Shopify API

The ShopifyAPI library allows Python developers to programmatically access the admin section of stores.

The API is accessed using pyactiveresource in order to provide an interface similar to the ruby Shopify API gem. The data itself is sent as XML over HTTP to communicate with Shopify, which provides a web service that follows the REST principles as much as possible.

Usage

Requirements

All API usage happens through Shopify applications, created by either shop owners for their own shops, or by Shopify Partners for use by other shop owners:

• Shop owners can create applications for themselves through their own admin: http://docs.shopify.com/api/tutorials/creating-a-private-app
• Shopify Partners create applications through their admin: http://app.shopify.com/services/partners

For more information and detailed documentation about the API visit http://api.shopify.com

Installation

To easily install or upgrade to the latest release, use pip

pip install --upgrade ShopifyAPI

or easy_install

easy_install -U ShopifyAPI

Getting Started

ShopifyAPI uses pyactiveresource to communicate with the REST web service. pyactiveresource has to be configured with a fully authorized URL of a particular store first. To obtain that URL you can follow these steps:

1. First create a new application in either the partners admin or your store admin. For a private App you'll need the API_KEY and the PASSWORD otherwise you'll need the API_KEY and SHARED_SECRET.

2. For a private App you just need to set the base site url as follows:

   shop_url = "https://%s:%s@SHOP_NAME.myshopify.com/admin" % (API_KEY, PASSWORD)
   shopify.ShopifyResource.set_site(shop_url)

   That's it you're done, skip to step 6 and start using the API! For a partner App you will need to supply two parameters to the Session class before you instantiate it:

   shopify.Session.setup(api_key=API_KEY, secret=SHARED_SECRET)

3. In order to access a shop's data, apps need an access token from that specific shop. This is a two-stage process. Before interacting with a shop for the first time an app should redirect the user to the following URL:

   GET https://SHOP_NAME.myshopify.com/admin/oauth/authorize

   with the following parameters:

   * client_id – Required – The API key for your app
   * scope – Required – The list of required scopes (explained here: http://docs.shopify.com/api/tutorials/oauth)
   * redirect_uri – Optional – The URL that the merchant will be sent to once authentication is complete. Defaults to the URL specified in the application settings and must be the same host as that URL.
   

   We've added the create_permision_url method to make this easier, first instantiate your session object:

   session = shopify.Session("SHOP_NAME.myshopify.com")

   Then call:

   scope=["write_products"]
   permission_url = session.create_permission_url(scope)

   or if you want a custom redirect_uri:

   permission_url = session.create_permission_url(scope, "https://my_redirect_uri.com")

4. Once authorized, the shop redirects the owner to the return URL of your application with a parameter named 'code'. This is a temporary token that the app can exchange for a permanent access token. Make the following call:

   POST https://SHOP_NAME.myshopify.com/admin/oauth/access_token

   with the following parameters:

   * client_id – Required – The API key for your app
   * client_secret – Required – The shared secret for your app
   * code – Required – The code you received in step 3
   

   and you'll get your permanent access token back in the response.

   There is a method to make the request and get the token for you. Pass all the params received from the previous call (shop, code, timestamp, signature) as a dictionary and the method will verify the params, extract the temp code and then request your token:

   token = session.request_token(params)

   This method will save the token to the session object and return it. For future sessions simply pass the token when creating the session object.

   session = shopify.Session("SHOP_NAME.myshopify.com", token)

5. The session must be activated before use:

   shopify.ShopifyResource.activate_session(session)

6. Now you're ready to make authorized API requests to your shop! Data is returned as ActiveResource instances:

   shop = shopify.Shop.current()
   
   # Get a specific product
   product = shopify.Product.find(179761209)
   
   # Create a new product
   new_product = shopify.Product()
   new_product.title = "Burton Custom Freestyle 151"
   new_product.product_type = "Snowboard"
   new_product.vendor = "Burton"
   success = new_product.save() #returns false if the record is invalid
   # or
   if new_product.errors:
       #something went wrong, see new_product.errors.full_messages() for example
   
   # Update a product
   product.handle = "burton-snowboard"
   product.save()

   Alternatively, you can use temp to initialize a Session and execute a command which also handles temporarily setting ActiveResource::Base.site:

   with shopify.Session.temp("SHOP_NAME.myshopify.com", token):
      product = shopify.Product.find()

7. If you want to work with another shop, you'll first need to clear the session::

   shopify.ShopifyResource.clear_session()

Console

This package also includes the shopify_api.py script to make it easy to open up an interactive console to use the API with a shop.

1. Obtain a private API key and password to use with your shop (step 2 in "Getting Started")

2. Use the shopify_api.py script to save the credentials for the shop to quickly log in. The script uses PyYAML to save and load connection configurations in the same format as the ruby shopify_api.

   shopify_api.py add yourshopname

   Follow the prompts for the shop domain, API key and password.

3. Start the console for the connection.

   shopify_api.py console

4. To see the full list of commands, type:

   shopify_api.py help

Using Development Version

The development version can be built using

python setup.py sdist

then the package can be installed using pip

pip install --upgrade dist/ShopifyAPI-*.tar.gz

or easy_install

easy_install -U dist/ShopifyAPI-*.tar.gz

Note Use the bin/shopify_api.py script when running from the source tree. It will add the lib directory to start of sys.path, so the installed version won't be used.

To run tests, simply open up the project directory in a terminal and run:

python setup.py test

Limitations

Currently there is no support for:

• asynchronous requests
• persistent connections

Additional Resources

• Shopify API <= Read the tech docs!
• Ask questions on the Shopify forums <= Ask questions on the forums!

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2012 "Shopify inc.". See LICENSE for details.