Shopify Inventory Update Error Handling

POST API

https://{{store-name}}.myshopify.com/admin/api/2021-04/inventory_levels/set.json

Following Status Codes are divided into 2 categories as shown below

Retryable	Non-Retryable

Retryable	Non-Retryable
401, 429, 5XX	400, 403, 406, 422

POSSIBLE ERROR RESPONSES

In the following table, the Maximum number of cases are covered with Request, Response with Status Code and the Possible Reason behind these errors.

Case #	REQUEST	RESPONSE STATUS CODE	POSSIBLE REASON	Retryable

Case #	REQUEST	RESPONSE STATUS CODE	POSSIBLE REASON	Retryable
#1	“location_id“ key name is malformed	400 BAD REQUEST	Format of the Parameter key required by Shopify is wrong	No
#2	“available“ key name is malformed	400 BAD REQUEST	Format of the Parameter key required by Shopify is wrong	No
#3	“available“ key value is passed in incorrect format. For e.g Float, Decimal format	400 BAD REQUEST	Shopify needs value in Integer Format, however it is passed in either Float format or Decimal format	No
#4	No Access Token provided	401 UNAUTHORIZED	Shopify API HTTP REQUESTS requires access token for authentication which is validated by Shopify Access Token
#5	Invalid Access Token provided	401 UNAUTHORIZED	Access token is provided but it is not Valid. Either the Access Token is malformed or it is expired. Also, Access token can be of another Shopify Store
#6	Not having required Scopes in the Access Token to make HTTP REQUEST on an API	403 FORBIDDEN	Need to generate new Access Token with valid Scopes for the requred API to make HTTP REQUEST
#7	“location_id“ value is passed	404 NOT FOUND	The locationID does not exist in the shopify store The locationID has been deactivated by the Client
#8	“inventory_item_id“ value is passed	404 NOT FOUND	The product has been deleted by the client on Shopify Store
#9	“store name“ passed for URL preparation	404 NOT FOUND	Store name changed by the client (Domain name changed)
#10		422 Unprocessable Entity	Inventory Item does not have inventory tracking enabled
#10	Sending Inventory updates more than the Shopify Store throtlling limit	429 TOO MANY REQUESTS	Shopify sets throttling limit on the basis of Subscribed Plans. For e.g Basic Plan for Shopify Store has 2 requests/second throttling limit. Exceeding it will result into 429 Error
#11	HTTP Request is correct but 5XX is returned by Shopify	5XX Errors	These errors are returned by Shopify in case of API Service is unavailable

1. 400 BAD REQUESTS:

Definition: Generally it occurs due to Malformed Request Syntax. Without modifying or rectifying the syntax/request, the server will continue giving 400 Bad Request.

Case #1: When the wrong parameter key “available“ is passed

REQUEST

{
    "inventory_item_id": "42099572998342",
    "availabl": 150,
    "location_id": "59476213954"
}

RESPONSE

STATUS CODE: 400 Bad Request

{
    "errors": {
        "available": "Required parameter missing or invalid"
    }
}

Case #2: When the wrong parameter key “location_id“ is passed

REQUEST

{
    "inventory_item_id": "42099572998342",
    "available": 150,
    "location_i": "59476213954"
}

RESPONSE

STATUS CODE: 400 Bad Request

{
    "errors": {
        "location_id": "Required parameter missing or invalid"
    }
}

Case #3: When the parameter value of “available“ is passed in wrong the format

REQUEST

{
    "inventory_item_id": 41940541669570,
    "available": 150.0,
    "location_id": 59476213954
}

RESPONSE

STATUS CODE: 400 Bad Request

{
    "errors": {
        "available": "expected Float to be a Integer"
    }
}

2. 401 UNAUTHORIZED:

Definition: We have two Scenarios here given as following:

Case a. Credentials Not Provided (Access Token not Provided): If the credentials are not provided while making the HTTP Request, then the server will refuse to accept and will throw 401 Unauthorized error. For e.g: Authentication Token is not provided then the server will not accept the HTTP request.

