spree-catalog

Spree Catalog

Before writing code

Fetch live docs:

1. Fetch https://spreecommerce.org/docs/developer/core-concepts/architecture — catalog model graph.
2. Web-search spree meilisearch faceted search v5.4 for the current search backend wiring.
3. Inspect the live Spree::Product / Spree::Variant source for column names — they shift between minors.
4. Check the latest release notes for any new catalog features (CSV importer scope, Page Builder Product Details Page sections, etc.).
5. For PriceList specifics, fetch the latest pricing-related guide on spreecommerce.org/docs.

Conceptual Architecture

Product vs Variant

• Product — the catalog entity (T-shirt, novel, subscription box). Has a master_variant.
• Variant — the sellable SKU. Even simple products have one master variant; products with options have additional variants per OptionValue combination.

A Variant has:

• A unique SKU
• One StockItem per StockLocation
• One Price per currency
• Zero or more OptionValues defining its position on the option axes

OptionTypes and OptionValues

OptionType: size
  OptionValues: small, medium, large
OptionType: color
  OptionValues: red, blue, black

A T-shirt product with [size, color] option types has 3 × 3 = 9 variants (or fewer if some combos are unavailable).

Taxonomies and Taxons

A Taxonomy is a category tree (e.g., "Categories", "Collections"). A Taxon is a node in that tree using acts_as_nested_set (or awesome_nested_set). Products are tagged with many Taxons via Spree::Classification.

Taxonomy: Categories
  ├── Taxon: Apparel
  │     ├── Taxon: Shirts
  │     └── Taxon: Pants
  └── Taxon: Accessories

Properties

Free-form attribute table:

Product → ProductProperty(property: Property("Material"), value: "Cotton")

Properties show up on the storefront's spec table. Distinct from Metafield — properties are user-visible product details; metafields are typically internal custom data.

Images

Spree uses ActiveStorage for images attached to Variants and Products. Variant-level images override product-level for that specific SKU. Image variants (resizing) are computed lazily by ActiveStorage with libvips / ImageMagick.

Pricing Model

• One Price row per (Variant, Currency).
• PriceList (v5.3+) lets you define an override list scoped to a CustomerGroup, Country, or Store. The pricing resolver picks the right price by precedence: user's CustomerGroup → Store's PriceList → default Price.

Multi-Currency

Activate currencies on the Store; create one Price per Variant per Currency. The storefront and APIs select the right Price based on Store#default_currency or the user's selected currency.

Search Backends

| Backend | Notes | |---------|-------| | MeiliSearch (v5.4+, recommended) | Faceted, typo-tolerant, fast | | Algolia (community gem) | Hosted, mature | | PostgreSQL full-text | Fallback / dev |

The v5.4 spree gem wires MeiliSearch by default when the env vars are present.

Product Lifecycle

| Event | Cause | |-------|-------| | product.activate | Product made available | | product.archive | Product hidden (not deleted — preserves order history) | | product.out_of_stock | Inventory hit zero | | product.back_in_stock | Inventory restored |

Use archive instead of destroy — preserves order history.

CSV Import/Export

v5.0+ ships CSV import/export for products, customers, orders. Background-job-driven (Sidekiq), reports errors per row.

Implementation Guidance

Creating a Product Programmatically

product = Spree::Product.create!(
  name: 'Classic Tee',
  description: '100% cotton',
  price: 19.99,
  shipping_category: Spree::ShippingCategory.first,
  tax_category: Spree::TaxCategory.find_by(name: 'Clothing'),
  available_on: Time.current,
  stores: [Spree::Store.default]
)

Then add option types, option values, and variants:

size = Spree::OptionType.create!(name: 'tshirt-size', presentation: 'Size')
size.option_values.create!([
  { name: 'small', presentation: 'S' },
  { name: 'medium', presentation: 'M' },
  { name: 'large', presentation: 'L' }
])

product.option_types << size

product.variants.create!(
  sku: 'TEE-S',
  option_values: [size.option_values.find_by(name: 'small')],
  price: 19.99
)

Tagging Products to Taxons

taxon = Spree::Taxon.find_by(name: 'Shirts')
product.taxons << taxon

Reading Prices Across Currencies

product.master.price_in('USD').amount  # 19.99
product.master.price_in('EUR').display_price  # "€18.50"

Variant-Aware Pricing With PriceList (v5.3+)

price = Spree::Pricing::PriceFinder.new(
  variant: variant, store: store, user: user, currency: 'USD'
).call

Verify the exact service class name in the version you're on.

Search Indexing

MeiliSearch indexing is event-driven — product.updated, product.activate, etc., enqueue background jobs. Force reindex:

bin/rails spree:search:reindex

Verify the exact rake task name in the current release.

CSV Import

bin/rails console
> Spree::ImportCsvJob.perform_later('products', file_path: '/path/to/products.csv')

Or via admin: Products → Import. Verify the job class name in the live code.

Storefront Product Page

In the Next.js storefront, the product page is built from API v3 calls:

// Server component
const product = await spree.products.find(slug, { include: 'variants,images,taxons' });

(Pseudo — verify against @spree/sdk docs.)

Common Pitfalls

• Destroying products instead of archiving — breaks order history and reports.
• Forgetting per-currency Prices — variants without a Price in the current currency become invisible.
• Adding option types after variants exist — new option types invalidate existing variant uniqueness; either rebuild variants or use a migration script.
• Reindex storms — bulk updates fire many product.updated events; throttle the search-indexing subscriber for batch operations.
• Master variant edits not reflecting on storefront — caches. Bust with Spree::Cache.clear or version-bumped cache keys.

Always verify model relationships and column names against the live spree gem source — catalog modeling evolves more than the order graph.