Product and collection descriptions

Aedify builds product and collection descriptions the same way it builds pages: rows, columns, images, tabs, accordions and live product grids, in the same builder. A size guide in tabs under a product, or a collection intro with a banner and a few featured products, are typical uses.

New to the builder? Start with Using the builder.

What Aedify changes

Aedify only saves the description. The product's title, price, variants, media, status and everything else stay in Shopify's product editor, and Aedify never changes them. The same goes for collections: Aedify saves the description and nothing else.

The description is saved into the product or collection itself, in Shopify, like a description you'd write in Shopify's editor. Aedify also adds a few aedify metafields to it, so it can tell when the description was changed elsewhere.

Open a description in Aedify

There are two ways in.

From the product or collection in Shopify:

1. Open the product (or collection) in your Shopify admin.
2. Click More actions at the top of the page.
3. Choose Design description in Aedify.

Aedify opens the description in the builder. Shopify offers this link on products and collections only; pages and blog posts are opened from Aedify's Pages and Blog posts lists.

From Aedify:

1. Open Descriptions in Aedify's menu.
2. Click Choose product or Choose collection.
3. Pick one in Shopify's picker. The builder opens.

The builder for descriptions

The builder is the one you know from pages, with a different header. Instead of Title and Visible on storefront, it says Editing the description of and the product or collection's name, with an Open product in Shopify (or Open collection in Shopify) button to go back to it.

Build the description, then click Save. The badge next to the button reads Saving…, then Saved. Until you save, nothing changes in Shopify.

Whether shoppers can see the description depends on the product or collection, not on Aedify: a draft product stays a draft, and a collection shows only on the sales channels it's published to.

Descriptions written before Aedify

Open a product whose description was written in Shopify's editor, or in another app, and Aedify shows:

This content was created outside Aedify. Headings, text, images and videos were turned into Aedify elements; anything else is kept as HTML code. Nothing changes in Shopify until you save.

Click Keep as one HTML block to keep the description exactly as it is, in a single HTML code element, and add rows around it. Click Convert to elements to switch back. Pick whichever looks right in the builder, then save.

When someone edits it in Shopify

If the description was changed in Shopify's editor after Aedify last saved it, Aedify says so when you open it:

This content was changed in Shopify since Aedify last saved it. Those changes are loaded below; check them before saving.

The builder shows the description as it is now, including those changes. Check it, then save.

If two people have the same description open and one saves first, the other gets This product description was saved somewhere else since you opened it. Reload to get the latest version. Reload, and make the change again.

The Descriptions list

Descriptions lists the product and collection descriptions you've saved from Aedify, newest first. Descriptions you've never saved in Aedify aren't listed; open them with Choose product or Choose collection.

Search by title with the search box, and use Type to show only products or only collections.

Set up your product and collection templates

The Aedify styles embed from Storefront setup styles Aedify layouts everywhere, product and collection pages included. A description that has only text, images, columns, tabs or accordions needs nothing more.

Live elements need one more step. Products, Collections and Blog posts elements are filled in on your storefront by the Aedify content block. Storefront setup adds that block to your page and blog post templates only, so for descriptions you add it yourself:

1. Add a live element to a description. If your product template doesn't have the block, the builder shows Products, collections and blog posts need the Aedify content block.
2. Click Add it in the theme editor. The theme editor opens your product template (or collection template) with the block added in a new section.
3. Click Save in the theme editor.

Without the block, live elements show nothing on the storefront.

Once the block is on the template, it shows the whole description, and your theme's own copy of the description is hidden automatically, so it isn't shown twice. That means the description now appears where the block is. A new section usually lands below the product information. If your theme's product section accepts app blocks, as most Online Store 2.0 themes do, you can drag Aedify content into it in the theme editor, for example under the price and buy buttons.

Where else the description shows

Shopify uses a product's description in more places than your online store, such as other sales channels. Those places get the description's HTML without Aedify's styles: text, images and links read fine, but columns stack one under another, and live product grids are empty. Keep the essentials (what it is, sizes, materials, care) in text near the top, and use the layout for presentation.

Tips

• Use tabs or an accordion for the details. Size guide, materials, shipping and returns stay one click away instead of making the page long. See Accordion and tabs.
• Reuse what repeats. A size guide or a shipping strip shared by many products belongs in a template: edit it once and every description that uses it updates.
• Don't repeat the product. The theme already shows the title, price and buy buttons. Start the description with what the shopper needs next.
• Run the accessibility check. Descriptions are often image-heavy; the Accessibility check catches missing alt text before you save.