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Setting Up Multi-Recipient Checkout on a Vintage Shopify Theme

Add Send To Many's multi-recipient checkout and inquiry form to a vintage Shopify theme. Convert your cart to a JSON template and create JSON page templates so app blocks work.

Send To Many's checkout and inquiry form install as theme app blocks, which require Shopify's Online Store 2.0 JSON templates. If your store runs a vintage theme (a theme built before Online Store 2.0 that uses Liquid templates like cart.liquid), the app blocks won't appear in the theme editor until the relevant templates are converted to JSON. The good news: you don't need to replace your theme. Converting just the templates Send To Many uses takes a few minutes.

This guide walks through the three pieces: switching your cart template to JSON, adding the checkout app block on a new JSON page template, and creating a JSON page template for the inquiry form.

How JSON Templates Differ from Liquid​

A Liquid template like cart.liquid contains all the markup for the page in a single file. A JSON template is just configuration: it lists which sections appear on the page and in what order, and all markup lives in the section files those entries reference. App blocks plug into sections, so Shopify only supports them on JSON templates.

When both cart.liquid and cart.json exist in a theme, Shopify uses the JSON version. That means you can add JSON templates without deleting your Liquid files.

Before You Start​

  • Duplicate your live theme (Online Store → Themes → … → Duplicate) and make these changes on the copy. Publish it once you've previewed everything.
  • If your cart page has custom Liquid (special messaging, upsells, third-party scripts), note where it lives. Anything sitting directly in cart.liquid will need a home in a section after the switch.

Step 1: Switch Your Cart Template to JSON​

  1. In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store → Themes → … → Edit code.
  2. In the Templates folder, check what you have. A vintage theme typically has cart.liquid and no cart.json.
  3. Click Add a new template. Choose cart as the type and JSON as the template type, and name it cart. Shopify creates cart.json and scaffolds it with your theme's main cart sections.
  4. Preview your cart page. It should render from the new JSON template. If custom content from cart.liquid is missing, move that markup into a section and add the section to cart.json.

Step 2: Add the Checkout App Block​

With JSON templates enabled, the install works the same as on any modern theme:

  1. In Edit code, click Add a new template. Choose page as the type and JSON as the template type, and name it something like multi-recipient-checkout.
  2. Open the theme editor (Online Store → Themes → Customize), select the new page template from the page selector, and add the Multi Recipient Cart v2 app block.
  3. Go to Online Store → Pages, create a page (e.g., "Send to Multiple Recipients"), and assign the new template in the Theme template dropdown.
  4. Back in the theme editor, open your cart template (now running on cart.json) and add the Multi Checkout Button app block so shoppers can reach your multi-recipient checkout from the cart.

For block settings (layout, colors, add-ons, and configurations), see Installing the App in Your Shopify Theme.

Step 3: Create a JSON Page Template for the Inquiry Form​

The inquiry form follows the same pattern:

  1. In Edit code, click Add a new template. Choose page and JSON, and name it something like corporate-gifting. Shopify creates page.corporate-gifting.json.
  2. In the theme editor, select the new template and add the Send To Many inquiry form section.
  3. Create or edit the page under Online Store → Pages and assign the template.

The form inherits your theme's typography and colors by default. See Adding the Inquiry Form to Your Storefront for placement options and multiple form configurations.

Migrating from Giftship​

Remove Giftship before going live

If you're switching from Giftship, its scripts and snippets should be removed from the cart template before you publish the updated theme. Work through the cleanup below.

  1. Remove the Giftship scripts app extension. In the theme editor, open App embeds (the puzzle-piece icon in the left sidebar) and toggle off any Giftship entries.
  2. Remove Giftship blocks from the cart. In the theme editor, open the Cart page and remove any Giftship app block or section. This updates cart.json so Giftship stops rendering on the cart.
  3. Replace Giftship content in your cart code. In Edit code, search for giftship and remove the references from your cart sections or old cart.liquid. Shopify's Sidekick or dev assistant can help here: ask it to find and rewrite the code that renders Giftship content so your cart works without it.
  4. Replace Giftship's gift message and shipping date fields if you used them. If Giftship's widget collected a gift message or shipping date on your product pages or cart page, removing the scripts app extension removes those fields too. Send To Many's single-order gift widget collects the same values on your cart page, using the shipping date rules you've configured in the app.

Because your cart now runs on cart.json and its referenced sections, double-check that none of those sections still call a Giftship snippet.

Next Steps​

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