Vortex Staging field mapping and data

This page is the consolidated technical reference for what data Vortex Staging migrates and how. It combines the V1 Field Mapping, What We Migrate, Use Cases, How-To Topics, and Settings pages into one navigable reference. If you are looking for the high-level overview, start with Welcome. If you are running an actual migration, Bulk content migration walks through the UI.

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Settings

Settings is where you configure how you want to be notified when environment statuses change or migration activity completes. The main area used for this is the Status Notifications tab. Vortex Staging supports the following notification methods, each documented in Notifications:

• Email
• Microsoft Teams
• Slack

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Per-entity field reference

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Products

Products are the core of your catalogue. Here is how each field is migrated.

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Basic product information

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SEO information

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Product variants

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Inventory

Inventory is matched by location name. If your destination store has locations with the same names as the source, inventory quantities will be set correctly.

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Product images and media

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Metafields

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Customers

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Basic information

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Addresses

All customer addresses are migrated, including Address Line 1 and 2, City, Company, Country Code, Province Code, Zip / Postal, First Name, Last Name, and Phone.

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Marketing consent

SMS marketing consent requires a valid phone number.

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Orders

Order header fields including Order Name, Email, Phone, Note, Tags, Currency, Financial Status, Processed Date, Closed Date, Source Name, PO Number, Buyer Marketing, and Taxes Included are all transferred. Line items capture Product Title, Variant Title, SKU, Quantity, Price (shop and presentment), Vendor, Requires Shipping, Taxable, Gift Card flag, and Variant ID (matched by SKU lookup). Line items store product information at time of order; variant linking is attempted by SKU. Addresses (billing and shipping), shipping lines (title, code, price, source, tax lines), and transactions (kind, status, amount, gateway, authorisation code, processed date) are all preserved. Zero-amount transactions are skipped as Shopify requires positive amounts for sale transactions.

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Financial status logic

The migration intelligently determines financial status:

• If source says “Paid” but no payment transactions exist, status set to “Pending”.
• If payment transactions exist but status is not “Paid”, status set to “Paid”.
• Otherwise, original status preserved.

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Collections

Manual collections transfer Title, Handle, Description HTML, Sort Order, Template, Image, Alt Text, and Products (matched by handle). Smart (automated) collections transfer Title, Handle, Description, Sort Order, Rules (column, relation, condition), and Rule Condition (all / any). Collections are automatically published to matching sales channels between source and destination stores (matched by channel name).

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Gift cards

For security reasons, Shopify generates new gift card codes. The original code cannot be migrated.

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Discount codes

Basic discounts (percentage or fixed) transfer Title, Code, Starts At, Ends At, Usage Limit, Once Per Customer, Percentage / Fixed Amount, Minimum Requirement, Customer Selection, and referenced Products / Collections (matched by handle). BXGY discounts transfer Customer Buys, Buy Quantity, Customer Gets, Get Value, and Uses Per Order. BXGY discounts require specific products or collections in both source and destination. Free shipping discounts transfer Maximum Shipping Price, Shipping Destinations, and Include Rest of World. Stacking rules transfer Combines With Order, Combines With Product, and Combines With Shipping. Customer selection mapping: All Customers transfers as-is; Specific Customers are matched by email; Customer Segments fall back to “All” since segments are store-specific.

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Pages, Blogs, Articles

Pages transfer Title, Body HTML, Handle, Published, Published At, and Template. Blogs transfer Title, Handle, Comment Policy, and Template. Articles transfer Title, Body HTML, Summary, Handle, Author Name, Tags, Template, Featured Image (handled separately after upload), and Blog ID.

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Files

Files transfer URL, Alt Text, Content Type (IMAGE / VIDEO / FILE), Filename, and Duplicate Mode. File types supported: Images, Videos, External Videos (YouTube; URL normalised), 3D Models, and Generic Files (PDF, etc.).

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Themes

Themes transfer Name and Role. Theme Source must be specified manually. Theme files and customisations may require additional setup after migration.

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Locations

Locations transfer Name, Address, and Metafields.

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What we migrate (full coverage map)

The full coverage list is: Catalogue: Products, Collections. Customer: Customers, Orders, Discount Codes, Gift Cards. Content: Pages, Blogs and Articles, Files. Store configuration: Themes, Navigation Menus, URL Redirects, Store Policies, Locations. Commerce and markets: Markets, Delivery Profiles, Catalogs and Price Lists. Metaobjects: Metaobject Definitions, Metaobjects. The duplicate detection key per entity is documented in Welcome. The recommended migration order is also documented there.

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Practical use cases

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Use case 1. Complete store replatform

Moving your entire business from one Shopify store to another. Migrate Products and Collections first, then Customers, Orders, Discount Codes, Gift Cards, then Content. Order financial data is preserved for historical reference; customer passwords cannot be migrated (customers reset on first sign-in).

