Set up Inkwell's metafields and licenses

Inkwell's preview pages, checklists, the details, page counts, Works with chips and before and after images read product metafields in the custom namespace, the one Shopify admin uses when you create a definition. License cards read a metaobject called license. Two product tags add badges. You don't need an app, and you only need the data for the features you use: every feature hides when its data is empty, or falls back to its section or block settings, so nothing breaks while you fill them in.

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

What Inkwell reads

The license metaobject (one entry per license you sell, chapter 10):

And these product tags (capitals don't matter):

The Free badge needs no tag: it shows on any product whose price is 0. 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 · 312 reviews" in the Product metadata block. And a Spec row (chapter 6) can show any metafield you create.

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 "Page count" gives custom.page_count, but "Number of pages" would give custom.number_of_pages, which the theme won't find. Keys are case-sensitive.
3. Click Select type and choose the type in the table:
   • Preview pages: File, then List of files. Limit it to images if you like. A file with One value isn't read as a list, so the strip stays empty.
   • What's included and Works with: Single line text, then List of values.
   • File format and File size: Single line text, One value.
   • Page count: Integer, One value.
   • Before image and After image: File, One value. Limit them to images if you like.
4. Save.

Step 2: create the license metaobject definition

Only if you sell licenses. Go to Settings › Custom data, open Metaobjects and click Add definition:

1. Name: "License". Check that its Type (the handle shown under the name) is exactly license. The theme reads metaobjects.license, so a definition whose type is licence or license_tier won't be found.
2. Add four fields with Add field, checking each field's Key:
   • Name, key name: Single line text, One value. Mark it required if you like.
   • Summary, key summary: Single line text, One value.
   • Allowed, key allowed: Single line text, List of values.
   • Not allowed, key not_allowed: Single line text, List of values.
3. Under Access (or Options), turn Storefronts access on. This is the step people miss: without Storefronts access the theme can't read your entries, and every license card falls back to the Variant picker block's text.
4. Save.

Step 3: add your licenses

Go to Content › Metaobjects › License and click Add entry for each license: Personal, Commercial, Extended or whatever you call yours. Type its Name exactly as the value appears in your products' License option ("Commercial" matches "commercial" and " Commercial ", but not "Commercial license"). Add each allowed and not-allowed line as its own list entry. Write cumulative licenses the way the presets do: start a higher license with "Everything in Personal", and the compare table ticks everything the lower license allows for it too (chapter 10). The theme reads up to 50 entries.

Step 4: fill in your products

Open a product in admin and scroll to Metafields: every product definition you created is listed there.

• Preview pages: upload or choose the page images. Give each file alt text that names the page, such as Page 18 of 120 · Weekly spread: the alt text is the label under the page and the name screen readers hear. Edit a file's alt text in Content › Files (click the file).
• What's included and Works with: add each line as its own entry.
• File format, Page count and File size: type the value.
• Before image and After image: choose both.

There's a second way to add preview pages, without the metafield: add the page images to the product's media and start each one's alt text with #inside, such as #inside Page 18 of 120 · Weekly spread (chapter 9). To fill many products at once, use Bulk edit from the products list and add the metafield columns. Add the bestseller and new tags in the product's Tags field.

How the theme reads what you type

• Preview pages show in list order. A file with no preview image (a ZIP, say) is skipped. The #inside tag and the space after it are taken off the label wherever it would show; a page with no alt text is labelled by its position ("Sample page 4"), never by an invented page number.
• What's included shows each entry as a ticked line, in your order, in two columns.
• File format shows as you typed it ("PDF + hyperlinked PDF"); a list shows as "PDF, PNG".
• Page count shows as the number in The details (Pages: 120) and as "120 pages" (or "1 page") on cards.
• File size shows as you typed it: write the unit with a space, "24 MB".
• Works with shows one chip per entry, each with a generic icon picked from its words (chapter 8), up to the block's Chips to show (6).
• Before image and After image need to show the same scene at the same size and shape: the slider lays one over the other.

What shows without the data

In the theme editor, features with no data show a sample tagged Sample so you can see the design: six drawn planner pages and three checklist lines in What's inside, three sample Works with chips, a drawn before and after scene, the Instant download badge, and the three default licenses in the License guide section. Shoppers never see them.