Vantage Apparel’s Order Desk Integration with Shopify – GD Method
This guide explains how to send orders to Vantage Apparel using Order Desk and Shopify. This guide is appropriate when sending orders for products whose designs are already configured with Vantage Apparel, using the Garment Design ID.
Shopify Configuration
If adding Vantage Apparel products for the first time, you must configure custom
product metafields in Shopify to store:
1. GD# (garment design ID)
2. Part ID
3. Print SKU
These values and how to configure the metafields in Shopify are explained below.
1 Navigate and log into your Shopify store’s admin interface.
2 In the navigation menu, click Settings.
3 In the navigation, click on Custom Data.
4 Click on Variants and then click the black Add Definition button
Add Garment Design ID Definition
5 Configure the definition as seen below:
• Name: Vantage Garment Design ID
• Namespace and key: This is generated based on the name provided.
• Description: You can put anything you want here. Providing a description can be helpful to
store operators in the future.
• Type: Single Line Text
The rest of the settings on this page can be left at their defaults. When finished,
click Save
Add Part ID Definition
6 Configure the Part ID definition as seen below:
• Name: Vantage Part ID
• Namespace and key: This is generated based on the name provided.
• Description: You can put anything you want here. Providing a description can be helpful to
store operators in the future.
• Type: Single Line Text
The rest of the settings on this page can be left at their defaults. When finished,
click Save
Add Print SKU Definition
7 Configure the Print SKU definition as seen below:
• Name: Vantage Print SKU
• Namespace and key: This is generated based on the name provided.
• Description: You can put anything you want here. Providing a description can be helpful to
store operators in the future.
• Type: Single Line Text
The rest of the settings on this page can be left at their defaults. When finished,
click Save.
Enable Vantage Apparel Order Desk Integration
Before we configure our Vantage Apparel products in Shopify, it will be helpful to enable the Vantage Apparel Order Desk integration first.
8 Log into your Order Desk account at app.orderdesk.me. If you do not yet have an Order Desk account, you can sign up here
9 To connect to Vantage Apparel, click on Manage Integrations in the left sidebar. Under the Print on Demand tab, find and click to enable the Vantage Apparel integration
10 Enter your Vantage Apparel credentials and Program ID, then click to connect. If you do not yet have credentials, contact integrations@vantageapparel.com.
11 Once connected, you will be presented with the integration’s settings. Detailed information on these can be found here. Set them as necessary for your specific use case.
On this page there is a link at the top to view available products from Vantage Apparel. Clicking it will display a page like the one below. The products you create in Shopify must coincide with a Product ID and Part ID in this list.
The Product ID can be thought of as the parent product. Each Product ID is associated with a number of Part ID’s. These can be thought of as the individual SKU, specifying color and/or size.
If you’re having trouble knowing which Product ID is associated with the products you will add to your store, you may search by Product ID at the Vantage Apparel website
Configure Product in Shopify
To configure a product in Shopify that will be sent to Order Desk for fulfillment by Vantage Apparel, you will configure the product largely as you would any other.
However, it is necessary to populate the metafields that we just created for each variant
12 For each product variant, provide the necessary values for each metafield.
The Print SKU and Part ID work together to tell Vantage Apparel what product and which variant of that product to produce.
For example, in the image below, the Print SKU “0290” refers to the Vantage
Hi-Def T-Shirt. The Part ID “0290ROYS3XLG” refers specifically to the same shirt in color Royal and size 3XL.
The Garment Design ID is how you indicate to Vantage what artwork, decoration type, and placement is required for the product. Your Vantage rep will provide these as you build out your program.
It can be laborious to add metadata to each product variant individually in the Shopify admin interface. Consider using an import tool if you plan on updating a large amount of product variants.
if you think that you will need to split orders from your Shopify store between vendors, then set up your Vantage items with a vendor named Vantage Apparel.Enable Shopify Order Desk Integration
14 Log into your Order Desk account at app.orderdesk.me. If you do not yet have an Order Desk account, you can sign up here
15 To connect to Shopify, click on Manage Integrations in the left sidebar. Under the Shopping Carts tab, find Shopify and click to enable the Shopify integration. Then click the green Connect to Shopify button. Make sure you are logged into Shopify first.
16 You’ll be taken to Order Desk’s Shopify app listing. Click Open
17 Click the Update button to give Order Desk the needed permissions
18 Select the Order Desk store you wish to install on and click the blue Install App Now button. Alternatively, you are able to create a new store in Order Desk if needed.
19 Once connected, you will be presented with the integration’s settings. Detailed information on these can be found here. Set them as necessary for your specific use case.
Note: You must check the Download Product Variant Metafields box.
Make sure to enable Download Product Variant Metafields.
Configure Rules in Order Desk
20 In Order Desk, click Rule Builder in the navigation menu.
21 Create a new Order Item Rule.
22 Select Order Is Imported as the event that will trigger this rule.
Configure the first action for this rule as seen in the image below.
Action: Set Order Item Metadata
Field Name: print_sku
Field Value: metadata[‘vantage_print_sku’] (enclose in double curly brackets as seen
in image below)
This action creates a new field for the item in Order Desk called “print_sku” and then maps the Shopify value that will come with your orders to this new field.
Next, we need to do this for the two other custom fields. When finished with the first action, click Add Another Action
24 Next map the part_id field by configuring a second action as seen below.
Action: Set Order Item Metadata
Field Name: part_id
Field Value: metadata[‘vantage_part_id’] (enclose in double curly brackets as seen in image below)
When finished with the second action, click Add Another Action
25 Finally, we need to map the Vantage Garment Design ID to a field named artwork_id_1 by configuring a third action as seen below.
Action: Set Order Item Metadata
Field Name: artwork_id_1
Field Value: metadata[‘vantage_garment_design_id’] (enclose in double curly brackets as seen in image below)
26 Provide the rule with a name and then click the Save Rule button.
With this rule in place, when the order is imported into Order Desk, the fields that Vantage Apparel requires will be set with the appropriate values from Shopify.
Depending on the unique needs of your program and how you use Order Desk, you may want to configure the above rule with a Filter so that only Vantage Apparel items are affected. This can be done using the shopify_vendor metadata for each line item.
The rule above only prepares the order to be sent to Vantage Apparel. If you want to automatically send the order after the fields have been set, an additional rule can be configured to run after this one that simply sends the prepared order toVantage Apparel.
Learn more about Order Desk rules here