Liquid

Everything in Mechanic is about tasks, and tasks are written in Liquid – the same template language that Shopify uses for their online store themes, and for many other purposes.

Fundamentally, task code is a Liquid template for rendering JSON instructions for actions. In the same way that a Liquid theme might take Shopify store data and render HTML for a web browser, Mechanic task code takes incoming events, and uses them as variables to render JSON objects, defining work to be performed.

One Liquid, many implementations

Open-source Liquid is a template language created by Shopify, used by many developers for many projects and products in, around, and beyond Shopify. (Learn the basics here!)

Shopify Liquid is the implementation of open-source Liquid used within Shopify itself, including Shopify's Online Store themes. Shopify Liquid contains many filters and objects that are not a part of open-source Liquid.

Mechanic Liquid is the implementation of open-source Liquid used here, within Mechanic. It contains many filters and objects that are unique to Mechanic, in addition to some unique language features.

• Mechanic filters make it easier to manage data in the context of Mechanic tasks. Mechanic Liquid also includes support for many Shopify Liquid filters!

• Mechanic keyword literals create support for arrays and hashes.

• Mechanic objects represent specific Mechanic and Shopify resources.

• Mechanic tags make it easier for task writers to render JSON objects. These tags include action, log, and error. We've also enhanced the assign tag to support assigning values within arrays and hashes.