shopify liquid how to print to console

so far on this channel we've covered,quite a bit of shopify liquid,but in order to allow the user to update,the ui without reloading the page,we're going to need to use javascript,javascript is essential in shopify theme,development,as shopify liquid the language that,allows us to access the data layer of,our store,is only executed on the server side,using javascript,we can add features like front end,variant switching lazy loading and so,much more,basically any interaction on the front,end that you see on a shopify store,relies on javascript code so in this,video let's talk about how to use,javascript inside shopify themes,and talk about two ways we can pass data,from shopify's backend,for use on our front end,so the fundamental concept you need to,understand here before we can dive into,javascript,is the difference between front end and,back end when it comes to web,development,if you're not familiar with the,distinction between back-end and,front-end,web development i encourage you to check,out lesson four of my skillshare class,understanding web development a,beginner's guide to the web,otherwise to give you a quick summary,the front end code is what you can see,and edit in your browser so when you see,me using chrome dev tools,i'm able to see the css the html and the,javascript in my browser,and edit it on the fly the backend code,shopify liquid in this instance never,makes it to the browser,now that we've established the need for,javascript let's talk about how,and where we write javascript well just,like any website project,we can either include an opening and,closing script tag,anywhere we include html in our code,base we can store it as a separate,javascript file and include it where,necessary,i'll show you how to do this in shopify,very shortly,if executing javascript based on an,event we can also insert the code,directly inside a html element although,this is not a very,common option so if we look inside our,debut theme here,we'll be able to find at least the first,two examples,so what we're looking for for the first,example is,any dot liquid file that contains html,so all of these should contain a mix of,html and shopify liquid,if we look at theme.liquid we can scroll,down and we can see,that there is an opening script tag and,a closing script,tag here and inside there is,javascript so wherever this template,loads,in this case this is the theme.liquid,template so,that is a layout file so it's going to,basically,show up everywhere that javascript,that's written in between these script,tags,will execute and we can make sure of,that,by putting in our own script tag right,here and just,outputting a simple console log,if i hit save on that,and then preview that if i go into my,dev tools,you can see here if i zoom in,script loaded there you go so,you can basically put javascript,wherever you can put html,in your template files okay,another way to store javascript or to,include javascript in a project,which is generally considered best,practice,is to have a dedicated javascript file,and in debu you can see that in the,assets folder,so if i go down here to theme.js,you can see a file full of javascript,now how do we include this javascript in,our actual code base,that's pretty simple we can look over,here into our layout file,and let's search for theme.js,here you can see we have a script tag,that loads an external resource,the theme.js file and the way we,find the full asset url is using this,asset url,filter right here and if we look at that,again in our output code,if i go over inspect the page let's type,in,theme.js and here you can see,the script tag with the fully formed url,remember in our code base we just use,the,file name itself not the full url,we require this filter and then that,will resolve,to the full url that's stored on the,shopify cdm,so those are two ways we can include,javascript,in our project the third and not so,common way,is to insert a javascript function onto,an event handler,on the actual element itself i'm not,sure if there's any,examples here but if we go to,the product template for instance,over here let's preview that,then i'm going to go into the catalog,let's select a product to look at,and let's inspect this paragraph here,so this paragraph has a class,of product dash single underscore,underscore description,so i'm going to go find that in our code,base,here we go and then we can put on,an event handler right on the element,on click let's just say alert hello,so this should be very familiar to you,if you already know how to use,javascript in any other project,it's pretty much exactly the same in,shopify,we just need to know where to include,external javascript files,so if i click on that you can see we get,an alert with hello,all right so that's the three ways that,we can insert,javascript into our shopify theme,like i said anywhere where we insert,html which is,on any of these dot liquid files we can,also insert,javascript and for including external,files,maybe we want to add in a new javascript,file here,so i'm going to click create blank file,go down to js just call it custom.js,let's say for instance we had this,custom js,and let's just do the same thing again,alert loaded save on that,and then all we would need to do to,include that asset,as long as it's in the asset folder is,to just copy,the same format that we had down here so,i can just,copy this,and then instead of theme.js we're going,to look for custom.js,so let's refresh the page in our preview,and there you go we've got the alert,we've loaded,so there you go guys that's how you,insert javascript,into a shopify theme very simple exactly,how you would do it,in basically anything but we just need,to know how to use,that filter right here for when we,include an asset url,so now we know where to insert,javascript in our project,the question then becomes how we start,to access the store data and the theme,data that we would typically use,shopify liquid for remember once the,page has loaded,we can no longer use shopify liquid so,we need another way to access data from,our shopify backend,for that we have two options let's take,a look,at the most common option first,to learn about best practice when it,comes to developing shopify themes,i think it's a good idea to look at the,themes developed by shopify themselves,like the debut theme here which comes by,default currently,on new store installs i want to draw,your attention to a particular part of,this theme,so i'm going to click to preview in a,new tab,this is actually the live theme so this,is not really a preview theme at all,it is just looking at the current,website but if i go into catalog here,and i click on this product awesome,sneakers i want to draw your attention,to what we have over here we have two,options,and we have a selection for both,so we've got five sizes to choose from,and,we've got two colors now if you,understand variants,variants are very important in shopify,it's basically,a unique combination of these options so,if you can imagine,if i order a size 8 red shoe,and i get delivered a size 12 black,shoe then those are different products,to the end user right so it's important,to note here,it's the variant that needs to get,determined and then,sent to the shopping cart and that is,what gets sent to the customer,okay so what i want you to notice here,is when i change these options,i want you to notice that the price,changes right here,in certain instances and the variant id,gets added up here to the url and then,updates when i change,my variant selection so as you can see,if i go to,12 we've got now a price of 140,and the variant id is changing up here,so this is the id,of the actual variant the actual product,that's going to get added to our cart,the other thing i want you to notice is,that the page is not reloading at all,and that means that we are using,javascript here,remember shopify liquid only executes on,the server side so once it's executed,we would have to reload the page in,order to get,new variant information well what's,happening instead,is that we have this variant information,stored somewhere and javascript is,actually,working with it on the front end so,let's take a look at how this works,behind the scenes so if i go over here,let's click over to the assets folder,and click on theme.js,and i'll show you where all these,functions are taking place,if i search for slate dash or slate dot,variants,you can see here that this is where all,our variant selection scripts are,happening,as it reads here all of this code,handles change events from the variant,inputs,in any cart ad forms that may exist it,also,updates the master select and triggers,updates when the,variance price or image changes so what,is this master select,that's one thing that we haven't covered,yet so i'm going to go over here,and if i right click on our form here,i want to show you something that you,may not have realized,right here is the master select,if i look at its attributes here you can,see it's set to display none,i'm going to change that and set it to,display block,and now you can see it's got the variant,selection,which is the combination of the two,options that we selected,and if i change these over here you'll,see our,master select gets changed as well so we,don't actually need to see this on the,front end which is why it's hidden,but in terms of submitting the id to the,form,this is what we need so we need to,determine,which of these variant ids is going to,go,into our cart okay so,that's something happening behind the,scenes in order to,actually have this operation where we,have two options and then we determine,the variant from them,we need to use javascript which is what,is happening right here,all right so hopefully this is not going,too in depth i'm not going to go,into the line by line code here but what,i want you to gather from this is that,we have all the functions here,that are doing what we saw over here so,we have a function,for getting the current options we then,have a function,for using those current options to get,the variant,from those options uh we've got the,event handler so,when a select changes we can handle that,right here with this code if the variant,is linked to an image,then we're going to switch the image in,the product carousel to that image,uh that's not happening in this,particular instance,updating the price which we saw before,right here,what else we've got updating the sku,in our instance here we don't have an,sku showing,and update the history state so that's,what's happening here,in the url we're seeing the url change,here with the variant id,if i refresh the page with that variant,id,in there you can see it saves our,selection okay,oh and one more for the updating the,master select,okay so how is this working where is it,getting this data from,in order to update the selector,well it's all happening from this,product,single object so if we look at