This page is an overview of "Auto Hide-Unhide products" app.
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Overview :
"Auto Hide-Unhide products" app enables merchants to hide (or) unhide the products based on certain rules such as - How to hide (or) unhide, when to hide (or) unhide and where to hide (or) unhide.
Merchants can also select products in the scopes tab either by selecting manually or by applying various filters which are available in our app. All the products which are selected under the scopes tab are the only products which are eligible for auto hide (or) unhide functionality of our app.
There are several benefits available in this app such as - Merchant can enable or disable, delete or edit an Automator, Merchants can also have a track of hidden/published products in the "App activity" and Reverse action of Automator is also possible.
This document helps the users to understand our app and get familiarize with how to create an Automator that which hides or publishes products when applied rules are satisfied.
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Let us understand how to create an Automator :
Firstly download "Auto Hide-Unhide products" app in the Shopify platform. After successful download, Launch the app. The welcome screen is presented as shown in the below image:
Welcome screen
To create a new Automator click on "Add new Automator" button which is found on top right corner of the welcome screen as shown in the above image.
Let's take a look at how to create an Automator. The block diagram below illustrates the step-by-step process involved to create an Automator.
Step-By-Step process to create an Automator
STEP - I : 'Rules'
Defining Rules for an Automator (How to hide/publish, When to hide/publish, Where to hide/publish)
Rules
A detailed description about rules applied for an Automator is explained below.
How to Hide/Publish product:
How to Hide a product
How to Publish a product
Define how do you want to hide a product:
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Do not Hide- If user doesn't wants to use 'Hiding products' functionality then it can be achieved by selecting this option.
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Hide out of stock products- Whenever the products which are in scope of an Automator becomes 'Out of stocks' then all such products hidden.
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Hide by comparing products inventory - Some threshold value is set by the user and if the sum of product's inventory at selected locations is less than or equal to threshold value which is set by the user then all such products are hidden.
NOTE : All the products which are in scope of an Automator are the only products hidden.
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Hide all the products selected under scopes tab - Products which are in scope of an Automator's are hidden.
Define how do you want to publish a product:
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Do not Publish- If user doesn't wants to use 'Publishing products' functionality then it can be achieved by selecting this option.
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Publish in of stock products- Whenever the products which are in scope of an Automator and gets 'In stocks' then all such products published.
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Publish by comparing products inventory - Some threshold value is set by the user and if the sum of product's inventory at selected locations is less than or equal to the threshold value which is set by the user then all such products are published.
NOTE : All the products which are in scope of an Automator are the only products published.
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Publish all the products selected under scopes tab - Products which are in scope of an Automator's are published.
Define when do you want to hide a product - Instantly or Scheduled.
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Instantly - Automator's job will be started instantly so that products which are in scope of an Automator are hidden instantly on the real time basis.
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Scheduled - Automator's job can be scheduled based on time. So that products which are in scope of an Automator are hidden for the scheduled time.
Define when do you want to publish a product - Instantly or Scheduled.
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Instantly - Automator's job will be started instantly so that the products which are in scope of an Automator are published instantly on the real time basis.
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Scheduled - Automator's job can be scheduled based on time. So that products which are in scope of an Automator are published for the scheduled time.
Hide by setting product status as "Draft" or "Archived" :
If 'Draft' is selected then products which are in scope of an Automator satisfy rules defined by the user all such products are hidden in drafts.
If 'Archived' is selected then products which are in scope of an Automator satisfy rules defined by the user all such products are hidden in archived.
When products are drafted or archived then all sales channels in the store are disabled by default.
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Hide by disabling channel 'online store' only :
Whenever user selects this option then irrespective of other sales channel the products which are in scope of an Automator are hidden by disabling channel 'online store' only. Hidden product status will be 'Active' but will not be visible to the end customer.
By applying this rule status of other sales channels such as like Point of Sale, Buy button etc.. are not changed. They remain in their original state.
Define where do you want to publish a product:
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Publish by setting product status to "Active" :
If the user selects this option and products which are in scope of an Automator satisfying rules defined by the user then all such products are published and product status will be changed to active.
Before products in scope are published if channel 'Online store' is disabled then after products are published only the status of the product will be changed to active but channel 'online store' remains the same in disabled state only.
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Publish by setting product status to "Active" and also enable channel online store if not already enabled.
"Publish by setting product status to active" - Only product status was changed to Active but status of channel 'online store' will remain unchanged. To overcome this scenariothe user can select "Publish by setting product status by setting product status to 'Active' and also enable channel online store if not already enabled.
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Publish by enabling channel online store only.
If user selects this option then irrespective of the other sales channel, The products are published in the channel 'online store' only. Status of other sales channel such as like Point of sale, Buy button etc.. will be not changed.
By selecting products in 'Products scopes' tab products are made eligible for hide/publish functionality of an Automator.
Merchants/users can select products in the scopes tab either by selecting manually or by applying various filters which are available in our app.
A. Selecting products by applying filters :
Filters
There are various filters available in our so that an user can select products very easily. All the selected products are watched by an Automator, That means all the rules applied for hiding/publishing products are applicable only for the products which are selected in scopes tab.
Let us take a look on each filter available.
Filter based on 'Tags' :
This filter works based on the tag names associated with the products which are in scope of an Automator.
Conditions applied for the filter are - 'Contains any of' and 'Does not contains any of' as shown in the above image.
Tag names can be selected by the user from the drop-down list as shown in the above image.
Example 1 : If user selects 'Contains any of' option and selects 'bag' as tag name then all the products which are associated with the tag name 'bag' are selected.
