Connecting a Shopify store

Installing the app, turning search on in the storefront, and the similar and recommended blocks, in the right order.

On a Shopify store there is no code to paste and no files to edit: install the Buskara app, approve the read access, and flip one switch in the theme editor. From there the catalogue syncs on its own, product and stock changes included, seconds after they are saved in the store. What the Shopify search app changes on the store, what stays the same and what it costs is told on the blog; this guide is just the path, in the right order.

1. Install the app

The usual path starts on Shopify:

1. In the Shopify App Store, open the Buskara page and click Install. Shopify shows the consent screen with the requested access, all read-only: products, inventory, publications, locales, markets and orders. Click Install.
2. The app opens inside the store admin. The Buskara account is created at that moment with the store email, and the first catalogue sync starts on its own.
3. Click Choose a plan. Shopify shows the plans and the trial days, and the chosen plan is billed by Shopify, on the same invoice as the store; changing plan, cancelling and the trial are handled from there, under Apps → Buskara.

Anyone who already has a Buskara account with the store's email gets the store in that account. Anyone starting from Buskara, at /ativar, chooses Shopify and is taken to the Buskara page on the Shopify App Store: installation always starts on Shopify, never from an address typed into Buskara, and the consent is the same.

That is all: the store appears in the panel under Account → Stores, and the Open the Buskara panel button inside the store admin enters it without a password. The first catalogue pass usually takes under a minute, and a big catalogue takes a few.

Buskara asks for no write permission over the store, and the order access serves only to attribute sales to search, on the merchant's behalf.

2. Show search on the storefront

Search only appears to visitors when the merchant turns it on, and the switch lives in the theme editor:

1. In the store admin, open Online Store → Customize.
2. In the icon bar of the left panel, open the app embeds (the squares icon, next to the theme settings).
3. Turn on the Buskara switch and click Save.

Do not change the "Service address" field inside the embed: Buskara support will say if it is ever needed.

From here on, the theme's search bar and magnifier open the Buskara panel, with the cursor ready to type. Turning the switch off brings the theme's native search back, immediately.

3. The "similar products" button on product pages

A discreet button on the product page that opens the similar-products panel, with filters and comparison. It goes wherever the merchant wants it:

1. In the theme editor, open a product template (page selector at the top → Products → the template in use).
2. In the product details section, click Add block and choose "Buskara: similar products button".
3. Drag the block into position (below the buy button is the usual spot) and Save.

4. The "you may also like" block

The recommendations carousel, fed by what gets seen and bought in the store:

1. In the same editor, on any template (product pages included), Add section or block and choose "Buskara: you may also like block".
2. On a product page, suggestions start from that product; on any other page, the carousel shows the store's overall recommendations.
3. Drag into position and Save.

Both blocks only draw themselves when there are results to show: a block with nothing to say takes no room.

Both have a guide of their own, with the rest of the story: the similar products button and the "you may also like" block tells what each one shows, what you tune in the panel and what to do when they do not show up.

5. The day-to-day

After the first sync, the catalogue keeps itself current:

• In real time: creating, changing or deleting a product, or touching stock, reaches the index seconds later, straight from Shopify.
• Periodic net: in regular cycles, Buskara double-checks what changed since the last pass, so nothing is left behind.
• Manual: the Reindex everything button on the store's page in the panel. Automatic syncing costs nothing; forcing a full reindex costs 1 bToken per 1,000 documents, and the notice with the amount shows before confirming.

The index follows the store's primary language and currency, plus the published languages: a store in two languages gets search in both, with whatever product translations exist in Shopify and the original where they do not.

6. Token connection, for special cases

Headless stores or unusual setups can connect without the app, with a hand-made access token: in the store admin, under Settings → Apps and sales channels → Develop apps, create an app with the read permissions (products, inventory, publications, locales, markets), install it, and paste the shpat_ token on the Buskara activation screen, via the "Custom setup: connect with an access token" shortcut. Everything else behaves the same.

7. If something does not add up

• Search does not show on the storefront: check the app embeds switch (step 2) and that it was saved.
• Products are missing: drafts, archived products and products not published to the online store channel stay out of the index on purpose, because they have no page to point to. The guide on products that do not show up walks through the remaining causes.
• Syncing stopped: the usual sign that the app was uninstalled or the access revoked. Install again through step 1; the store reconnects to the same account and nothing is lost.
• The plan's store limit was reached: the message states the plan and the limit; reconnecting a store that already exists is never blocked.