this,product single object you can see it's,taking,something from the page and parsing it,into a json,format okay so where is it getting this,let me show you let's go into our,product template,and then let's go into our section,product template where we have the code,inside,and i'm going to look for json,here you can see we have outputted the,product object,but then we've run it through the json,filter which will output the product as,json okay so let me have a look inside,our code base on the front end,if i look for that product,json,you can see here that our product object,in json format is all here right,so this is all the data that our slate,dot variance,set of functions needs in order to,provide all this functionality now,there's a lot of code going on here so,i'm not going,to reproduce this but just to understand,the core principle that,what we're doing here is we're exposing,the product object,into a json format and that is what,allows us,to grab that data and use it in,javascript,so when the page loads it looks for this,particular,script tag with the id of product json,the section id and it grabs that,product json then it has all the data it,needs,to perform those calculations so if we,search this again,we can see that it then becomes the,product on this options container and,then,we can see that this options container,is going to be passed into,slate.variants,and then inside slate.variants,again bit of a rabbit hole but if we,trace it back,we can see that we're putting options,into here,and then we're grabbing this dot product,off options.product,and then we're using if we scroll down,here the variance,on that product object to determine what,variance we have,and then we're grabbing the selected,values and,creating a match between the variance,that we have in that object,and the selected values so again lots,going on here i don't expect you to,understand every line of code if you're,a beginner,but this is how we are exposing,some data to the front end and are able,to use it in javascript,and just to prove that is the case let's,go,where our this product single,object let's go here where it is,actually assigned,and let's console log that value console,log,this product single object i'm going to,hit,save and now if we refresh the page open,up our console here,you can see this product single object,i've,i've actually already got a console log,in there for,this product single object here you can,see,down here so i'm outputting it twice but,you can see here is the object and if we,go inside we've got,access to all of this information on the,front end,which is awesome all right we've got the,images we've got the options,we've got the tags the variants,obviously very important for this,particular feature but,the main principle here is that we're,able to pass,information from our back end to our,front end,in a javascript readable format using,the json filter,so if you want to learn more about the,json filter we can find it,shopify liquid json filter you can find,out about,it on the shopify documentation it,converts a string into json format so,handy anytime you want to convert you,know an object into json,uh you can use this json formatter right,here,so that's really cool that is the main,way though the easiest way you can get,data about products and other objects,from your shopify store,into your front end to use with,javascript but there is one other way,which is to use an api so in the next,section we'll introduce,what's called the storefront api and,i'll show you how we can pull,information from our backend,using that api as opposed to,using shopify liquid with the json,filter,another option for bringing your shopify,backend data,onto the front end and for use in,javascript is to use the shopify,storefront api,as it reads here the storefront api,gives you full creative control,to add shopify buying experiences,anywhere your customers are,including websites apps and video games,the thing to note here about the,storefront api however,is that it's useful when shopify,merchants have custom requirements,not met by existing channels like online,store or pos,essentially it's not really an api that,is provided to you,in order to do shopify theme development,but it is an option,you can use it to bring data from your,shopify backend,within a shopify theme it's just that,it's intended,more for you know off-site websites,apps and video games for instance if i,go,to you might have seen this one before i,talk about it in some of my other,classes and videos this is my,custom storefront app and i won't log,into it now,but as you can see you can add a store,domain,and a storefront access token and,what happens is once you're logged in,you can see,your store data presented on a,third-party app,it's a pretty cool feature again not,really intended,for developing on a shopify theme itself,it does require a lot more configuration,but again it is an option that i wanted,to present,in this video so what i'm going to do is,i'm going to,go back over to let's go into our,product,template and let's bring in,if we go let's write it,here in this file actually i'm going to,open up,an opening and closing script tag and,i'm going to copy and paste,some code in here to make a connection,to the storefront api,so to explain this code a little bit,we've got the product handle,and we use the product handle to query,the storefront api in this api call over,here,and then we're going to console log the,response,obviously