Benchline theme documentation

Getting started

This page takes a store from a fresh Benchline install to a working parts finder. Nothing here needs code. Everything happens in the Shopify admin and the theme editor.

Step 1: Install and preview

Install Benchline from the Theme Store, then open it in the theme editor before you publish. Work in the preview until your specification data is in place. Publishing early is safe, though: products without specification data still sell normally, they simply show no fit verdict until their data exists (see Fit check).

Keep a duplicate of the theme before you apply a theme style for the first time. Applying a style replaces your current theme settings with the style values, and a duplicate is your way back.

Step 2: Create the specification fields

Benchline reads product data from metafields in the specs namespace. Create the definitions once, under Settings, then Custom data, then Products (and Variants, for the three variant fields). The full list of 28 fields, with the exact type to choose for each, is in Specification data. Create the definitions before you import products by spreadsheet: an import can only fill fields whose definitions already exist.

Most stores start with the seven fields the filters and the fit check read:

Step 3: Fill in your products

Enter the specification values on each product, in the metafields panel. Enter them once. The product card, the datasheet, the filters, the comparison table, and the fit check all read the same values, so there is nothing else to keep in sync. The guidance that makes this painless (one value style per field, units in the unit field, lists for values a filter must find) is in Specification data.

Step 4: Set up filters in Search and Discovery

The finder and the collection facet rail use Shopify storefront filtering, so the filter list itself lives in the Search and Discovery app. Open the app, add filters for the seven specification fields above, and add the standard filters you want (availability, price, vendor, product type). Until a field has a filter in the app, the finder cannot ask about it and the facet rail will not show it.

Plan around two platform limits: a store can show up to 25 filters, and filters stop appearing on collections with more than 5,000 products. A single filter can carry up to 100 values.

Step 5: Shape the finder

Open the home page in the theme editor and select the Project finder section. The shipped finder asks four questions (project type, thread or standard, material, primary dimension) plus a project name. Each question is a block you can edit, reorder, remove, or add to. Option values must match the filter values in Search and Discovery exactly, including spelling and case. See Project finder before you change the steps.

Point the finder's Results collection setting at the collection you want results to open in. Left unset, results open in your all-products collection. The finder always opens a collection, never the search page, because facet filters cannot be applied on the search page.

Step 6: Check a product page

Open any product with complete data. You should see the buy area first, then the grouped specification table (the datasheet), with groups in this order: Identity, Dimensions, Materials, Ratings and compliance, Compatibility, Pack. A group with no values does not appear. Add the product to the cart from a finder search and confirm it lands under its project heading in the cart.

Step 7: Choose a style

Benchline ships with four theme styles. The Benchline style is the general hardware layout. Driveline, Flowline, and Voltline re-shape the same architecture for machine parts, plumbing, and electrical stores: they change the finder, the results table column order, the datasheet order, and the cart grouping, not just the colors. Apply one under Theme settings, then Theme style, in the editor. Details are in Theme styles and presets.