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Landing pages and Shopify: theme editor, sync and Managed in Shopify
A landing page lives in your Shopify store, so someone can change it there. This page explains how to edit a page in the Shopify theme editor, how Nexus brings those edits in, and what happens when a theme template of your own takes the page over. To edit, publish or archive a page in Nexus, see Landing page editor.
Before you start
- A landing page that is on Shopify. Sync from Shopify stays off for an archived page and for a page that is not on Shopify yet.
- Optional: Shopify's Theme Access app, for the Full-width layout. Only a Full-width page is a set of blocks in the Shopify theme editor. See Theme Access.
Edit the page in the Shopify theme editor
A Full-width page is one section of your theme, and each part of the page is a block of that section. In the Shopify theme editor you can move a block, hide it with the eye icon, remove it and edit its settings. Open the editor from Change this page > Fine-tune in Shopify. The button reads Open theme editor for a page that is a set of blocks.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Text settings | Each heading, paragraph and button label is a setting. A setting with bold, italic or a link keeps its formatting. |
| Link settings | Each button link is a setting. |
| Image settings | Each photo is a setting. A photo you swap keeps the size of the one it replaces. |
| Use a theme color scheme and Color scheme | In each block. Tick the box, then pick one of your theme's color schemes for that block only. They show when your theme has color schemes. |
| Theme colors | In the section. One setting for each color the page reads from your theme. Empty follows your theme. A set value overrides it for this page only. |
| Theme fonts | In the section. A Use a custom heading font or Use a custom body font box plus a font picker. The picker applies only while its box is ticked. The fonts follow your theme otherwise. |
| Color and font settings | A page with its own colors or fonts adds a setting for each, up to a limit. |
A Basic layout page is not a set of blocks. You cannot move or hide its parts in the theme editor.
A page that was published before this was possible gets these settings the next time Nexus writes it. Nexus changes nothing until then.
Sync from Shopify
If someone edits the published page in Shopify, open the ⋯ (More actions) menu in the header and select Sync from Shopify. A window of the same name opens and Nexus reads the page back from Shopify. The entry is off, and says why under its name, for an archived page and for a page that is not on Shopify yet. A dot beside it shows that the page changed in Shopify since the last sync.
If nothing changed, the window says "Shopify matches what Nexus has. Nothing to bring in, and nothing was changed." If something changed, it reads "Ready to bring your Shopify version in". Select Bring the Shopify version in. Nexus then uses the Shopify version as the page: "The Shopify version is now the one Nexus keeps."
Nexus brings in the texts and the order of the blocks. It lists everything else with the reason it did not bring it in. The window sorts the list under these headings:
| Heading | What it lists |
|---|---|
| Values brought in from Shopify | Texts that someone changed in Shopify |
| Sections reordered in Shopify | A new order of the blocks |
| Hidden in Shopify | Blocks someone hid |
| Removed in Shopify | Blocks someone removed |
| Sections added in Shopify | Blocks that Nexus did not make |
| Shopify values Nexus did not bring in | Values that Nexus cannot take, with the reason, for example set only in Shopify or Nexus has no field for it |
Each row names the section and the kind of value: Text, Long text, Formatted text, Link, Photo, Colour, Font, Shown or hidden, Colour scheme or Use a theme colour scheme. A color, a font, a link, a photo, a hidden block, a removed block and a color scheme set in Shopify stay in Shopify. Nexus does not bring them in, and the Nexus preview does not show them.
When the page changed in Shopify
Nexus reads the live page before it writes to it. It also checks a page that is on Shopify in the background and when you open the page. If a draft changed in Shopify, a banner reads This page changed in Shopify. A live page shows Edited in Shopify and the Live card says what changed, so it has no banner. A card in the Sections list shows how many sections are hidden or removed in Shopify. Each such section carries a Hidden in Shopify or Removed in Shopify badge. Turn a hidden section back on with the eye icon in the Shopify theme editor. Add a removed one back with Add block there. A section tagged Hidden in the Sections list is one you hid in Nexus with the eye button. It is not the same as Hidden in Shopify.
