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Shopify Builds>Primitives>JSON templates

JSON templates

Definition

A JSON template is a Shopify template written as data rather than as Liquid. It lists the sections on a page, their order, their settings and their blocks, and the theme editor writes it. Because the file is data, a merchant can recompose a page without a developer, and a section's settings can be bound to dynamic sources.

Documented at shopify.dev, JSON templates.

How We've Used It

The template file is where we put the decisions a merchandiser should own. Which sections a page has, in what order, with which settings and which bindings, is page composition, and it belongs in data rather than in a Liquid conditional somebody has to redeploy. It also decides how many sections get written. A thin section that renders a page's own content inside a branded shell can be cloned per page type and wired into several templates, which is cheaper than one shared section carrying a conditional for every case. The cost is that a section exists on a page only if the template says so, so an orphaned section stays invisible until somebody audits.

Builds Using It

One further gated build uses it; its page follows.

Related Entities

Builds

Kids FAQ page: single-level variant of the FAQ engine

A second FAQ page for the kids sub-brand that shares the help center's content model — the same page metafield, the same accordion contract — but drops the category layer, so a shorter list of questions reads as one flat, keyboard-operable accordion with its own tone and its own way out.

LUS Brands

Metafield-driven editorial article template (TSB blog)

A long-form article template assembled entirely from article metafields — deck, takeaways, science callouts, references, FAQ, author credentials, related reading and in-content commerce — in a single section with no theme-editor settings, so an editor never touches the theme to publish a fully structured post.

Three Ships