RESPONSE

STATUS CODE: 401 Unauthorized

{
    "errors": "[API] Invalid API key or access token (unrecognized login or wrong password)"
}

Case b. Credentials Are Provided (Invalid Access Token or Malformed Access Token): If the credentials are provided but still server is throwing 401 Unauthorized error then its most likely that the Authentication token is expired and we need to generate a new Access Token using the Refresh Token which is saved while generating Authentication/Access Token for the very first time.

RESPONSE

STATUS CODE: 401 Unauthorized

{
    "errors": "[API] Invalid API key or access token (unrecognized login or wrong password)"
}

3. 402 PAYMENT REQUIRED:

Definition: The requested shop is currently frozen. The shop owner needs to log in to the shop's admin and pay the outstanding balance to unfreeze the shop.

RESPONSE

STATUS CODE: 402 Payment Required

**NOTE: Need to figure out how to get this error

4. 403 FORBIDDEN:

Definition: If the scopes related to inventory is not present in the Access token, then this error can occur.

RESPONSE

STATUS CODE: 403 Forbidden

{
    "errors": "[API] This action requires merchant approval for write_inventory scope."
}

5. 404 NOT FOUND:

Definition: If the following parameters required to make a HTTP request for update inventory API are not correct then a 404 NOT FOUND Error can take place:

inventory_item_id
location_id
store name

RESPONSE

STATUS CODE: 404 Not Found

6. 422 UNPROCESSABLE ENTITY

Definition: Inventory Item does not have inventory tracking enabled

RESPONSE

STATUS CODE: 422 UNPROCESSABLE ENTITY

{
    "Response": {
        "errors": [
            "Inventory item does not have inventory tracking enabled"
        ]
    },
    "statusCode": "422"
}

7. 429 TOO MANY REQUESTS:

Definition: The request was not accepted because the application has exceeded the rate limit. See the API Call Limit documentation for a breakdown of Shopify's rate-limiting mechanism.

RESPONSE

STATUS CODE: 429 TOO MANY REQUESTS

{
    "errors": "Exceeded 2 calls per second for api client. Reduce request rates to resume uninterrupted service."
}

8. 5XX RESPONSE CODE:

Definition: Following Possible 5XX errors can take place:

i. 500 Internal Server Error An internal error occurred in Shopify. Please post to the API & Technology forum so that Shopify staff can investigate.

ii. 501 Not Implemented The requested endpoint is not available on that particular shop, e.g. requesting access to a Plus-specific API on a non-Plus shop. This response may also indicate that this endpoint is reserved for future use.

iii. 503 Service Unavailable The server is currently unavailable. Check the status page for reported service outages.

iv. 504 Gateway Timeout The request could not complete in time. Shopify waits up to 10 seconds for a response. Try breaking it down in multiple smaller requests.

Draft: Proposed Solutions

1. 400 BAD REQUESTS: Configure Google Cloud Alert System

Resolution:

i. Check the correct syntax and set of values in the manual or online documentation which can be helpful before making a HTTP request, once the required format is achieved, the server will respond with the appropriate response.

ii. For failure case, configure google cloud alert system

Retry: Retrying again with the same request body will not solve the problem here, we need to achieve the correct format/syntax, then only we should make the HTTP request.

2. 401 UNAUTHORIZED: Configure Google Cloud Alert System

call GET /connection/{{connectionID}}/generateToken

call the connectionChannelData Method

Retry with new token

Log the response(success or failure) and retry only once

For failure case, configure google cloud alert system

Retry: Once the new Access Token is generated then we have to make the HTTP Request and the following Scenarios can take place:

i. Server throws 401 Unauthorized again, in this case, we just have to log the response and need to configure Google Alert System.

ii. Server gives 2XX Status Code, then Proceed as decided.

3. 402 PAYMENT REQUIRED: Configure Google Cloud Alert System

**NOTE: Need to figure out how to get this error

Resolution: Nothing to be done here.

