: "Author", type: "single_line_text_field" }
    ]
  }) {
    metaobjectDefinition {
      id
      type
      capabilities {
        publishable {
          enabled
        }
      }
      fieldDefinitions {
        key
        name
        type {
          name
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Next, using the metaobjectCreate mutation, you'll notice that the default status for a created "Custom Article" metaobject is DRAFT.

To publish the custom article metaobject, you can use the metaobjectUpdate mutation and set the status to ACTIVE.

Anchor to Make your metaobjects translatableMake your metaobjects translatable

The translatable capability allows the fields of a metaobject to be translated. You can enable this capability by setting translatable to true when creating or updating a metaobject definition.

Once translatable has been enabled, you can use Shopify's translation APIs to register translations for fields on your metaobjects. For the "Custom Article" metaobject, you'll first need to retrieve the fields that can be translated through the translatableResources query:

Then, you can register translations for any of the fields on the metaobject. For example, you can translate the title field by passing in the metaobject ID and using the digest for the title field:

Anchor to Render metaobjects as web pagesRender metaobjects as web pages

The renderable capability exposes metaobject SEO fields to Liquid and the Storefront API. Metaobjects with this capability are also included in the store's sitemap, which is sitemap.xml for Liquid storefronts and accessible using the Sitemap query in the Storefront API.

You can enable this capability by setting renderable to true when creating or updating a metaobject definition.

In the following example, a metaobject definition is created with renderable set to true to enable this capability and sets the meta title and description attributes to the title and body fields respectively:

[metaobjects.app.renderable_content]
name = "Renderable Content"
access.admin = "merchant_read_write"
access.storefront = "public_read"
capabilities.renderable = true

[metaobjects.app.renderable_content.fields.title]
name = "Title"
type = "single_line_text_field"

[metaobjects.app.renderable_content.fields.body]
name = "Body"
type = "rich_text_field"

mutation {
  metaobjectDefinitionCreate(definition: {
    name: "Renderable Content"
    type: "$app:renderable_content"
    access: {
      admin: MERCHANT_READ_WRITE
      storefront: PUBLIC_READ
    }
    capabilities: {
      renderable: {
        enabled: true
        data: {
          metaTitleKey: "title"
          metaDescriptionKey: "body"
        }
      }
    }
    fieldDefinitions: [
      { key: "title", name: "Title", type: "single_line_text_field" }
      { key: "body", name: "Body", type: "rich_text_field" }
    ]
  }) {
    metaobjectDefinition {
      id
      name
      capabilities {
        renderable {
          enabled
          data {
            metaTitleKey
            metaDescriptionKey
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Anchor to Make your metaobjects render web pages in the Online StoreMake your metaobjects render web pages in the Online Store

The onlineStore capability enables a metaobject to have an Online Store template and URL assigned to a metaobject definition. You can enable this capability by setting onlineStore to true when you perform a metaobjectDefinitionCreate or metaobjectDefinitionUpdate mutation.

In the following example, the metaobjectDefinitionCreate mutation is called with renderable set to true and onlineStore set to true to enable the web pages feature for the definition. The urlHandle is set to content resulting in the following URL for metaobject entries: /pages/content/{entry-handle}.