Configuring and Managing Custom Applications

Learn how to configure and manage Custom Applications in your Organization.

This document refers to the new Organization-level Custom Applications. If you have existing Custom Applications configured in Settings > Custom Applications, you must migrate them. To know more about migrating Custom Applications, refer to the migration document.

Working with Custom Applications involves two phases: development and production usage.

As a developer, you begin with the local development of your Custom Application. For more information, refer to Develop applications for the Merchant Center.

This document describes the necessary steps to configure and install your Custom Application in the Merchant Center. The process involves:

  1. Configuring the Custom Application for your Organization.
  2. Installing the Custom Application to make it accessible in the Projects of your Organization.

Configuring Custom Applications

Adding a Custom Application

  1. Click the profile icon and select Manage Organizations & Teams.

  2. Select the Organization for which you wish to configure a Custom Application.

  3. Navigate to the Custom Applications tab.

  4. Click Configure Custom Applications.

    At this point, you can add a contact email address of the Custom Application's developer or maintainers. Refer to Verifying contact email address for more details.

  5. Click Add a Custom Application.

  6. Fill out the form to configure a new Custom Application. Specify the same information that you have previously defined in the local Custom Application config file.

  7. Click Add Custom Application.

Now, the configuration is stored in the Merchant Center and a Custom Application entity is created. The Custom Application is currently in the Draft state.

A Custom Application in the Draft state.

A Custom Application has two states:

  • Draft: The Custom Application is not ready to be installed. Administrators can still apply changes.
  • Ready: The Custom Application is ready to be installed in one or more Projects of an Organization where you have administrator rights. Once installed, the Organization's users can access the application according to their Team's permissions.

Before being able to proceed with the installation step, you need to perform the following actions:

Verifying contact email address

Working on Custom Applications requires commercetools to contact the developers or owners of Custom Applications from time to time, primarily for updates and support purposes. Hence, we require that every Organization using Custom Applications provides a valid and verified contact email address.

To add a new email address:

  1. In the Configure Custom Applications screen click Add new email address.
  2. Put in a valid email address.

To update an existing email address:

  1. Click the edit icon in the Contact email address for support section.
  2. Specify the email address in the Edit contact email address dialog.
  3. Click Save.

You will receive an email to the provided address. Click the verification link.

In case you don't receive an email, please check if you've provided a valid address. If incorrect, update the address and click Resend verification email.

The previously validated email address will remain valid till the new email address is verified.

Assigning the Application ID

Once you add a new Custom Application, a unique ID is generated for the Custom Application. Copy the Application ID and define it in the Custom Application Config.
Make sure that the Custom Application then is (re)deployed with the application ID.

Moving the Custom Applications to the Ready state

By default, a Custom Application is in the Draft state. It signifies that the owners or developers are finalizing the development and configuration of the Custom Application.

After adding a Custom Application, you must move it to the Ready state so that it can be installed in an Organization. See Installing a Custom Application.

Click the State drop-down menu, choose Ready.

Click Confirm in the confirmation dialog. The Custom Application is now Ready for installation.

Moving the Custom Applications to the Draft state

  • The Custom Application cannot be installed in any Organization while in the Draft state.
  • Changing state from Ready to Draft results in the Custom Application being uninstalled from all Organizations and Projects.

Click the State drop-down menu, choose Draft.

The Custom Application is now in the Draft state. While in this state, you can update the configurations or delete the Custom Application.

Updating Custom Application permissions

You can modify the permissions of your Custom Applications in both Draft and Ready states. This is useful in cases where the Custom Application needs to make additional API requests (thus requiring more OAuth Scopes) or if you want to configure additional permission groups or remove unused OAuth Scopes.

Administrators receive email notifications about any permission updates to their installed Custom Applications.

Use caution when editing permissions of a Custom Application in the Ready state. A confirmation prompt will appear to ensure awareness of the changes.

Ensure your Custom Application's code can adapt to these changes to maintain its functionality.

Deleting a Custom Application

You can delete a Custom Application only when it is in the Draft state. Refer to Moving the Custom Applications to the Draft state for more details.

Click the delete icon.

Further, click Confirm in the Delete Custom Applications dialog.

The Custom Application will then be removed from the Configured Custom Applications: Draft section.

Managing Custom Applications

Installing a Custom Application

Install the Custom Application to make it accessible in the Projects of your Organization.

A Custom Application can be installed in multiple Organizations where you have administrator rights.

  1. Click the profile icon and select Manage Organizations & Teams.

  2. Select the Organization for which you wish to install a Custom Application.

  3. Navigate to the Custom Applications tab.

  4. Click Manage project access.
    This page shows the Custom Applications that have been Installed in the current Organization.
    In addition, you can see the list of Custom Applications that are Ready for installation and have not been installed yet in the current Organization. The list might include Custom Applications defined in other Organizations where you have administrator rights.

    A Custom Applications ready for installation.

  5. Choose a Custom Application from the Ready for installation section. Refer to Moving the Custom Application to the Ready state for more details.