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Use case 2. Store consolidation

Merging multiple Shopify stores into a single unified store. Run separate migrations from each source. Products with the same handle are skipped (not duplicated). Customers with the same email are skipped. Collections with the same handle are skipped. Best practice: migrate the primary store first, then secondary stores fill gaps.

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Use case 3. Development store testing

Create a copy of production data in a development store for testing themes, apps, or workflows. For theme development, migrate Products, Collections, and Pages. For checkout testing, migrate Products and a sample of Customers. For app integration, add Orders. For full functionality, all entities. Use customer data anonymisation when sensitive PII is in scope.

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Use case 4. Customer database transfer

Move just the customer list to a new store while preserving marketing consent and addresses. Migrate the Customers entity only. Existing customers (matched by email) are skipped. Marketing preferences (email and SMS state, opt-in level, consent timestamp) are fully preserved.

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Use case 5. Promotional campaign migration

Move discount codes and promotions to a new store. Percentage Off, Fixed Amount, BXGY, and Free Shipping types are all supported. Customer-specific discounts match by email. Product-specific discounts match by handle / SKU. Collection discounts match by handle. Date ranges are preserved. Per-customer and total usage limits transfer. Automatic discounts (no code) are migrated separately and behave the same way.

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Use case 6. Order history migration

Move historical order data for customer service, reporting, and analytics. Order Number, Line Items, Customer Info (linked by email), Shipping / Billing addresses, Payment Details, Shipping Lines, Order Status, Processing Date, and Tags / Notes are preserved. Orders migrate as unfulfilled by default for a clean slate.

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Use case 7. Content migration

Preserve content pages, blog posts, and SEO value. Pages transfer Title, Body / HTML, Handle / URL, Publish Status, and Template. Blogs and Articles transfer Blog Title / Handle, Article Title, Article Body, Author, Tags, and Featured Image (via Files migration). Migrating with the same handles preserves URL structure and search rankings.

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Use case 8. Gift card transfer

Move active gift cards to a new store. Initial Value, Expiration Date, Customer (matched by email), and Note are preserved. Codes are regenerated for security; communicate new codes to customers. Current balance is not queryable via API; cards migrate with their initial value.

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How-to topics

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Perform a bulk migration

Navigate to Bulk Migration. Select source and destination environments. Choose entities. Select conflict resolution (Ignore or Delete and Recreate). Click Start the Migration. Monitor in Migration history. Bulk migration assumes the destination store is empty. Selecting both Products and Collections associates them correctly. Delete and Recreate is not available on production destinations.

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Perform a selective migration

Navigate to Selective Migration. Select source and destination. Choose the specific entity type (Products, Collections, Customers, Blogs, etc.). Browse and select specific items. Click Start Migration. Monitor in Migration History.

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Anonymise customer and order data

In Bulk Migration, include Customers or Orders in your entity selection. Check the “Anonymise Customer Data” checkbox. Start the migration. Customer personal data is scrambled before being written to the destination. Anonymisation only works when migrating to a clean destination store.

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Disable notifications before migration

Before migrating Orders or Customers, in Shopify Admin go to Settings, Notifications, and turn off the Recipients option for relevant notification types. Re-enable after the migration.

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Monitor migration progress

Navigate to Migration History. View status (In Progress, Completed, Failed). Click a run to see per-entity status and progress. Download log files for detailed error information.

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Deploy a theme via GitHub

Navigate to Theme Deployments. Connect your GitHub account (see GitHub deployment). Select the repository and branch. Choose the destination store and theme slot. Start the deployment. Monitor and review errors. For rollback, redeploy a previous version from history.

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Set up notifications

See Notifications for Email, Slack, and Microsoft Teams setup.

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Migrate navigation menus and URL redirects

Include Navigation Menus and / or URL Redirects in your bulk or selective migration. Menus preserve their nested structure including parent-child relationships. URL Redirects preserve source paths and targets. Both are matched by handle / path to prevent duplicates.

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Migrate metaobjects

Migrate Metaobject Definitions first; they define the schema. Then migrate Metaobjects (the actual records). Metaobject Definitions must always be migrated before Metaobjects.

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Migrate delivery profiles and markets

Include Delivery Profiles to transfer shipping zones, rates, and product associations. Include Markets to transfer international market configurations. Include Catalogs and Price Lists for B2B pricing. Locations are auto-created in the destination if missing.

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FAQ

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Are reference-type metafields migrated automatically?

Not in a single pass. Reference-type metafields (file references, product references, collection references) require the referenced entities to exist in the destination first. Migrate the referenced entities, then re-run the parent entity migration.

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Why do migrated orders appear unfulfilled?

Orders migrate as unfulfilled by default for a clean slate. Historical fulfilment status is not transferred.

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Can I update existing records in the destination?

Yes, with Selective Migration. Bulk migration assumes the destination is empty and skips existing records.

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Related pages

• Welcome, the overview start point
• Bulk content migration, the bulk migration UI
• Migration history, the audit log
• FAQs and known issues, platform constraints to be aware of
• Notifications, Email, Slack, and Teams setup
• GitHub deployment, GitHub-driven theme deployments