Adding "In Progress" Order Status to Your Shopify Store: Community Solutions

Customizing Order Statuses in Shopify: Making "In Progress" a Reality

Hey everyone! Ever wished you could have a more granular order status in Shopify, like an "In Progress" status, to better manage your workflow? You're not alone! I was just digging through the Shopify Community forums and saw a great question from user198 about this very topic. They were building an app and wanted to add this functionality, but hit a snag.

It turns out Shopify's native order statuses are pretty limited: Open, Closed, Cancelled, and the fulfillment statuses (unfulfilled, fulfilled, partial). So, how do you bridge that gap and add your own custom statuses?

The Challenge: Shopify's Built-in Limitations

As anmolkumar pointed out in the thread, you can't directly create a new *core* order status within Shopify. That's just how the platform is structured. But don't worry, there are some clever workarounds!

The Solutions: Tags and Metafields to the Rescue

The community consensus boils down to two main approaches for implementing a custom "In Progress" status:

• Order Tags: This is generally the recommended and simpler method. You essentially add a tag (like "In Progress") to an order when it enters that stage.
• Metafields: These are like custom fields you can attach to orders. You can use a metafield to store your custom status as data.

So, which one should you choose?

Tags are usually easier to implement and manage, especially if you're just starting out. They're also readily searchable and filterable within the Shopify admin. Metafields offer more flexibility if you need to store additional data associated with the status, but they can be a bit more complex to work with.

How to Implement "In Progress" Using Order Tags: A Step-by-Step Guide

Let's walk through how you might implement this using order tags. This assumes you're building an app, but the core principle applies even if you're manually managing orders.

1. In your app, create a function to add a tag to an order. This function will use the Shopify API to update the order's tags. The API endpoint you'll be working with is likely the `orders/{order_id}.json` endpoint, using a PUT request to update the `tags` property.
2. When an order enters the "In Progress" stage in your system, trigger this function. This might be when a production process starts, or when a specific action is taken on the order.
3. Add the tag "In Progress" to the order. The exact code will depend on your app's language and framework, but here's a conceptual example:

   
   // Example (Conceptual - adjust to your specific language/framework)
   function setOrderInProgress(orderId) {
     const apiUrl = `/admin/api/2024-04/orders/${orderId}.json`;
     const orderData = {
       order: {
         id: orderId,
         tags: "In Progress, OtherExistingTag"
       }
     };
   
     // Make a PUT request to the Shopify API to update the order
     // (Remember to handle authentication and error handling)
   }
   

   Important: Be sure to handle existing tags! You don't want to accidentally overwrite them. Append the "In Progress" tag to the existing list.

4. In your Shopify admin, you can now filter orders by the "In Progress" tag. This allows you to easily see all orders that are currently being processed.

Alternative: Using Metafields

If you need more than just a simple status indicator, metafields are your friend. You can store structured data, like the date the order entered the "In Progress" stage, the employee assigned to the order, or any other relevant information.

The Shopify API provides endpoints for managing metafields, specifically under the `orders/{order_id}/metafields.json` endpoint. You'll need to create a metafield definition in your Shopify admin first, then use the API to set the value for specific orders.

While metafields provide more flexibility, they also require more code and a deeper understanding of the Shopify API.

Filtering and Displaying the Status

Regardless of whether you use tags or metafields, you'll likely want to display the "In Progress" status in your app's interface. You can use the Shopify API to retrieve the order's tags or metafields and then display the status accordingly.

You can also leverage Shopify's Liquid templating language to display the status on your storefront, if needed.

So, as you can see, while Shopify doesn't natively support an "In Progress" order status, there are definitely ways to achieve this using tags or metafields! The best approach depends on your specific needs and the complexity of your app. It's all about finding the right balance between simplicity and flexibility.