Tutorial
This walks through the first useful result: a real product with a real file behind it, and a test order that proves the delivery email and the download link both work.
You will need one file to upload and one product to attach it to. Button and field names below are quoted as they appear in the app.
1. Install the app
Install Ranger Downloads from the Shopify App Store. Shopify asks you to approve the access the app needs, then opens it inside your admin.
The app asks to read your products and your orders (including past orders, which is what the back-catalogue import works from), to read your themes so it can match the order confirmation button to your store, and to write fulfilments so it can mark digital line items fulfilled after delivery. It does not ask for the customer scope: the buyer’s address comes from the order itself.
The home page is titled Ranger Downloads and shows four counts, Files, Product assignments, Download grants and Open fraud flags, plus your storage use. With nothing uploaded yet you also get a banner, Upload your first file to get started, with a Go to Files button.
2. Upload a file
Open Files from the left-hand navigation and press Upload files.
The upload goes from your browser straight to storage rather than through the app, so a large file is not slower for being large. Nothing counts as uploaded until the app has confirmed the object exists and checked its size, so a tab closed mid-upload leaves no half file behind.
A single file can be up to 5 GB, or up to your plan’s whole storage allowance if that is smaller. There is no limit on the number of files on any plan. See plans and storage.
Give the file a name you will recognise in a list six months from now. That name is what the buyer sees.
3. Attach it to a product
Open Products and press Attach files to a product.
Pick the product, then use Applies to to choose a variant or leave it on every variant. The field’s own hint puts it well: “Choose a single variant to deliver a file only to buyers of that option.” Tick the files you want and press Attach files.
One file can be attached to as many products as you like, and a product can carry as many files as you like. Nothing is copied when you attach, so replacing the file later updates every product at once.
There is also a Manage downloadable files entry under More actions on the product page in your Shopify admin, which opens this page already filtered to that product.
4. Set the limits
Open Settings, then Limits in the settings side navigation. Four fields:
- Total downloads per link, how many times a buyer can collect one file over the life of the link.
- Downloads per window, how many are allowed inside the rolling window below.
- Window length (hours), only used alongside a per-window cap.
- Link expires after (days), counted from the moment the order is paid.
Leave a field empty for no limit of that kind. Press Save limits.
These are the store defaults. A product assignment can override any of them, and so can a single buyer’s download. Read download limits for how the three levels resolve.
5. Read the delivery email
Open Emails. The first card is Delivery email, sent once per paid order and listing every file in it.
The template uses {{variable}} placeholders and the editor lists the ones the app understands. A
placeholder it does not recognise raises an Unknown variables warning. The preview underneath
is rendered by the same code that renders a real send, so it shows what your buyer receives.
Editing the wording is part of the paid plans; on the free plan the editor is readable but locked, and the default template still sends. See the App Store listing for what each plan includes.
While you are here, Send a test to mails yourself a copy.
6. Place a test order
Buy the product you attached the file to, using an email address you can read.
When Shopify marks the order paid, three things should follow:
- The order appears on the Orders page with a download against it.
- An email arrives at the address on the order.
- The link in that email opens a page listing every file that order earned, with the size and how much of the allowance is left on each.
Click a download. The file should arrive and the count should go down by one. If the order carried more than one file, the page also offers the whole order as a single zip.
7. Try revoking it
Back on the Orders page, open that download and choose to revoke it. The app confirms with Revoke this download? and a Revoke download button.
Click the buyer’s link again: it is refused with a message rather than a broken page.
This is worth doing once, because it is what you reach for after a chargeback, and it is better to have seen it work on a test order.
What to do next
- Set a store-wide delivery rule, or a per-assignment one, if “as soon as the order is paid” is not what you want. See how delivery works.
- Add your Email logo under Settings, then Sending & domain.
- Read file versions before you replace a file that people have already bought.
- If you sold these products before you installed the app, look at the back-catalogue import.