Feature introduced in Broadcast 3.5

The first required metafield is theme.sibling_color

theme.sibling_color

For the content type, select 'Single line text' and choose the 'One value' option.

The metafield is also used for the swatch label. This will help with identifying the color version of the current product:

Start by defining a Product metafield. You can name it 'Sibling Color' so that you can more easily find it later.

Adding a description is optional but be sure to select the correct content type. Choose 'Single line text' and set it to 'One value':

Save the definition.

Check the saved metafield

Your final metafield should look like this:

Next step

We require a second metafield to be defined:

Feature introduced in Broadcast v3.5

There are two product metafields definitions required to connect each of the products together and generate linked swatches.

Use the metafields editor under Settings in the Shopify Admin:

Both metafields will be defined under the category of Products:

Next, create these two metafields:

Feature introduced in Broadcast 3.5

After creating the metafields in the previous steps, we complete the setup in the Product Admin. Add the associating information to each of the newly created metafields for each product.

Siblings color

This value is to identify the swatch (color) and label-name of the swatch.

A nice advantage when using Siblings is the ability to create descriptive names for each swatch.

You're not limited to basic color names:

Siblings collection

This metafield is used to map each product to the correct collection they belong to. Each group of products should have already been added to a collection.

For example, each product sibling for the product 'The All Day Shirt' belongs to a collection with the handle of sibling-collarless:

Collection handle

Be sure to obtain the correct collection handle. Start choosing the collection you created:

Next, click on the Edit button for the 'Search engine listing' block:

Select and copy the entire handle at the end of the URL:

Use this collection handle as the value in your 'Siblings collection' metafield:

Complete for all products

Update the values for each of the products in your Siblings Collection with:

1. Siblings color

2. Siblings

Once completed, the final step is to add the Siblings block to the Product pages section in the Theme Editor:

Broadcast includes the ability to link directly to other products as product swatches. The result is rich product detail pages that include swatches with images that represent each variant option.

This feature is called Siblings. When you view a sibling product, only the images associated with that 'variant' option, plus product details, and prices are shown:

Swatch images

Each product sibling appears automatically as a swatch:

Unique product images

Only product images for that color style are shown:

Individual products

Each sibling is an individual product. Using custom metafields, Broadcast will connect these products together and auto-generate the swatch images.

Example of individual products in product admin:

Feature introduced in Broadcast 3.5

The second required metafield is theme.siblings

theme.siblings

For the content type, select 'Single line text' and choose the 'One value' option.

This metafield maps each product to the correct collection handle for the siblings.

Start by defining a new Product metafield. You can name it 'Siblings' so that you can more easily find it later.

Adding a description is optional but be sure to select the correct content type. Choose 'Single line text' and set it to 'One value':

Save the definition.

Check the saved metafield

Your second metafield should look like this:

Product setup

Next, we will use these newly defined metafields in the Product Setup for each product:

Feature introduced in Broadcast 3.5

After creating the metafields and adding values to each of your products, the final step is to add the Siblings block to your Product template under the Product pages section:

Video demonstration: How to add and configure the Siblings block in the Theme Editor:

Product siblings by default are used to replace the color variant by grouping similar products and generating custom swatches for each color option.

If you would like to change the Siblings feature to replace to be used with other variant types instead, you can apply a global change to accommodate that.

Changing the Color label

In the above example, if your store is selling are artwork and would rather replace the Color label with Styles:

This can easily be done by editing the default theme content (also known as the language editor):

Change the value under General -> Siblings:

Change to the value you prefer:

Limitations

When changing the Siblings Label value in the default theme content, the change becomes global. The Siblings feature will always show the new value ('Style') for any Siblings products you build on your store.

You can still use regular Swatches for other products and display 'Color' as a label for those. However, any sibling products will have the new value 'Style' from our example.

Feature introduced in Broadcast v3.5

There are five main components to setting up product siblings:

1. Creating individual products. Each product can have variants like sizes.

2. Group the sibling products into a collection. This collection does not have to be displayed on your storefront.

3. Define two custom metafields to link each product together which will automatically create linked product swatches.

4. Update the metafield information for each product.

5. Add the Siblings block to the Product template in the Theme Editor.

Let's begin with the product setup:

Individual products

Create individual products that are similar. Begin with the same name for each product to help maintain naming consistency for each sibling:

Once connected as siblings, they will appear with linked swatches:

Product details

Each product can have its images, inventory, prices, description, and variants like Size:

Exclude a color variant

A Color variant isn't required as that will be replaced by image swatches and a metafield is used to display the color.

Collection for siblings

After creating the products, place them all in one collection. The collection does not need to be used for any other purpose. You can also hide it from the storefront view:

Metafields

The next step is to create two product metafields which are used to connect all the products and information together: