A lot is product of generative synthetic intelligence’s influence on search, content material, and processes, nevertheless it’s additionally a potent coding device that would assist ecommerce companies of all sizes.
Whereas they’ve but to remodel a novice right into a grasp programmer, ChatGPT and its opponents can produce purposeful code that entrepreneurs and retailers can paste into apps and automation workflows.
An instance could make the purpose.
Posting to Shopify Weblog
The content-then-commerce mannequin is massive enterprise. Content material attracts readers to transform into patrons. Nonetheless, Shopify retailers typically encounter an issue.
Whereas it excels at many issues, Shopify’s default weblog editor — assume content material engine — lacks sturdy options.
As an example, a YouTube URL within the weblog editor produces nothing greater than textual content. It doesn’t routinely broaden right into a video, requiring retailers to stick HTML for that function.
In distinction, the identical YouTube URL within the WordPress.com editor leads to a responsive embedded video that shrinks and expands to match a customer’s display. That is the habits most content material entrepreneurs anticipate.
The Shopify weblog editor requires customers to stick HTML for an embedded video.
An answer is bypassing the Shopify editor altogether. What if a marketer may compose content material in a device reminiscent of Google Docs — with photographs, tables, and YouTube movies — after which auto-load it right into a Shopify weblog?
I prompted ChatGPT to generate the code for simply such an app.
The AI Answer
ChatGPT’s answer had two elements.
Apps Script is accessible from any Google Doc and offers a improvement setting whereby Google software programming interfaces (APIs) can be found as companies. The code used is actually JavaScript.
Google Apps Script is a improvement setting out there in Google Docs and different Google purposes.
ChatGPT produced detailed code that may very well be copied and pasted into the Apps Script’s setting, itemizing the method step-by-step.
ChatGPT’s Apps Script had six features.
- postArticleToShopify() — this was the first operate. It calls the supporting features and finally connects to the Shopify API.
- convertBodyToHTML(physique) — given the doc physique, this operate does many of the work. It identifies if a specific component within the doc physique is a bulleted checklist, a desk, or a paragraph. Paragraphs are difficult since they will include textual content, headings, photographs, or a hyperlink.
- extractYouTubeVideoId(url) — finds the YouTube ID in a URL string.
- generateYouTubeEmbed(videoId) — given a YouTube video ID, this operate builds a set of HTML tags that lead to a responsive embedded video.
- formatCurrentDate() — is a helper operate that retrieves and codecs the present date into the publication date for the weblog submit.
- escapeHTML(textual content) — is a helper operate that removes a set of characters that would trigger issues when the HTML is distributed to Shopify’s API.
Essentially the most stunning a part of ChatGPT’s code technology was its familiarity with the App Script and Shopify API necessities. ChatGPT knew that Shopify’s API couldn’t obtain a picture as a file however needed to be encoded and handed as information.
Customized Shopify App
There was one final step. In Shopify, I needed to navigate to the “Apps and gross sales channels” tab within the platform’s settings. From there, I created, approved, and put in a customized app. The aim was to gather an API entry token permitting the App Script to submit content material to the Shopify Weblog.
Creating the customized app offered entry to the API token.
Content material Posted
In lower than half-hour and ChatGPT’s code, I accomplished a working answer to compose content material in a Google Doc and have it seem on Shopify.
ChatGPT’s code reworked a Google Doc into a whole weblog submit in Shopify.
The method is repeatable. Anybody may compose content material in Google Docs — with photographs, tables, and YouTube URLs — and produce a clear and responsive weblog submit in Shopify.
Here’s a PDF of ChatGPT’s full Apps Script.
Implications
ChatGPT’s preliminary answer had just a few glitches.
- ChatGPT didn’t perceive exactly how Google Doc recordsdata are structured. Its preliminary code seemed for photographs and hyperlinks on the identical degree of the doc hierarchy as a desk or paragraph. In follow, these components have been inside a paragraph component, i.e., youngsters of a paragraph component.
- When it generated the operate to create the responsive HTML for the YouTube video, ChatGPT loaded the picture twice. Altering the variable task solved the difficulty.
- The code will not be excellent. In some locations, it ought to be refactored to enhance readability and performance.
- The Shopify API required a weblog ID that was not straightforward to retrieve. In the end, I used the API and a improvement device known as Postman to acquire it.
Nonetheless, the instance exhibits ChatGPT can generate helpful code, particularly for a consumer with some technical know-how. What’s extra, the method was quick. I’ve written many Apps Scripts. This one would have taken for much longer with out ChatGPT.
