Datum documentation

01Install

Datum is available from the Shopify Theme Store. Add it from the Theme Store to Online Store → Themes. It is added unpublished, so you can set it up and preview it before customers see it.

1. Open Online Store → Themes and choose Customize on Datum.
2. Set up the measurement fields below. Everything else works without them, but pieces show as “Not to scale”.
3. Create the Contact and Compare pages, then arrange the homepage plates.
4. Preview on a phone and a desktop, then choose Publish.

02Measurements

Datum draws every piece at its true size from four product fields. This takes about five minutes, once.

1. Go to Settings → Custom data → Products → Add definition.
2. Create four definitions with the type Dimension and these namespace and keys: datum.width, datum.height, datum.depth and datum.seat_height. Seat height is optional.
3. Optional: add datum.material and datum.lead_time as Single line text.
4. If some variants have their own size, such as a table sold in three lengths, create width, height and depth under Custom data → Variants too. A variant value takes precedence over the product value.
5. Open each product and fill in the fields at the bottom of the page.

Already have measurement fields?

Keep them. In the theme editor, open Theme settings → Dimensions and type your own namespace.key for each field. Plain number fields work as well as Dimension fields: choose their unit under “Unit of plain number fields”.

Pieces without measurements still appear, as ordinary tiles marked “Not to scale”, so you can add measurements at your own pace.

03Elevation drawings

Optional. Add a line drawing of the piece as its last image and start the image’s alt text with drawing:, for example drawing: Lund sofa, front elevation. The Elevation button on the product sheet then shows it with measurement lines. Without a drawing, Datum draws the measurement lines over the first photograph.

For the cleanest scale rows, use photographs on a plain background with the piece filling the frame edge to edge, so the drawn width matches the real width.

04Pages

Create these under Online Store → Pages and choose the template on the right of the page editor.

Every other template (collection, search, cart, blog, article, 404, password and gift card) is built from sections and blocks and needs no extra setup.

05Homepage plates

The homepage is a catalogue of plates. Each is a section you can add, move, hide or remove. Plates are numbered in page order automatically, like the folios of a printed catalogue.

Theme settings → Catalogue sets the catalogue label and season shown in the running head, and whether the live plate counter appears.

06Product sheet

The product page is one section, Product sheet, made of blocks you can reorder or remove: Title, Price, Options, Quantity, Order buttons, Low stock line, Back in stock request, Description, Measurements, Material and lead time, Fact row, Delivery estimate, Customer note field, Will it fit, Trade quote request, Assurances, Collapsible row, Text, Custom Liquid and app blocks.

Below it, the Product recommendations section shows complementary pieces from the free Shopify Search & Discovery app, falling back to related products, and Recently viewed draws the pieces a visitor has looked at, at the same scale.

07Order sheet

Theme settings → Cart:

• When a piece is added: open the drawer, or go to the order sheet page.
• Free delivery from: an amount in your store currency. Add the matching free shipping rate under Settings → Shipping and delivery; the theme only shows progress towards it.
• Suggest pieces from: a collection to suggest in the drawer. Leave it empty to use complementary products from Search & Discovery.
• Enable order notes: a note field on the order sheet.

08Made to order & stock

• Made to order: track inventory, set the quantity to 0 and tick “Continue selling when out of stock”. The button reads “Order to be made” and shows the lead time.
• Low stock line: add the block to the product sheet and choose the threshold. It reads real inventory and shows nothing when inventory is not tracked.
• Delivery estimate: add the block; it works out a delivery window from the lead time field and the delivery days you set after dispatch.
• Pickup: enable local pickup on a location and Datum shows availability on the product sheet.

09Requests & enquiries

Back in stock requests, trade quotes, showroom visits, catalogue requests and contact messages are sent through Shopify’s own contact form. They arrive at your store’s sender email (Settings → Notifications), with the piece and the customer’s details in the message. Reply by hand, or automate replies with Shopify Flow. Datum does not send automatic alerts itself.

10Built-in tools

Theme settings → Shopping tools turns on quick add on product rows, compare at scale, the compare page and the full-screen image viewer. The other tools are sections or blocks.

Compare and recently viewed are kept in the visitor’s browser only. Nothing is sent to Mufatech or anyone else.

11Colours & type

Theme settings → Colours has seven named colours: paper, ink, rules, wash, text on wash, pencil and text on pencil. Pencil marks measurements, accents and buttons; keep it dark enough for text on paper. Theme settings → Typography picks a display font, a text font and a technical font for measurements, all from the Shopify font library. Layout sets the page margin, the margin column on desktop and scroll motion, which also respects the visitor’s reduced-motion setting.

12Presets & languages

Datum ships with three presets, chosen when you add the theme and switchable later under Theme settings: Datum (warm paper, a red pencil, grotesque type), Slate (dark paper with an ochre pencil) and Linen (a lighter sheet with a serif display face and a green pencil). A preset only sets colours, type and the catalogue label; your sections and content stay as they are.

Storefront translations are included for English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch. Add a language under Settings → Languages and the theme's own text follows; your product and page content is translated with Shopify Translate & Adapt or any translation app.

Customer accounts

The running head shows the Shopify account component when customer accounts are on. Stores on classic accounts also get Datum's own login, register, account, order, address, activation and password pages, drawn in the same hand as the rest of the catalogue.

13Support

Use the support form, or email [email protected] with your store address, the theme version and, where it helps, a screenshot. The studio replies within one business day, Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. US Eastern Time.

What support covers

• Installing and setting up the theme as described on this page.
• The documented features and tools, and how to configure them.
• Reproducible defects in the theme's own code, which are fixed in a release.

Custom development, changes to the theme's code, third-party apps and Shopify's own features (checkout, shipping, payments, customer accounts) are outside support. Critical bugs are fixed as soon as they are reported.

14Release notes

1.0.0

First release: the catalogue homepage of numbered plates, scale-true rows everywhere, the product sheet with its blocks, 22 built-in tools, customer account pages, three presets, six storefront languages, section groups, Custom Liquid and app blocks.