Building Channels Quick Start

This advanced, quick-start tutorial is for BigCommerce partners wishing to market their solution within Channel Manager’s Create Channel flow. For an introduction to channels on BigCommerce, see Channels Overview.

Prerequisites

• Experience building apps
• Familiarity with Channels Toolkit

Create a channel

Apps selected as solutions within the Create Channel flow must generate a basic channel. This setup automatically links the app to the newly created channel, allowing it to appear in the Channel Manager as managing a specific channel. It also enhances the app’s native look and feel for merchants. To modify UI sections, use the Create a channel menu endpoint.

To create a channel, send a POST request to /v3/channels.

POST https://api.bigcommerce.com/stores/{{STORE_HASH}}/v3/channels
X-Auth-Token: {{ACCESS_TOKEN}}
Content-Type: application/json
Accept: application/json
{
  "name": "Solution Name",
  "type": "storefront",
  "platform": "drupal",
  "external_id": "",
  "is_enabled": true,
  "is_listable_from_ui": true,
  "is_visible": true
}

Create a channel with navigation

We recommend that apps also create navigation sections to better integrate the app’s interface within the BigCommerce control panel.

To create a channel with navigation, use the Channel Menus API after creating a channel record.

POST https://api.bigcommerce.com/stores/{{STORE_HASH}}/v3/channels/{{CHANNEL_ID}}/channel-menus
X-Auth-Token: {{ACCESS_TOKEN}}
Content-Type: application/json
Accept: application/json
{
    "bigcommerce_protected_app_sections": [
      "domains",
      "currencies",
      "storefront_settings"
    ],
    "custom_app_sections": [
      {
        "title": "Overview",
        "query_path": "overview"
      }
    ]  
}

Related resources

Articles

• Channels Overview
• Find an App’s ID
• Build a Storefront Channel

Endpoints

• Channels API Reference