# Metafield representation object

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These Shopify REST-backed Liquid objects are legacy. The product and variant Liquid objects no longer work, and Shopify is phasing out the REST Admin API that these objects depend on. Use [GraphQL](/core/actions/shopify.md#graphql) for new work; see the [Shopify REST Admin API notice](/platform/liquid/objects/shopify.md) and [migration guides](/resources/converting-tasks-from-shopify-rest-to-graphql.md).
{% endhint %}

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This page is part of a series: see [Metafields](/platform/liquid/objects/shopify/metafields.md) for an overview on how Mechanic's Liquid implementation thinks about metafields.
{% endhint %}

Mechanic's metafield representation object mirrors [Shopify's metafield Liquid object](https://shopify.dev/api/liquid/objects/metafield), in that it makes the metafield type and value easily available, in a usable form. It is not the same as Mechanic's [metafield object](/platform/liquid/objects/shopify/metafields/metafield-object.md), which contains the REST Admin API representation of a metafield.

{% hint style="warning" %}
Metafield representation objects are only available for modern metafield types. They are not available for [deprecated metafields](https://shopify.dev/api/liquid/objects/metafield#deprecated-metafields) (i.e. json\_string, number, and string).
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## What it contains

A metafield representation object always contains these three properties:

* `type` — the type of the metafield (see [Shopify's reference list](https://shopify.dev/apps/metafields/definitions/types))
* `value` — the parsed, appropriately-typed value of the metafield
* `metafield` — the source [metafield object](/platform/liquid/objects/shopify/metafields/metafield-object.md), useful for retrieving the metafield ID

### Resource references

For reference types that map to a REST API resource (e.g. page\_reference, product\_reference, and variant\_reference), a metafield representation object *also* contains a property named after the resource in question.

For example, a product\_reference metafield representation object contains a `product` property, which holds the associated [product object](/platform/liquid/objects/shopify/product.md). This means that the referenced product may be retrieved using `resource.metafields.namespace.key.product`.

## How to access it

A metafield representation object can only be retrieved via [metafield collection](/platform/liquid/objects/shopify/metafields/metafield-collection.md) lookup: `resource.metafields.namespace.key`.


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