How do I update my HTML templates to the latest version?

Aside from your selected theme's frame.html file, the majority of your store's HTML templates are served from a default folder called the common folder. When your pages are rendered, the software will first look in the store's Theme folder for a template file and - if it doesn't find the file - will use the global file found in the common folder.

This allows us to have one centralized location where all of the HTML files are maintained and updated by us, ensuring you always have the latest version of a particular template. As HTML technology evolves and new features are added to the Shift4Shop software, updates to the HTML templates are applied to the files in the common folder.

However, your Shift4Shop store also allows you to edit and customize your HTML templates as much as you need. When an edit is made to a common HTML template, a copy of the file is made and stored into your store's selected theme folder. This is to ensure that the edits made to the file are only used by your store rather than globally. Unfortunately, this also means that any updates to a particular HTML template will not apply to your store since the file is no longer coming from the global common folder.

To ensure you are using the most up to date version of a particular HTML file, you would need to favor the common folder file. The best way to do this is to remove or rename the file as it appears in your theme folder. Here's how:

1. Connect to your store's FTP access
   (Check your welcome email for credentials)
2. Navigate to web/assets/templates/[theme-folder]
   (replace "[theme-folder]" with your store's selected Theme name like "justswell-html5")
3. Locate and download the file to your desktop to act as a backup
   (in case you want to revert later)
4. Then, remove or rename the file to something other than its default name.

Your store will now favor the most up to date file from the common folder