Install Actorly and see your first changes

What do I need before I install?

You need a Shopify store and the ability to install an app on it. Actorly runs inside your Shopify admin, so there is no separate account to create and no code to paste.

Actorly adds nothing to your storefront: no scripts, no theme code, no app blocks and no tracking pixels. It asks Shopify for read permissions for the kinds of record it keeps history of, and for five write permissions (products, shipping, locations, markets and files). Those five are used only when you confirm a restore of a field Actorly can put back. Actorly does not ask to write themes, inventory, discounts, content, policies or translations, so it cannot change them.

What happens when I install, step by step?

1Install Actorly. Add the app to your store from Shopify and approve the permissions Shopify shows you.

2Read the welcome screen. It says "Actorly is already watching your store." and that there is nothing here to set up. The table of changes on that screen is labelled Sample: the app says these are illustrations of the kinds of change Actorly records, not your store's data. One sample row has the actor Unknown on purpose, because Unknown stays Unknown and is never quietly replaced later with a guess.

3Choose a plan. The next screen is headed "Pick how you want to run Actorly." and shows both plans side by side. Choose Choose a plan and Actorly hands you to Shopify ("Taking you to Shopify ... We will bring you right back to Actorly as soon as you do."). You choose Actorly Watch, which is free, on Shopify's page too: there is no skip, because the app waits for a real plan choice.

4Pick on Shopify's page. Actorly Watch is $0, with no trial and no countdown. Actorly Restore is $29 per month, or $240 a year. Billing is handled entirely by Shopify and appears on your normal Shopify invoice.

5Come back to Actorly. The dashboard appears only after Actorly has read your confirmed plan from Shopify. Until then every other page sends you back to the plan screen.

6Open Actorly. In your Shopify admin, open Apps > Actorly. You land on Overview, the app's home page.

7Let the first import finish. Overview says Actorly is still building your store history and lists what is still importing.

What do I see while the first import runs?

The first import starts at install, not when you pick a plan, so some kinds may already be ready when you first see the dashboard. Actorly states no time for the import: a larger store simply has more to read. While it runs, the app tells you what it cannot yet say, and never shows 0 for something it has not read.

If the badge says Import failed, the page says "That import did not finish" and "It is not retrying automatically yet". The app says it is not retrying automatically yet, so tell support which kinds the banner names. See Is Actorly recording my store?.

What does Actorly record from day one, and what only from the first change?

Kinds Actorly can list at install, such as products, collections, files, locations and markets, are read at install and read again every Sunday. Each has a first version called "install snapshot", which is the starting point later changes are compared with.

Orders, customers, fulfillments, draft orders, selling plans and metafield definitions start empty and fill as changes arrive. That is why a card in the Data room can read "0 recorded since install" while your Shopify admin shows orders. While a kind is still importing, a record Actorly sees for the first time is kept as its starting version and does not appear as a change.

Pages, blogs, articles, menus, URL redirects, price lists, policies and files work differently again. Shopify sends Actorly no change notice for them, so Actorly re-reads them on a schedule: weekly on Actorly Watch, daily on Actorly Restore. A change to one of those appears at the next check.

A worked example: your first recorded change

Sample: you edit a product's title in Shopify. Open Changes in Actorly's menu. A row appears with the Resource Products, the product's name, the Change Title, and in the Who column Not attributed yet. Choose View to see the value before and after, and in the window a sentence that says Actorly is still checking Shopify's activity log for who made the change. That word can change to a name with a confidence word, or to Unknown, which then stays.

This is also the first step of the Setup guide's "Try a restore": edit a product title in Shopify, open that change in Changes and choose Restore this value. The steps are in restore one field to an earlier value.

What is different on Actorly Watch and on Actorly Restore?

This lists the main differences, not every line on the plan cards. See Compare Actorly Watch and Actorly Restore.

If something goes wrong

• You paid and still see the plan screen. Actorly confirms your plan by reading it from Shopify, and the read can lag. If it fails, the Account page says "Actorly could not confirm this plan with Shopify" and treats you as being on Actorly Watch until it can confirm. See upgrade, downgrade or cancel.
• A count is a dash. That is the app saying it has not read that kind yet. Wait for the import, or read the banner for the reason.
• Changes is empty. The words on the empty page say which case it is. See Is Actorly recording my store?.