Verify OptionWise on your storefront
Once you’ve built an option set, confirm it actually shows up for customers. Three things have to be true for options to render on a live product page:
- The option set is published (Active, not Draft).
- The product is matched by the set’s targeting.
- The OptionWise plugin is on your published theme.
This page covers how to check each one.
Publishing & drafts
Every option set is either Active or Draft, controlled by the Publish option set toggle on the status card — separate from Save:
- Active — live on your storefront. New option sets are created Active by default.
- Draft — hidden from customers. Nothing renders on the storefront, whatever the targeting says.
The thing to know is that saving an Active set publishes your changes immediately. There’s no separate “push live” step — once a set is Active, every Save you make goes straight to the storefront.
To work on a live set privately, stage your edits as a draft:
Unpublish
Flip Publish option set off. The set goes to Draft and stops showing on the storefront.
Edit and save
Make your changes and Save. Because the set is a draft, nothing reaches customers yet.
Publish again
Flip Publish option set back on when you’re ready. The updated set goes live.
Editing options isn’t the only thing that publishes — changing targeting on an Active set also takes effect on Save, with no theme republish needed. See Assign to products.
Preview inside the editor
The fastest check is the live preview built into the option set editor. As you edit, a preview panel renders your options exactly as a customer would see them — on desktop it sits to the right of the form; on mobile, tap the floating preview button to open it.
The in-editor preview reflects your current edits even before you save, so it’s the quickest way to sanity-check layout and wording. It does not prove the options are live — for that, check publish state and the plugin below.
Confirm the set is published
Open the option set. The status card on the left reads either Active or Draft:
- Active — “This option set is live on your storefront”. Published.
- Draft — “This option set is not visible to customers”. Flip the Publish option set toggle to publish it.
If the toggle is disabled with the tooltip “Save your changes before publishing”, save first, then publish.
Confirm the plugin is on your theme
Open Settings in OptionWise. The Themes card must show “OptionWise is live — your options are showing on your storefront.” If your live theme’s row reads “Plugin not installed”, click Add OptionWise plugin and add it — see Plugin placement.
View it on a real product
Open a matched product
Pick a product that the option set targets (see Assign to products).
View it on your storefront
Visit that product’s page on your live store, or use the theme editor’s preview to open it. Your options should render in the spot where you placed the OptionWise plugin.
Add to cart and check the line items
Make a selection and add the product to your cart. Each chosen option is attached to the cart line as a line-item property — most themes show it under the product in the cart, and it always appears at checkout and on the order. See Where options appear.
Options aren’t showing?
Work through the three requirements above first — an unpublished set, a product the set doesn’t target, or a missing plugin accounts for most cases. If options still don’t appear, see Options not showing and Form detection failures.