The installation process can also be triggered by clicking on the Install application button in the configuration details page:

  1. Click the profile icon and select Manage Organizations & Teams.

  2. Select the Organization for which you wish to install a Custom Application.

  3. Navigate to the Custom Applications tab.

  4. Click Configure Custom Applications.

  5. Select a Custom Application from the Configured Custom Applications: Ready section.

  6. Click Install application.

  7. Select an Organization to install the Custom Application. Only Organizations where you have administrator rights can be selected.

    Installing the Custom Application from the configuration details page.

  1. Review the permissions listed in the Requested permissions section. A user must have at least View permission to access the Custom Application in the Merchant Center.

  2. In the Projects access section, you can either choose to grant Projects access for:

    • all the current Projects of the Organization. To do so, choose Install for all projects of this organization.
    • selected Projects of the Organization. To do so, choose Install for selected projects only and then select the Projects from the Select projects drop-down list.
  3. Click Save.

You can now access the Custom Application within the respective Merchant Center Projects.

Depending on the setup of your Organization, you can assign Team permissions to your Teams.

By default, the administrators Team has access to the installed Custom Applications.

Updating Projects access

You can either grant or revoke Projects access for a Custom Application.

  1. Click the profile icon and select Manage Organizations & Teams.

  2. Select the Organization.

  3. Navigate to the Custom Applications tab.

  4. Click Manage project access.

  5. Choose the Custom Application.

  6. In the Projects access section of the Custom Application, choose:

    • Install for all projects of this organization to grant access for all the current Projects of the Organization.
    • Install for selected projects only to grant Projects access for selected Projects of the Organization and then select the Projects from the Select projects drop-down list. To revoke access for selected Projects of the Organization, click the close icon (Revoke access) next to the desired Project in the projects selected list.
  7. Click Save.

Assigning Team permissions

To grant access to Custom Applications to individual Teams, you must configure each Team's permissions.

  1. Click the profile icon and select Manage Organizations & Teams.

  2. Select your Organization.

  3. Choose a Team and navigate to the Permissions tab.

  4. Select the desired Project from the Select project drop-down.

    Make sure to select Projects that have been granted access to the Custom Application.

  5. In the Custom Applications section, choose the desired Custom Application and configure the permissions for the Team. A Custom Application always has a default permission group. At the very minimum, you need to assign View only to allow users to access the application. Additionally, you can use more granular permission groups to cover specific business requirements.

  • View only: view resources in a Custom Application.
  • View and edit: view, create, modify, and delete resources in a Custom Application.

Based on the permissions, members of the Team can view and access the Custom Application in the Merchant Center.

Uninstalling a Custom Application

To remove a Custom Application from all the Projects in an Organization:

  1. Click the profile icon and select Manage Organizations & Teams.
  2. Select the Organization for which you wish to uninstall a Custom Application.
  3. Navigate to the Custom Applications tab.
  4. Click Manage project access.
  5. Choose a Custom Application from the Installed section.
  6. Click Uninstall.
  7. Click Confirm in the Uninstall the Custom Application dialog.

Managing Custom Applications deployment previews

Deployment previews let you preview changes to your Custom Applications using a unique URL. For more information, see Deployment previews.

Custom Application deployment previews tab

Adding a deployment preview

To add a deployment preview, follow the steps below:

  1. Click the profile icon and select Manage Organizations & Teams.
  2. Select the Organization for which you wish to add a Custom Application deployment preview.
  3. Navigate to the Custom Applications tab.
  4. Click Configure Custom Applications.
  5. Select a Custom Application from the Configured Custom Applications: Ready section.
  6. Select Deployment Previews.
  7. Click Add deployment preview.
  8. Fill out the form with a unique Alias and Application URL.
  9. Click Save.

To access the deployment preview, click the link under the Preview URL heading. A new browser tab opens to the mc-preview domain at the deployment preview alias location. Then, navigate to the Custom Application using the Merchant Center main navigation.

Updating a deployment preview

To update a Custom Application deployment preview:

  1. Click the profile icon and select Manage Organizations & Teams.
  2. Select the Organization for which you wish to update a Custom Application deployment preview.
  3. Navigate to the Custom Applications tab.
  4. Click Configure Custom Applications.
  5. Select a Custom Application from the Configured Custom Applications: Ready section.
  6. Select Deployment Previews.
  7. Click Edit deployment preview on the deployment preview you want to update.
  8. Fill out the form with new values.
  9. Click Save.

You can't update a deployment preview's alias. To use a different alias, create a new deployment preview with the desired alias and delete the old one.

Deleting a deployment preview

To delete a Custom Application deployment preview:

  1. Click the profile icon and select Manage Organizations & Teams.
  2. Select the Organization for which you wish to delete a Custom Application deployment preview.
  3. Navigate to the Custom Applications tab.
  4. Click Configure Custom Applications.
  5. Select a Custom Application from the Configured Custom Applications: Ready section.
  6. Select Deployment Previews.
  7. Click Delete deployment preview on the deployment preview you want to delete.
  8. Click Confirm in the Delete Deployment Preview dialog.