Set up Altar's metafields

Altar's features read three kinds of data, none of which needs an app:

• Product and variant metafields in the custom namespace (the one Shopify admin uses when you create a definition): a product's intentions, chakras, signs, element, how to use, care note and origin, and each piece's weight and size.
• Theme settings in Theme settings › Crystals and rituals (chapter 2): the finder collection and filter keys, the disclaimer, the piece option names and the moon view.
• Section settings for the intention cards, the zodiac wheel and the moon's phase groups, and product tags for three badges.

Altar doesn't use metaobjects, so there is nothing to set up under Content › Metaobjects. You only need the data for the features you use: every row of the properties panel hides when its metafield is empty, and a product with none shows no panel at all, so nothing breaks while you fill it in.

In Shopify admin, metafield definitions live under Settings › Custom data (called Metafields and metaobjects in newer versions of the admin).

The metafields Altar reads

Two more metafields are filled in by review apps, not by you: reviews.rating and reviews.rating_count give the stars on cards and "4.9 · 86 reviews" under the product title. And a Spec row block (chapter 6) can show any other product metafield you create in the Spec table, such as custom.card_count ("78 cards") for a tarot deck or custom.burn_time for a candle.

These product tags add badges (capitals don't matter):

A card shows one badge, so Sold out, Save and One of a kind come before these (chapter 2).

Step 1: create the product metafield definitions

In admin, go to Settings › Custom data › Products and click Add definition for each metafield you need:

1. Type the Name (yours to choose; it's what you see when you edit a product).
2. Check the Namespace and key under it and change it to exactly the key in the table above. Shopify suggests custom. plus the name, so "Intentions" gives custom.intentions, but "Zodiac signs" would give custom.zodiac_signs, "Care note" is fine, and "How to use it" would give custom.how_to_use_it, which the theme won't find. Keys are case-sensitive.
3. Click Select type and choose the type in the table:
   • Intentions: Single line text, then List of values (not One value), so a stone can hold several intentions and the Intentions filter can offer each one on its own.
   • Chakras and Zodiac signs: Single line text, List of values. Turn on Limit to preset choices and add each choice from the table, spelled as it is there (the signs in English, with a capital letter: "Scorpio", not "scorpio" or "♏"). Choices keep every product spelled the same, which the zodiac wheel's links rely on.
   • Element: Single line text, One value, with Limit to preset choices and the five elements as choices.
   • Care note and Origin: Single line text, One value.
   • How to use: Rich text.
4. Save.

Step 2: create the variant metafield definitions

One-of-a-kind stones are sold as one variant per stone (chapter 11), and each stone has its own weight and size. Go to Settings › Custom data › Variants and click Add definition twice:

1. Piece weight: key custom.specimen_weight, type Weight (under Measurement), One value. Altar prints it in the unit you entered, rounded to one decimal, with ".0" dropped and the unit shortened: 142 g, 1.2 kg, 4.5 oz, 1.1 lb.
2. Piece size: key custom.specimen_size, type Single line text, One value. Altar prints it exactly as you type it.

These are variant metafields: a definition under Products with the same key won't be read for the piece cards.

Step 3: fill in your products

Open a product in admin and scroll to Metafields: every product definition you created is listed there. For a piece's weight and size, click the variant and scroll to its Metafields.

• Intentions: add one value per intention, in the order you want the chips: the first ones are the ones cards show. Write each the way shoppers should read it ("Calm", "Protection"), and use the same spelling on every product: "Calm" and "Calming" are two different filter values.
• Chakras, Zodiac signs and Element: pick from the choices. A stone can hold up to all seven chakras and all twelve signs, but two or three of each reads best.
• Care note: one or two short sentences. The first sentence is the warning and shows in bold; the rest is what to do instead: "Not water safe. Cleanse with smoke, sound or moonlight instead." or "Fades in strong sun. Keep it out of the window." Altar picks the icon from your words (chapter 8).
• How to use: use the rich text editor's numbered list, one step per item. For example:
  1. Hold the stone and set one intention, out loud or on paper.
  2. Keep it by your bed or where you rest.
  3. Recharge it on a windowsill at the full moon.
• Origin: where the stone comes from, as shoppers should read it: "Minas Gerais, Brazil".
• Piece weight: the number and the unit, such as 142 and g.
• Piece size: the stone's size as you want shoppers to read it. Write it with a multiplication sign and spaces, "6.2 × 4.8 cm", or with a spaced x, "6.2 x 4.8 cm"; screen readers then read "6.2 by 4.8 cm".

To fill many products at once, use Bulk edit from the products list and add the metafield columns. Add the new, best-seller and limited tags in the product's Tags field.

What shows without the data

In the theme editor, features with no data show a sample tagged Sample so you can see the design: an amethyst's properties panel (Calm, Intuition and Sleep; Third eye and Crown; Pisces, Virgo, Aquarius and Capricorn; Air; "Fades in strong sun…") with a sample How to use, three sample chips under the price, and the sample piece grid in the variant picker (chapter 6). Shoppers never see them, and card chips never show samples.