Example 2 : If user selects 'Does not contains any of' option and selects 'bag' as tag name then all the products which are associated with the tag name 'bag' are not selected.
This filter will search for products based on 'Products custom type'.
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If user selects 'Equals' option and enter products custom type name then filter will search for products whose products custom type name is equal to the products custom type name entered by the user. All the products which satisfy the filter conditions are selected and they are made eligible to hide/unhide functionality of an app.
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If 'Not Equals' is selected then it will check for the products whose products custom type name is not equals to vendor's name entered by the user.
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'In' and 'Equals' functionalities are same but if user selects 'In' then the drop-down list of all products custom type name is displayed. It makes user easy way to select products custom type name.
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'Not In' and 'Not Equals' functionalities are same but if user selects 'Not In' then the drop-down list of all products custom type name is displayed. It makes user easy way to select products custom type name.
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'Is Empty' - Filter will check whether products products custom type name is empty or not.
This filter will search for products based on vendors name.
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If user selects 'Equals' option and enter vendor's name then filter will search for products whose vendor name is equal to the vendor's name entered by the user. All the products which satisfy the filter conditions are selected and they are made eligible to hide/unhide functionality of an app.
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If 'Not Equals' is selected then it will check for the products whose vendor's name is not equals to vendor's name entered by the user.
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'In' and 'Equals' functionalities are same but if user selects 'In' then the drop-down list of all vendor's name is displayed. It makes user easy way to select vendor's name.
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'Not In' and 'Not Equals' functionalities are same but if user selects 'Not In' then the drop-down list of all vendor's name is displayed. It makes user easy way to select vendor's name.
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'Is Empty' - Filter will check whether products vendor's name is empty or not.
The primary conditions applied for this filter are 'Any of the items match the following' (or) 'All of the items match the following'. as shown in the above image.
"Any of the items" - It implies one or more variants of a product but not all the variants of the product.
"All of the items" - It implies all the variants of a product.
The secondary conditions applied for this filter are Price - The price of the product variant in the default shop currency, Continue selling when out of stock - Whether customers are allowed to place an order for the product variant when it's out of stock as shown in the above image and Track quantity - Whether inventory levels are tracked for the item as shown in the below image.
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If user selects 'Any/All of the items match the following' and 'Price' then filter will validate the conditions applied and it will check for 'less than/greater than' price entered by the user.
For example - If user sets product price as less than Rs.2000/- then Any/All the products whose price is less than Rs.2000/- are selected and are made eligible for hide/publish functionality of an Automator.
If user selects 'Any/All of the items match the following' and 'Continue selling when out of stock' then filter will validate the conditions applied and it will check for 'Equals/Not Equals' condition which is selected by the user.
For example - For a 'Product-A', If 'Continue selling when out of stock' is enabled in Shopify platform then by applying the above filter condition with 'Equals' selected by the user then 'Product A' is selected. If 'Not Equals' is applied then 'Product A' will not be selected.
If user selects 'Any/All of the items match the following' and 'Track quantity' then filter will validate the conditions applied and it will check for 'Equals/Not Equals' condition which is selected by the user.
For example - For a 'Product-B', If 'Track quantity' is enabled in Shopify platform then by applying the above filter condition with 'Equals' selected by the user then 'Product B' is selected. If 'Not Equals' is applied then 'Product B' will not be selected.
Between multiple filters 'AND' operator is present.
B. Manually Select products:
Users can select the product manually as shown in the below image.
A list of products is displayed along with a search bar - Users can search a product by entering a product name and can select the product by clicking on ‘Select’ button. After clicking on the ‘Select’ button the product is displayed in the ‘Selected product to watch’ list indicating that the product is being selected to be watched by an Automator either to hide or publish. An user can also remove the products by clicking on the ‘Remove’ button. For detailed description click here.
STEP - III : Select Post hide/publish in 'Actions' section.
A detailed description about post hide/publish action of an Automator is explained below.
Post Hide/Publish product:
Post Hide Actions
Post Publish Actions
Define actions that will take place to a product after the product is hidden.
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Add product tag - User can select any tag names from the drop-down list. After the products are hidden they are tagged by the name selected by the user.
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Remove product tag - User can select any tag names from the drop-down list. After the products are hidden they are un-tagged by the name selected by the user.
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Send email of the products hidden by an Automator - Whenever products are hidden then a notification email will be sent to recipients email id. And the email consists of information about all the hidden products.
Define actions that will take place to a product after the product is published
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Add product tag - User can select any tag names from the drop-down list. After the products are published they are tagged by the name selected by the user.
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Remove product tag - User can select any tag names from the drop-down list. After the products are published they are tagged by the name selected by the user.
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Send email of the products hidden by an Automator - Whenever products are published then a notification email will be sent to recipients email id. And the email consists of information about all the published products.
For more details click here
STEP - IV : Click on 'Save' button.
'Save' button is present at the top right corner of the page. Before saving make sure that name of the Automator is given properly as shown in the below image.
After clicking on save button the Automator will be created successfully. But the Automator job will not be started at that instant of time. In order to start Automator's job follow next step.
STEP - V : Enable 'Automator'.
Click on toggle switch as shown in the image above to enable the Automator. The Automator job will be started and it will run automatically at that instant of time (Status of 'Manually Run' is changed to 'Processing').
For a demo video on "How to create an Automator" - Click here
Dashboard Page :
Dashboard page gives a lot of information in terms of metrics (counts) and App activity.
User can have track on how many products hidden/published in the metrics and also user can see the 'App Activity' as shown in the above image.
"Reverse" functionality - It reverses the hide or unhide operations performed by an Automator. Hence the status of the products goes back to their original state.