Liquid Usage

The declined name values are stored as customer metafields and are available anywhere Shopify exposes the customer object in Liquid — including email notification templates, order confirmations, theme pages, and customer account templates.

Metafield reference

Metafield	Liquid key	Example value
czech-names-app.addressing	customer.metafields["czech-names-app"]["addressing"]	Jane
czech-names-app.last-name-addressing	customer.metafields["czech-names-app"]["last-name-addressing"]	Nováku
czech-names-app.gender	customer.metafields["czech-names-app"]["gender"]	male, female, unknown

Note

Because the namespace czech-names-app and key last-name-addressing contain hyphens, Liquid requires bracket notation for access. Dot notation does not work with hyphenated identifiers.

Caution

addressing holds the first name on its own in the vocative case, not a complete greeting. Compose the full form of address from addressing and last-name-addressing.

If the app cannot decline a customer’s first name, it writes none of these three metafields. Every template must therefore read correctly with no name in it.

Basic access with fallback

The metafields are missing for customers who existed before the app was installed, and for customers whose first name the app cannot decline. Both cases need a fallback.

Danger

Never fall back to customer.first_name. Shopify holds that value in the nominative case, so the greeting renders as “Dobrý den, Lenka” instead of the correct “Dobrý den, Lenko” — which is exactly the output customers report as the app not working. The fallback fires for the customers the app has no declined form for, and for them no correct vocative exists. The only safe fallback is a greeting with no name.

{% if customer.metafields["czech-names-app"]["addressing"] != blank %}
  Dobrý den, {{ customer.metafields["czech-names-app"]["addressing"] }},
{% else %}
  Dobrý den,
{% endif %}

The | default: filter is not a shortcut here — | default: customer.first_name inserts precisely the undeclined form. Use a condition that drops the name instead.

Gender-conditional greeting

In Czech, “Vážený pane” and “Vážená paní” are followed by the last name, so read last-name-addressing there. The first name belongs in the informal greeting.

{% assign gender = customer.metafields["czech-names-app"]["gender"] %}
{% assign czech_first = customer.metafields["czech-names-app"]["addressing"] %}
{% assign czech_last = customer.metafields["czech-names-app"]["last-name-addressing"] %}

{% if czech_last != blank and gender == "male" %}
  Vážený pane {{ czech_last }},
{% elsif czech_last != blank and gender == "female" %}
  Vážená paní {{ czech_last }},
{% elsif czech_first != blank %}
  Dobrý den, {{ czech_first }},
{% else %}
  Dobrý den,
{% endif %}

Use in email notification templates

Shopify email notification templates (order confirmation, shipping confirmation, etc.) support Liquid. To add a personalized Czech greeting:

1. Go to Settings → Notifications in your Shopify admin
2. Select the notification you want to customize (for example, Order confirmation)
3. Click Edit code
4. Add the greeting block near the top of the email body:

{% assign czech_first = customer.metafields["czech-names-app"]["addressing"] %}
{% assign gender = customer.metafields["czech-names-app"]["gender"] %}

<p>
  {% if czech_first != blank %}
    Dobrý den, {{ czech_first }},
  {% else %}
    Dobrý den,
  {% endif %}
</p>

Tip

Test notification templates using Shopify’s built-in Send test email button before activating them for live customers.

Use in theme templates

In theme .liquid files (account pages, custom pages), you can access customer metafields when a customer is logged in:

{% if customer %}
  {% assign czech_first = customer.metafields["czech-names-app"]["addressing"] %}
  {% if czech_first != blank %}
    <h2>Vítejte, {{ czech_first }}!</h2>
  {% else %}
    <h2>Vítejte!</h2>
  {% endif %}
{% endif %}

Use in order confirmation page

The order confirmation (checkout.liquid or order-status.liquid) exposes checkout.customer or order.customer:

{% assign czech_first = order.customer.metafields["czech-names-app"]["addressing"] %}
{% if czech_first != blank %}<p>Děkujeme, {{ czech_first }}!</p>{% else %}<p>Děkujeme!</p>{% endif %}

Caution

Metafields are not guaranteed to be populated at the exact moment of order placement. If a customer has just registered, the app may not have had time to write them yet. Always branch on != blank and drop the name in the empty branch — do not paper over it with | default: customer.first_name.

Checking all three metafield values

If you need to inspect the raw values for debugging, you can output all three at once:

{% comment %}Debug block — remove before publishing{% endcomment %}
addressing: {{ customer.metafields["czech-names-app"]["addressing"] }}<br>
last-name-addressing: {{ customer.metafields["czech-names-app"]["last-name-addressing"] }}<br>
gender: {{ customer.metafields["czech-names-app"]["gender"] }}