Customize Shopify Featured Products by Product Template

As a Shopify store owner or developer, you may find yourself wanting to customize the appearance or functionality of your featured products section based on the product’s template. This can be particularly useful when you want to display different information or styling for products that use specific templates. In this blog post, we’ll explore how to access product template information within the Featured Products section of Shopify’s Debut theme.

Understanding the Challenge

The Featured Products Section

The Featured Products section is a popular component in many Shopify themes, including the Debut theme. It allows store owners to showcase specific products on their homepage or other pages of their website. This section typically includes settings to select which products to display and how to present them.

The Need for Template-Based Customization

Sometimes, you may want to apply different styles or include additional information for featured products based on their individual product page templates. For example, you might want to highlight products that use a special template or display different content for products with unique layouts.

The Limitation

The challenge arises because the Featured Products section is not directly connected to the product page template. When you’re editing the Featured Products section, you’re working with a different part of the theme, not the actual product page.

The Solution: Accessing Product Template Information

Using the product.template_suffix Variable

The key to solving this problem lies in using the correct Liquid variable to access the product’s template information. While many developers might initially look for something like {{ product.template }}, the correct variable is actually {{ product.template_suffix }}.

Here’s how you can use it:

{% if product.template_suffix == 'special' %}
  <!-- Custom code for products using the special template -->
{% else %}
  <!-- Default code for other products -->
{% endif %}

Understanding template_suffix

The template_suffix represents the unique part of the product template’s filename. For example, if your product is using a template named product.special.liquid, the template_suffix would be 'special'.

Implementing the Solution

To implement this in your Featured Products section, you would typically follow these steps:

1. Locate the Featured Products section template in your theme files.
2. Find the area where individual products are rendered.
3. Add your conditional statement using product.template_suffix.
4. Include the custom code or styling you want to apply for specific templates.

Best Practices and Considerations

Maintaining Theme Compatibility

When adding custom code to your theme, always ensure that it doesn’t conflict with existing theme functionality. Test your changes thoroughly across different devices and browsers.

Performance Optimization

Be mindful of the impact your customizations might have on page load times. Avoid adding unnecessary complexity or large amounts of conditional code that could slow down your site.

Fallback Options

Always provide a default option for products that don’t match your specific template conditions. This ensures that all products in your Featured Products section will display correctly, even if they don’t use a special template.

Documentation and Comments

If you’re working on a team or plan to hand off your store to someone else in the future, make sure to document your customizations. Add comments to your code explaining what each condition does and why it’s there.

Advanced Techniques

Dynamic Styling

You can use the template_suffix information to dynamically apply CSS classes:

<div class="product-item {% if product.template_suffix %}product-item--{{ product.template_suffix }}{% endif %}">
  <!-- Product content -->
</div>

This allows you to define different styles in your CSS for products with specific templates.

Content Customization

Beyond styling, you can use the template information to display different content:

{% if product.template_suffix == 'limited-edition' %}
  <span class="limited-badge">Limited Edition</span>
{% endif %}

This approach lets you add special badges or information for products using particular templates.

Integration with Metafields

For even more flexibility, you can combine the template_suffix check with metafields:

{% if product.template_suffix == 'custom' and product.metafields.custom.special_feature %}
  <p>Special Feature: {{ product.metafields.custom.special_feature }}</p>
{% endif %}

This allows for highly customized product displays based on both the template and additional product data.

By leveraging the product.template_suffix variable and applying these techniques, you can create a more dynamic and customized Featured Products section in your Shopify store. This approach gives you the flexibility to highlight special products or display unique information based on the product’s template, enhancing the overall user experience of your online store.

For more information on Shopify’s Liquid variables and objects, including product.template_suffix, you can refer to the official Shopify documentation at https://shopify.dev/api/liquid/objects/product#product-template_suffix.