a lot going on here and i just,summarized it in two seconds,again we're not going to go into full,detail here as you can see this is,quite a bit of code and we also need to,add in,a storefront access token so what we,need to do for that,is i'm going to go in and create,a private app you may have done this,before when creating a theme,kit connection but if we go down to here,to manage,private apps i already have one here but,let's create a,new one just so you guys can see and,we'll call it storefront,api connection put in my,email here and what we're looking for is,this checkbox here allow this app to,access your storefront data using the,storefront api,you can allow or disallow certain,permissions here,i'm just going to hit save it warns you,about providing access to your store,data,i'm going to create the app anyway and,then down here,it'll give you your storefront access,token,so i'm going to copy that go back over,to here,and in this little field here i'm going,to,paste in my storefront access token,so let's see what happens when we now,run the page,if i preview that in a new tab,let's go to the awesome sneakers product,again,and let's open up our console have a,look inside,all right so we've got this object here,and inside we've got a data object and,inside we've got a product,by handle object this is our call,to the storefront api so if i click on,this,you can see that is the code that is,console logging the response,and if i go into my network tab,let's actually drag this out a bit more,and let's refresh the page we can,actually see,that request happening so i'm going to,filter by xhr,and you can see here this is the,endpoint for the storefront api so,i've hit this api i've sent,this payload which is the graphql,query that we just saw here and,then we are getting back the response,which is,all of the things that we asked for so,in graphql graphql is a whole new,technology in itself,so i don't expect you to necessarily,know graphql,but essentially how it works is we have,to specify,each of the fields that we want the,request to return back,so if we need the description the,description html,the online store url we actually have to,specifically request it in our graphql,query,alright so as you can see here,everything that we have requested has,come back,and so now we can use that data in,our frontend code with javascript again,it is nested deep within,this data and then product by handle and,it doesn't know,what the product is unless we feed it,the actual product handle,so it's a lot less intuitive than using,the other approach that we saw before,again this is not intended to be used on,shopify themes,but if you're feeling adventurous and,you want to dig around,the reference here you want to learn,about graphql,and all the different things that you,can pull from your back end,onto the front end using this api you,can read more about it here,on the shopify documentation but this is,also another option this is an api,that shopify provides and allows you to,grab,data from your back end and put it on,any,public front end it doesn't have to be a,shopify theme,in fact it's not intended to be used on,a shopify theme,so that is an option as well as you can,see this is more complicated because,number one we need to establish a,connection via an access token,that is set up in a private app number,two we need to use a graphql query and,specify all the fields that we require,and number three the api has no idea,about what template it's being run on,so we need to provide the specific,product in this instance,in fact the storefront api as mentioned,was not designed,to be used on theme so most of the time,it doesn't make sense to use it,there is one other api that shopify,provides called,the ajax api the main purpose of this,api is to provide a way to add and,remove,items from a shopping cart using,javascript,but also it is used to display relevant,product recommendations,and power dynamic search this api is,unauthenticated,and works only on shopify themes,the ajax api is used on a lot of themes,in order to provide,more interactive cart features for,instance,on this debut theme if i click add to,cart,once we've selected a variant you can,see that now i have,one item in my cart and it knows what,item is in there,so i can either continue shopping or,have a look at my cart,by going to the cart page all right if i,go,to continue shopping and let's say for,instance i add,a black leather bag as well if i click,add to cart,there you can see it is added and it,knows i now have,two products in my cart we know that,this is using the ajax api because if i,go into my network tab over here,and i filter by xhr i can see,that it's hitting these endpoints for,the ajax api,the two most common ones you'll find is,add and cart,add will add a product to the cut and,cart js,itself will return the cart,so if i click on this you can go down to,here,and look at what is being sent,all that's being sent is the id of the,variant that's,going to be added to the cart and then,you can see,that it returns back the object all,right so,the object that just got added to the,cart is now coming back all the,information,the handle the image and that is,presumably,what is being used up here in this,little box,then we are running cut.js and this,gives us the total cart information,so as you can see here we know the item,count and therefore we can put it here,in this button,so if i close this you can see that this,number up here,the inside