Metafields are a way to add arbitrary as well as defined data to different entities in the Flipdish system. They are extremely useful when building an integration or custom consumer application on top of the Flipdish platform. With metafields, you can define a type of field you'd like your team, or 3rd parties, to be able to capture and propagate throughout the Flipdish system. 

How to create a metafield for products or groups

1. In your Flipdish Portal, navigate to settings -> metafields
2. Select the entity for which you'd like to configure a metafield for
3. Click "Add definition"
4. Give your metafield values for the following:
   1. Name
   2. Namespace and key
   3. Description (optional)
   4. Type
5. Click Save

Your metafield has now been created!

How to add metadata to a catalog item?

Once you have a metafield defined for a catalog group or item, you will then see a field for that metafield in the relevant edit pages for items or groups in your Flipdish Portal. 

What is a Flipdish-defined metafield?

Flipdish has defined a number of metafields already that you might like to take advantage of. When creating a metafield, as you type the name, you'll see a list of pre-defined metafields for your convenience. Often, these pre-defined metafields have specific logic or UI in the Flipdish system. For instance, internal notes has a specific place that it'll show up when you define them for your catalog products or modifiers. Calories also has a specific place that they'll appear in your consumer experience. 

List of Flipdish-defined metafields

• Internal notes

More coming soon

What types of metafields can I define?

You can specify metafields of two types

1. Single line string
2. Multi line string

More coming soon

Where is metadata sent?

Metadata added to products is currently included in a number of places.

1. Order webhook events. When the product is ordered as part of the order, its metadata is included in the JSON included in the webhook. 
2. The menu JSON. This makes it easy to build a custom consumer experience for your business. 

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