Studio Theme Errant Hyperlinks on Product Pages

Introduction

Upgrading your Shopify theme can be an exciting event, promising new features, better performance, and often a refreshed look for your online store. However, sometimes, an update can also introduce unexpected issues that disrupt your operations. This happened recently to me and many others who upgraded to Studio Theme version 14.0.0. Post-upgrade, all product descriptions began appearing as hyperlinks, which was quite frustrating. This blog aims to address this issue, provide reasons behind it, and offer a detailed guide to solve it. If you're looking for solutions to this perplexing problem, you're in the right place.

Keywords

• Studio Theme Errant Hyperlinks on Product Pages
• Shopify theme product page hyperlinks
• Unwanted hyperlinks in product description

Reasons and Causes

1. Theme Update Bugs

Every time a new version of a theme is released, there's the possibility of bugs. Developers test extensively, but real-world use cases often reveal issues. Studio Theme version 14.0.0 appears to have introduced a bug that transforms regular text in the product descriptions into hyperlinks.

2. HTML/CSS Conflicts

Themes rely heavily on HTML and CSS. An erroneous update might contain incorrect HTML tags or CSS properties. These might inadvertently cause all text within certain tags to turn into hyperlinks.

3. Liquid Code Issues

Shopify themes also make use of Liquid, Shopify's templating language. If the Liquid code within the theme is modified incorrectly, it could be that all text fields are erroneously enclosed within anchor tags (<a>), leading to them appearing as hyperlinks.

4. JavaScript Injection

Another possibility is JavaScript injection. Under rare circumstances, JavaScript might dynamically alter the page content to wrap text in anchor tags, possibly pointing to the store’s shipping policy.

Steps to Resolve the Hyperlink Issue

Step 1: Identify the Root Cause

Firstly, it's crucial to identify the specific cause of the problem. You can find this out by inspecting the HTML structure of your product pages.

Inspect HTML Structure

1. Right-click on the product page and select 'Inspect' or 'Inspect Element'.
2. Look for the <a> tags within your product descriptions.
3. Take note of any patterns, such as whether all text fields are enclosed in anchor tags.

If you spot anchor tags where there should be none, this points to the problem originating from a theme file.

Step 2: Check Your Liquid Files

Liquid files control the overall look and functionality of your Shopify store.

1. Navigate to Online Store > Themes.
2. Click on Actions > Edit Code for the Studio Theme 14.0.0.
3. Locate the product-template.liquid or similar file responsible for rendering product descriptions.
4. Search for `<a href=