the dot with our little cart,icon there,is also updated all right so what we're,doing,is interacting with our card object,on the back end using javascript and we,can do that,via the ajax api let's demonstrate this,so let's go remove those items from our,cart,this is also using the ajax api as you,can see over here,this is another endpoint which is,change.js,so i encourage you to dig around and,have a look you can see,it is set line one to quantity of zero,and therefore the item count zero all,right so,there is the ajax api working there,but what i'm going to do is move over to,the console and let's go back to,a product,again these messages here get a bit,annoying,but let's actually select a variant and,by doing so we will get the variant id,up here now all we need in order to,submit an item to the cart using the,ajax api,is a variant id that's it,we also need a quantity but we can,assume that it's,going to be a quantity of 1 if no other,option is provided so,let's go back in here and let's have a,look under reference,and the main function as i said is cart,but you can also,fetch information about a product you,can also display product recommendations,using this ajax api,and it also provides predictive search,but the main function,is these cart functions all right,so here you can see if we send a post,request,to this endpoint this will add one or,multiple variants to the card,and we just need to send it as an object,like this okay so we can serialize our,form like this,or we can throw in the object,as it is okay we don't need to use items,i don't think we can do a singular item,as well,so that's what we'll do in this case so,let's actually,make sure that we have jquery,on this particular theme looks like we,do just double checking in case you're,using,another theme and so what i'm going to,do is open up a,post request we're going to do post,then we're going to go to cart,we'll do slash cart add,dot js you can see i've written this,before so it's coming up,in the suggestions above and then i'm,going to put in the,object so the object is id,of this,and then the quantity of one,and then what i'm gonna do,is put a chain a dot then on there,and then we can do a function data,and then console log back the data,okay fortunately we didn't get our,console log back,but we didn't get any errors either so,if i go into our network tag,tab over here you can see that the,add.js endpoint was hit,we sent the id and the quantity,status code 200 it worked and we get the,response back,which is the actual variant object that,gets added so,we just added the awesome sneakers in,size 10 red,to our cart so if we didn't get it in,the console we can look it over in,network tab,the other thing we can do is just run a,get request to the cart endpoint,so i think i've had it saved here if i,run that,again the data is not coming back in a,console log,but if we go over to our network tab,here we can see we've made a request to,this cut,js endpoint and if i scroll down,you can see we haven't sent anything to,it but we do get back,the current cart object you can see that,we've got in our items array,that variant that we saw before that we,just added right,so we're doing this all ourselves just,using a few,simple ajax api requests as you can see,here other stuff on the page hasn't been,updating,because actually inside the debut theme,when these,functions execute it's doing some other,stuff,like updating the ui but for our,purposes we can see here,that we have added an item to the cart,and then when we retrieve the cart,using the ajax api that the item is in,there,and to verify this if we did click on,our cart we can see that that product,has been added,and if i hit remove you can see,change.js is running,if i go back into console and i get my,cart,head over to network check on the,response from that,you can see our item count is now zero,so whether you,look on your website or you use the ajax,api,over here you'll get the same result so,this keeps it in sync with the result,you get from shopify liquid,you're actually editing back-end,information by using this api,so yeah you have as much control as you,would,using shopify liquid but with this handy,api again this is mainly just for,you know interacting with the cart you,can't actually do a lot of other things,like you know grab collections or,anything but,you can do some other stuff like go into,this and if you know your product handle,you can go in,and get some information about a certain,product,so we could still get variant,information using this,so this could be another option instead,of using the,shopify liquid json filter but the ajax,api,a bit limited of an api it allows us to,do certain things,through javascript in our shopify themes,but it's a handy one to have,and works well alongside shopify liquid,in this video we looked at where we can,write javascript,in our shopify themes and a few ways we,can access data from our shopify store,without reloading the page i hope that,this has provided some insight,into what is going on behind the scenes,of a typical,shopify theme if you would like to learn,more about using javascript,in shopify themes definitely check out,my skillshare class,shopify theme programming liquid json,and javascript which i'll link up,in the description below as always if,you have any questions or comments,leave them in the comment section below,and i look forward to seeing you,on the next video

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