Updating product when option already exists gives "Options are not unique"

[realadeel]

Details in this discussion that was last updated December 2012:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12658002/what-is-the-best-way-to-prevent-to-see-options-are-not-unique-error

Chris Saunders says:

there is a bug in the API when updating products and you are passing in an option that already exists. The error message is actually quite misleading and is being worked on at the moment.

I'm running into this in v3.0.3. Any progress on this or workaround?

Last update by Chris was:

The issue seemed trivial on the surface but there's a bit of work that needs to be done so we haven't had the chance to properly fix it yet.

[realadeel]

I may be crazy, but my workaround is updating the product with temporary options and then updating with the intended options.

shopify_product = ShopifyAPI::Product.find(listing.extra['id'])
bug_workaround_data = shopify_product_data.merge(:options =>[{"name" => "workaround"}], :variants => [{"option1" => "Default"}])
shopify_product.update_attributes bug_workaround_data
shopify_product.update_attributes shopify_product_data

[phoet]

@Proletarian is this still a thing?

[phoet]

closing for now

[guillermosan]

@phoet this is still a thing

[kevinhughes27]

@guillermosan a fix was recently sent out for this to make the error message less confusing in some cases - when you are updating are you including the id of the option? otherwise we'll try and create a new one it and that is probably why you are getting the not unique error

[guillermosan]

@pickle27 did you fix anything else besides the error message? because my private app is showing a different behaviour when updating variants.

So far it was doing "ok" by creating a fake option and fake variant as described above.

Now, instead, when i try to update a product with the fake option and variant i get this error:

ERR:Error: failed [422] {"errors":{"base":["Option Color cannot be blank","1 option values given but 2 options exist"]}}

This suggests some kind of race condition, since my update only includes 1 option value, and its not Color and 1 variant (without 'option2'). Seems like the variants are been updated first, and then the options at some other step, but both are required at some point to be coordinated in number at least.

Still, this create fake variant then create real variant procedure smells. Why can't we update the variants and/or options of a product in a single update request, as the api docs suggest.
When i try that is when i get:

ERR:Error: failed [422] {"errors":{"base":["Options are not unique"]}}

This happens whenever i try a product update replacing the whole variants array, doesn't matter if i include id in the options, or i omit the options or i try with new options.

The use case is simple, client uploads big csv/xls/xml file with the new catalog each x weeks and my app updates shopify to reflect the changes in prices, maybe to add or remove variants from a product or even change the name of a color or size. The simplest way to go and to use less api calls should be replacing the whole variants array and be done.

[kevinhughes27]

@guillermosan nothing else was changed.

To clarify the request you are making is an update correct? If you are updating things you need their ID or else we are going to try and create a new object thus the name conflict you are seeing.

Can you let me know what shop you are trying this on and post the exact line of code you are using? If this data is sensitive at all you can email it to me kevin.hughes@shopify.com

[guillermosan]

@pickle27

I'm using an update request, yes. I know i need variants id to do surgery updates on them. That's exactly why I was deleting the whole array of variants and creating a new one.

I followed up by mail with the requested info.

[kevinhughes27]

@guillermosan ahh yes that technique for clearing all the variants by doing an update with variants = [] no longer works. We reached out to everyone doing this from our logs but we must have missed you.

[guillermosan]

@pickle27 so, what would be the way to delete all the variants from a product using the api? request a DELETE on each variant? that rises the calls i need to do from 1000 to over 10000 on each cycle while adding an enormous amount of complexity.

[kevinhughes27]

first of all why do you need to delete all your variants every cycle?

If you actually want to delete them all then yes you can write a loop to go through all your variants calling destroy. You could also probably do an update to make your product have just the default variant - A product must have at least one variant to be valid. Prior to the fix this is what would happen we would delete all your variants and remake the default.

[guillermosan]

@pickle27 tried to explain why i want to delete all variants above, quote here:

The use case is simple, client uploads big csv/xls/xml file with the new catalog each x weeks and my app updates shopify to reflect the changes in prices, maybe to add or remove variants from a product or even change the name of a color or size. The simplest way to go and to use less api calls should be replacing the whole variants array and be done.

On each of this updates the data may differ greatly from the last, some products will remain, but maybe with new variants or less, or maybe they decided to rename a color or sizing, or whatever. Also keep in mind my clients data won't ever know about your variant ids, they only know about their internal ids reflected on the sku field. So each time my clients hands a new batch, i would need to deduce if a variant they gave me is in fact one of the existings on shopify, or a new one, or a edited one, and go surgery precision updating the store.

That's way more complicated, and error prone, than the "fresh start" method. The number of api calls, and time needed rises 10 times! could be even more due to delete and recreation of variants.

Also, it makes sense: they are giving me a new catalog, i just want to keep the product pictures intact when possible and update the rest of the information.

You could also probably do an update to make your product have just the default variant - A product must have at least one variant to be valid. Prior to the fix this is what would happen we would delete all your variants and remake the default.

What would be the default variant? Tried but i still get the same result.

Lots of thanks for your help looking into this.

[kevinhughes27]

There isn't going to be a super easy way to do this - you could just delete all the products and truly start from scratch each time you need to update (this will clear your product images though). You could also fetch all the data from shopify and do some sort of diff to figure out what you need to update (this is how I would prefer you do it, or better keep the last 'brochure' and use it for the diff).

What I meant by the default variant is that you can probably still get the same affect as before by updating the product with exactly one valid variant - this will delete all the other variants. (edit you can, I just did it on my test shop)

In the future please post questions on using the api on the forum, github is for code fixes and problems with the gem not problems with or using the actual api.

[kevinhughes27]

Also just thought I would mention that the reason for this fix is to make our api behave more consistently as expected - products need variants so while you might expect setting variants to [] to clear all your variants you wouldn't expect it to create a new default for you. This new way you have to be explicit on what you want.