Shopify API Repeated PUT has different results (Options are not unique)

Question

When I update a product with multiple variants, I get an error response:

{"errors":{"base":["Options are not unique"]}}

or sometimes:

{"errors":{"variants":["is invalid"], "base":["Options are not unique"]}}

I am making a PUT request to something like /admin/products/122821632.json with data like:

{"product":{"id":"122821632",
           "body_html":"test",
           "vendor":"Acme",
           "title":"Monkey T-Shirt",
           "variants":[{"option1":"LARGE",
                        "sku":"test-sku-2",
                        "product_id":"122821632",
                        "id":"282988194",
                        "price":"21.99",
                        "grams":"200"},
                       {"option1":"TINY",
                        "sku":"test-sku-1",
                        "product_id":"122821632",
                        "id":"282990692",
                        "price":"21.99",
                        "grams":"200"}],
           "options":[{"position":1,
                       "name":"Size",
                        "product_id":"122821632"}]}}

I have noticed however that if I put a single variant, and then put the multiple variant data JSON, it works. This does mean deleting a variant and re-creating it, which I don't think is acceptable behaviour for a plugin, especially seeing as I don't have all the data about a variant stored, and therefore cannot be rolled out into production.

To do this I make these PUT requests:

{"product":{"id":"122821632",
           "body_html":"test",
           "vendor":"Acme",
           "title":"Monkey T-Shirt",
           "variants":[{"option1":"LARGE",
                        "sku":"test-sku-2",
                        "product_id":"122821632",
                        "id":"282988194",
                        "price":"21.99",
                        "grams":"200"}],
           "options":[{"position":1,
                       "name":"Size",
                       "product_id":"122821632"}]}}

Which returns a 200. Followed by:

{"product":{"id":"122821632",
           "body_html":"test",
           "vendor":"Acme",
           "title":"Monkey T-Shirt",
           "variants":[{"option1":"LARGE",
                        "sku":"test-sku-2",
                        "product_id":"122821632",
                        "id":"282988194",
                        "price":"21.99",
                        "grams":"200"},
                       {"option1":"TINY",
                        "sku":"test-sku-1",
                        "product_id":"122821632",
                        "id":"282990692",
                        "price":"21.99",
                        "grams":"200"}],
           "options":[{"position":1,
                       "name":"Size",
                       "product_id":"122821632"}]}}

Which returns a 200. Followed by:

{"product":{"id":"122821632",
           "body_html":"test",
           "vendor":"Acme",
           "title":"Monkey T-Shirt",
           "variants":[{"option1":"LARGE",
                        "sku":"test-sku-2",
                        "product_id":"122821632",
                        "id":"282988194",
                        "price":"21.99",
                        "grams":"200"},
                       {"option1":"TINY",
                        "sku":"test-sku-1",
                        "product_id":"122821632",
                        "id":"282990692",
                        "price":"21.99",
                        "grams":"200"}],
           "options":[{"position":1,
                       "name":"Size",
                       "product_id":"122821632"}]}}

Which gives me the error. Also the IDs of the variant I deleted and recreated has changed (which I can tell with a get request):

{"product":{"body_html":"test",
            "handle":"69",
            "images":[],
            "template_suffix":null,
            "product_type":"Shirts",
            "updated_at":"2013-03-07T11:36:51-05:00",
            "variants":[{"position":1,
                         "option1":"LARGE",
                         "option2":null,
                         "option3":null,
                         "updated_at":"2013-03-07T07:30:15-05:00",
                         "inventory_quantity":1,
                         "title":"LARGE",
                         "product_id":122821632,
                         "created_at":"2013-03-06T11:03:36-05:00",
                         "compare_at_price":"24.99",
                         "fulfillment_service":"manual",
                         "inventory_management":"",
                         "sku":"test-sku-2",
                         "taxable":true,
                         "requires_shipping":true,
                         "price":"21.99",
                         "inventory_policy":"deny",
                         "id":282988194,
                         "grams":200},
                        {"position":2,
                         "option1":"TINY",
                         "option2":null,
                         "option3":null,
                         "updated_at":"2013-03-07T11:36:51-05:00",
                         "inventory_quantity":1,
                         "title":"TINY",
                         "product_id":122821632,
                         "created_at":"2013-03-07T11:36:51-05:00",
                         "compare_at_price":null,
                         "fulfillment_service":"manual",
                         "inventory_management":null,
                         "sku":"test-sku-1",
                         "taxable":true,
                         "requires_shipping":true,
                         "price":"21.99",
                         "inventory_policy":"deny",
                         "id":283397624,
                         "grams":200}],
            "title":"Monkey T-Shirt",
            "created_at":"2013-02-22T05:35:02-05:00",
            "options":[{"id":147204272,
                        "name":"Size",
                        "position":1,
                        "product_id":122821632}],
            "vendor":"Acme",
            "id":122821632,
            "published_at":"2013-02-22T05:35:02-05:00",
            "tags":"mens t-shirt example"}}

I am under the impression that the second PUT request of the same data to the same URL should result in no change.

What am I doing wrong? Is this a bug in the Shopify API?

Answer 1

My friend, when I do it I used to inform the option id also... so the option part would stay like this:

"options":[{"id":147204272,"position":1,"name":"Size","product_id":"122821632"}]}}

Options are similar to variants in terms of json, they also have id. The same will happen to imagens too.

Let me know if it can helps.

Answer 2

I had the same problem as you yesterday. It looks like you can't use the PUT /admin/products/122821632.json to modify variants.

Once a product has been created with variants, you have to use the http://docs.shopify.com/api/product_variant#update to update the individual variants, otherwise you get that error if you include variant data in the product PUT.

You have to miss out all the variants info in the products PUT if you want to update it once your variants have been set.