When a save or a publish meets a change in Shopify, Nexus stops and changes nothing. The window then offers a choice:
- Finish the update completes an update that did not finish, or moves the page to your current theme.
- Bring the Shopify version in takes the Shopify texts and order as the stored page.
- Keep the Nexus version writes the page again from Nexus. The window lists what this drops first, by section and value. It replaces the Nexus section file in your theme, and it can replace sections that someone added to the page template in Shopify.
Not every choice shows for every case. When a remodel would replace changes made in Shopify, Publish anyway? lists them and asks you to confirm with Publish anyway. If a save of yours was not kept because Shopify changed first, the notice Shopify changed this page first lists your edits so you can make them again.
When someone edits the page in Shopify
A published page that changed in Shopify shows Edited in Shopify next to its status. The Live card then says when, for example "Edited in Shopify on 3 Oct", and lists what changed, one line each: "“Questions” section hidden", "“Questions” section removed", "A section added", "Section order changed", "Custom CSS changed" or "Page hidden state changed". It ends with "Visitors already see these. Sync brings them into Nexus." (or "it" and "it" for a single change). Sync from Shopify is on the card. The Remodel window warns, for example, "Remodelling replaces the changes you made in Shopify to the “Questions” section."
Managed in Shopify
When someone puts a theme template of their own on the page in Shopify, the page shows Managed in Shopify, and a banner explains it: "This page now uses a theme template built in Shopify, so Nexus no longer changes it. Your Nexus version is kept." Nexus AI, sections, sync, Publish changes, Publish, Archive and the ad strip stay off, and each says why. In the ⋯ menu, entries that are off for this reason share one note at the top of the menu. Delete still works: it removes the page from Nexus only, and the page stays in your Shopify admin. The Landing page tab of an ad follows the same rule: Publish and Archive are off there, with the same sentence printed beside them.
Select Go back to the Nexus version and confirm to replace the Shopify template with the Nexus version. The message reads "Nexus manages this page again." Discard unpublished changes still works while a page is managed.
Limits and failure cases
- Sync from Shopify explains a refusal, for example "The page or its section is missing in Shopify", "This page is managed in Shopify" (see Managed in Shopify above) or "Publish or discard your changes first", which waits until you publish or discard the changes you made in Nexus. If it cannot reach Shopify, it shows Could not reach Shopify. It brings in texts and the order of blocks only.
- A page that Nexus is writing at that moment answers "This page is being updated right now. Try again in a moment." If a write stops half way, the page can stay locked for a short time. Try again.
- If you save in Shopify at the same moment as Nexus writes the page, one of the two saves can be lost. Sync after a Nexus update, and check the page.
- A theme editor tab that you opened before Nexus last updated the page can undo that update when you save it. Nexus then lists what the tab changed. A section that Nexus added meanwhile shows as Removed in Shopify until you add it back.
- A color that two roles share changes for both. A photo that you swap keeps the size of the first one, so a photo with other proportions can look cropped or stretched.
- A Theme colors setting sits on the page. A color scheme set on an element inside the page can win over it. A Color scheme that you tick in a block applies in part when the page sets its own colors on that block: untick the box to undo it. A theme that does not use the usual color scheme classes shows no change.
- Colors, links, photos and fonts set in Shopify are not in the Nexus preview or in a new version that AI writes. Nexus carries them while the new version keeps the same part in the same place.
- Sections that you add to the page template in Shopify do not follow a change of theme. A page that Nexus could not move to a new theme stays on the old one until you choose Finish the update or Nexus writes the page again.
- You cannot reorder a page in Shopify when Nexus cannot divide it into sections, when it has more sections than Shopify allows blocks, or when it is a Basic layout page.
- Archive and Delete remove the page template from your theme, including sections that you added to it in Shopify.