Verify theme support

Before you start integrating your app, determine the method required for integrating an app with an online store by verifying whether its published theme supports app blocks.

Verification criteria

Anchor link to section titled "Verification criteria"

To verify whether a theme supports app blocks, you need to determine the following:

Whether the template where your app is injected supports JSON.
The main section in the template.
Whether the section where your app is injected has a block of type @app in its schema.

For an example, refer to Shopify's sample product reviews app.

To see a theme that uses JSON templates and supports app blocks in several sections, refer to Shopify's reference theme, Dawn.

Requirements

Anchor link to section titled "Requirements"

Your app will need to request the read_themes REST Admin API access scope.

Verify support for app blocks

Anchor link to section titled "Verify support for app blocks"

You can use the following code to verify that a theme supports app blocks. The code uses Shopify's Node library, which provides support for JavaScript apps to access the Shopify REST Admin API.

Specify the method for integrating the app

Anchor link to section titled "Specify the method for integrating the app"

App integration methods
App block support	Integration method
Yes	Skip POST requests made to the `ScriptTag` REST Admin API or GraphQL Admin API resource.
No	Make POST requests to the `ScriptTag` REST Admin API or GraphQL Admin API resource, or provide instructions to add code using a custom Liquid section or block, or the custom CSS setting

Provide onboarding instructions

Anchor link to section titled "Provide onboarding instructions"

You need to provide merchants with post-installation instructions about onboarding your app.

To learn more about writing effective help documentation, refer to Help documentation in Shopify Polaris and to the theme app extension onboarding instruction guidelines.

App block support and onboarding instruction examples
App block support	Onboarding
Yes	Provide merchants with instructions about using the app block. For example, document instructions for adding the app block to the theme.
No	Provide merchants with instructions about any configurations required to integrate the app. For example, document instructions for copying and pasting a code snippet to a page.