Retry: No Retry in this case.

4. 403 FORBIDDEN: Configure Google Cloud Alert System

**NOTE: Need to generate a token which does not have the required scope of the Shopify API

Resolution: To rectify 403, Possible scenarios and steps can take place:

i. Check the appropriate scopes which are required to perform the HTTP Request. It is necessary to have the valid scopes in the token with which the HTTP Requests are taking place. Without Appropriate and required scopes, HTTP Requests will not succeed and will continue giving 403 Forbidden Error.

ii. Scopes are valid in the token while making the HTTP Request but the Server is still throwing 403 Forbidden Error due to invalid HTTP Method defined. For e.g, if the API does not require any Request Body or it is just a GET Request API, then it is necessary to check the HTTP Method set for this API in the code. If the HTTP Method is set other than GET, let's say PUT, POST, DELETE etc then the Server will continue giving 403 Status Code

Retry: No Retry in this case because retrying the same HTTP request without auditing the code or Access Token will not help in succeeding.

5. 404 NOT FOUND: Configure Google Cloud Alert System

Resolution: We need to find the correct parameters passed while making the HTTP Request, until and unless we have the correct URL and the correct Parameters to pass in the Request, HTTP 404 NOT FOUND Error will continue coming and will not succeed on Retry.

Retry: No Retry in this case until we have the correct URL and Correct Parameters to pass.

5. 422 UNPROCESSABLE ENTITY: Configure Google Cloud Alert System

Resolution: Possible Steps can be taken in this case as given below:

{
    "Response": {
        "errors": [
            "Inventory item does not have inventory tracking enabled"
        ]
    },
    "statusCode": "422"
}

I. Check why Inventory tracking is not enabled for the inventory_item_id

6. 429 TOO MANY REQUESTS: Configure Google Cloud Alert System

Resolution: Possible Steps can be taken in this case as given below:

i. Send the inventory updates to Shopify one by one as Shopify does not take inventory updates in bulk.

ii. Let's say we have 5 SKUs of which inventory updates need to be sent to Shopify and Out of those 5, In 2 SKUs we got 429 TOO MANY REQUESTS Error from Shopify stating that we have exceeded the throttling limit and on retrying the same request will not help us in succeeding.

iii. Route these 2 SKUs with the required parameters to a PubSub topic adding the same listener which listens to the same Inventory updates from WMS.

iv. Now these 2 SKUs will come back to the same place and by the time this request gets processed, we would not be crossing that throttling limit set by Shopify and the Inventory updates will be sent easily.

v. It is likely that more number of SKUs can be present in the same event coming from WMS, however, this solution will work till then 429 comes in any case and the same number of SKUs will come back again to the same listener to process them and send inventory updates to Shopify.

Retry: No Retry in this case because we need to perform the steps given in the Resolution steps and need to log the response and Configure Google Alert System.

6. 5XX Errors: Configure Google Cloud Alert System

Apps and Automations

Shopify Inventory Update Error Handling

POST API

POSSIBLE ERROR RESPONSES

1. 400 BAD REQUESTS:

2. 401 UNAUTHORIZED:

3. 402 PAYMENT REQUIRED:

4. 403 FORBIDDEN:

5. 404 NOT FOUND:

7. 429 TOO MANY REQUESTS:

8. 5XX RESPONSE CODE:

Draft: Proposed Solutions

1. 400 BAD REQUESTS: Configure Google Cloud Alert System

2. 401 UNAUTHORIZED: Configure Google Cloud Alert System

3. 402 PAYMENT REQUIRED: Configure Google Cloud Alert System

4. 403 FORBIDDEN: Configure Google Cloud Alert System

5. 404 NOT FOUND: Configure Google Cloud Alert System

5. 422 UNPROCESSABLE ENTITY: Configure Google Cloud Alert System

6. 429 TOO MANY REQUESTS: Configure Google Cloud Alert System

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