Metafields

Metafields are Shopify’s structured custom data fields. Account Canvas uses them for advanced conditions, fields, preferences, and order-related workflows.

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Before you configure a field

Decide who owns the data, what value type it needs, and whether the field is for reading a condition or writing a customer submission. These are different uses. Never infer a destination from free-form customer text or use a custom field as proof of marketing consent. For advanced targeting, check plans and limits.

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Supported metafield use cases

• Show or hide content based on customer metafields.
• Show or hide content based on order or product metafields when that context is available.
• Collect customer preferences through fields and forms.
• Keep a recent encrypted operational record of form and workflow submissions in Account Canvas for troubleshooting, privacy requests, and delivery verification.

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Recommended metafield types

Start with these types because they are easiest for merchants to understand:

• Single line text
• Multi-line text
• Boolean
• Number
• Date
• Date and time
• URL
• JSON

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Supported owners

Account Canvas is designed around these owner types:

• Customer metafields for profile fields, preferences, and customer-specific conditions. A custom field is not a substitute for Shopify’s official marketing-consent settings.
• Order metafields for merchant-configured order fields when the published workflow explicitly enables an order metafield destination.
• Product metafields for product-aware conditions and product-specific guidance.
• Shop metafields for store-level rules and shared account content settings.

If an owner cannot be resolved from the current customer account surface, Account Canvas stores the encrypted submission record and skips Shopify metafield writeback instead of writing to the wrong resource.

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Field and form behavior

Fields and workflow forms submit to Account Canvas first. The app stores an encrypted operational record normally retained for 45 days and attempts Shopify metafield writeback when the field key is configured as namespace.key and the current customer or order owner can be resolved. For deletion safety, Account Canvas stores a keyed digest plus the exact Shopify metafield ID and update version—not a second plaintext copy of the value. Cleanup deletes only the version written by that submission, then rechecks Shopify after 24 hours. Workflow submissions require authenticated customer account context. Read-only previews may still show sample content, but write actions are blocked when the customer session cannot be verified. Customer preference and custom field submissions can write to customer metafields. Order workflow submissions only attempt order metafield writeback when the published workflow names an allowed destination and Shopify provides a verified order owner context. If that context is missing, Account Canvas stores the encrypted submission record and skips Shopify writeback. The updated Custom Order Note workflow uses a separate Account Canvas order field after verifying that the signed-in customer owns the order. This requires the corresponding app release. Earlier submissions may have created marked entries in the shared Shopify order note; those can need coordinated cleanup. See workflows and forms for version differences and retry guidance.

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Condition behavior

Metafield conditions should include:

• Owner type, such as customer, order, product, or shop.
• Namespace and key.
• Operator, such as equals, contains, is set, greater than, or less than.
• Expected value when required by the operator.

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Before enabling metafield writeback

Metafield reads and writes require the correct Shopify permissions. Confirm access, owner types, namespace/key naming, and merchant-facing field labels before enabling a metafield-powered feature. Use explicit namespace.key fields for merchant-configured write targets. Do not infer arbitrary metafield destinations from customer-entered text.