Shopify GraphQL: Mastering Product Unpublishing After the REST API Transition

Hey there, fellow store owners and developers! As many of you know, the world of Shopify development is constantly evolving, and one of the biggest shifts we've seen recently is the move towards GraphQL. It's powerful, efficient, and gives you incredible control, but it also means relearning some familiar tasks. I recently stumbled upon a great discussion in the Shopify community that perfectly illustrates this, and I wanted to share some insights.

Our friend @lkates hit a common roadblock: "Using the REST API, I would set product.published = false to unpublish the product. But now product.published isn’t a field under GraphQL. What mutation do I use to 'unpublish' the product now?" Sound familiar? If you're used to the straightforward published boolean, the GraphQL approach can feel a bit like a puzzle at first. But don't worry, it's actually more robust once you get the hang of it.

Understanding the GraphQL Way: Publications, Not Just a Toggle

The biggest conceptual shift when moving from the REST API's simple product.published = false to GraphQL is the introduction of 'publications.' Instead of a global 'published' status, GraphQL gives you granular control over where your products are published. Think of your online store, Facebook Shop, Google Shopping, etc., as separate 'publications' or channels. When you 'unpublish' a product in GraphQL, you're essentially removing it from one or more of these specific publications.

As @tim_tairli pointed out in the thread, you have a couple of primary mutations for this:

• productUnpublish: This is specifically for products.
• publishableUnpublish: This is more versatile, allowing you to unpublish both products and collections.

For most scenarios, especially when migrating from the REST API's product.published = false, publishableUnpublish is your go-to, as @Moeed wisely clarified.

The Crucial First Step: Finding Your Publication IDs

To unpublish anything in GraphQL, you'll need two pieces of information: the product (or collection) ID, and the publicationId of the channel you want to unpublish from. This is where many new GraphQL users get a little stuck. Luckily, the community provided clear ways to get these IDs.

Option 1: Querying All Available Publications

This is super handy if you need a list of all your sales channels and their corresponding IDs. @tim_tairli shared this excellent query:

query GetPublicationIDs {
  publications(first: 10) {
    nodes {
      id
      name
    }
  }
}

Running this will give you a list of all your active publications, typically including your "Online Store," and any other channels you've set up, along with their unique ids. You'll then pick the id for the channel you want to target.

Option 2: Getting Publication IDs Directly from a Product

If you're already querying a specific product, you can also fetch its associated publication IDs directly from the resourcePublicationsV2 field, as mentioned by @tim_tairli. This is useful if you want to see where a product is currently published and then decide which channels to unpublish it from.

Step-by-Step: How to Unpublish a Product in GraphQL

Now that you have your product ID and the target publicationId, let's put it all together. Here’s how you’d typically perform the unpublish operation:

1. Identify Your Product ID: This is the unique identifier for the product you want to unpublish. It'll look something like gid://shopify/Product/123456789.
2. Retrieve the Target publicationId(s): Use the GetPublicationIDs query (from above) or fetch from the product itself to get the ID(s) of the sales channel(s) you wish to remove the product from. For example, your Online Store might have an ID like gid://shopify/Publication/987654321. Remember, you'll need to run the mutation for each publication you want to unpublish from, or batch them if your setup allows.
3. Construct and Execute the publishableUnpublish Mutation: This is where the magic happens. @Moeed provided a perfect example of the mutation structure:

   mutation PublishableUnpublish($productId: ID!, $publicationId: ID!) {
     publishableUnpublish(id: $productId, input: { publicationId: $publicationId }) {
       publishable {
         publishedOnPublication(publicationId: $publicationId)
       }
       userErrors {
         field
         message
       }
     }
   }
   

   And here’s how you'd pass the variables:

   {
     "productId": "gid://shopify/Product/108828309",
     "publicationId": "gid://shopify/Publication/762454635"
   }
   

   You'll replace the example IDs with your actual product and publication IDs. Once executed, this mutation will remove your product from the specified sales channel.

Important Distinction: Unpublish vs. Change Product Status

This is a critical point that @Moeed highlighted, and it's super important for clarity when migrating. There's a difference between simply hiding a product from a sales channel and changing its overall status within your Shopify admin.

• publishableUnpublish (or productUnpublish): This is the direct equivalent of the old product.published = false. It hides the product from your selected sales channels (e.g., your online store) but the product itself remains in your store and keeps its status (e.g., 'active'). It's still editable and visible in your admin.
• productUpdate with status: DRAFT or status: ARCHIVED: If your goal is to take the product offline entirely, making it unavailable even for internal editing or future use without reactivating, then changing its status is what you need. You'd use the productUpdate mutation and set the status field to DRAFT or ARCHIVED.

So, if you're migrating from the REST API where you simply wanted to prevent a product from showing up on your storefront, publishableUnpublish is definitely the mutation you're looking for. It offers that precise control without altering the product's fundamental state in your admin.

The move to GraphQL, while requiring a bit of a learning curve, ultimately provides a much more flexible and powerful way to manage your store's data. Understanding the concept of 'publications' is key, and with the guidance from the community, unpublishing products becomes a clear and manageable task. It's all about that granular control, allowing you to tailor your product visibility across all your sales channels with precision. Happy migrating!