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The Publishing tab decides where a collection is shown: in the admin when you create orders, on your online store, both, or neither. A new collection is published to both channels. Unpublishing takes the collection off a channel and changes nothing else. The collection keeps its listings, stays editable in the admin, and returns to the channel the moment you switch it back on — so a seasonal collection goes off the online store for the off-season instead of being archived.

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Sales channels

The Sales channels card lists the channels the collection is currently shown on. Select Manage to open the drawer, switch each channel on or off, and Save. Both fields are true on a collection you create, in the admin and over the API alike, so a collection is published everywhere until you decide otherwise. The card lists only the channels that are on. Switch both off and it shows a warning in their place: “This collection isn’t shown on any sales channel.” Collections carry these two channels only. There is no in-store channel for a collection, unlike a listing, which also sells through check-in.

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What unpublishing hides

Unpublishing hides the collection, not its listings. Every listing keeps its own status and its own sales channels, stays orderable, and still appears in the storefront’s full listing grid — customers reach it by browsing or searching instead of through the collection. Off the online store, the collection disappears from:
  • the collections list and its own collection page, which returns a 404
  • the header navigation, the home page’s collection list, the featured collection block, and the footer
  • the collection dropdown in the storefront search bar
  • listings-by-collection queries — asking for the listings of an unpublished collection returns an empty result
Off the admin, the collection disappears from the Add listing browser in the order drawer. The collections table and the collection page still show it, so it stays editable while it is off the channel. The storefront editor is the deliberate exception: its collection pickers keep offering every collection, and the online store leaves an unpublished one out when the page renders. A collection you unpublish while it is selected in a home page block stays selected and stops rendering.

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Unpublishing is not archiving

The two are separate axes and both are reversible, but they answer different questions. Take a collection off the online store for a season by unpublishing it from that channel. Archive it when you are done with it altogether. Read more: Archiving and deletion.

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Via the API

Collections are the collections resource. Authenticate with the X-API-KEY header (see API Keys) and call:
  • GET /v1/admin/collections — list collections, each carrying salesChannelAdmin and salesChannelOnline
  • PATCH /v1/admin/collections/{id} — update a collection, including the two sales-channel fields
Both fields are optional on create and on update: omit one and it keeps its current value, omit both on create and the collection is published to both channels.
/internal/collections URLs still resolve for existing integrations. New integrations use the /v1/admin paths above.
See the API reference for the full request and response schemas — it is generated from the live API, so it always reflects the current fields.

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Visibility and Permissions

This tab is gated by catalog:collection, in the four operations — , , and . All four system roles — Owner, Admin, Manager and Member — hold every operation on this. Publishing has no permission of its own: it sits under the same gate as the General tab, so a custom role that can edit a collection can also publish it. A role without catalog:collection:view sees no Publishing tab, and an update to the sales-channel fields from a role without catalog:collection:manage is refused with a 403. For what each operation means and the full role matrix, see Users & Roles.

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Summary

  • Two channels — Admin and Online store, both on when a collection is created.
  • The collection is what hides, never its listings, and never the collection’s own admin pages.
  • Both off shows a warning, and the collection is shown nowhere.
  • Unpublishing is reversible and channel-by-channel — archiving is the wider, all-at-once state.

Collections

The concept behind the tab — membership, channels and the collection page.

Listing publishing

The same two channels on a listing, plus its store locations.

Archiving and deletion

The other way to take a collection out of use, and how to undo it.

Online store

Where a published collection renders.