Champ › Guides › Installing Champ

Installing Champ

This guide takes you from "Install" to a forum link in your store's menu. It takes about 15 minutes. You do not need to edit any code.

There are five steps:

  1. Install Champ.
  2. Start your free trial.
  3. Open your forum.
  4. Create your first forum.
  5. Add a link to the forum in your store's menu.

Step 1: Install Champ#

  1. Open the Champ listing on the Shopify App Store. If we sent you an install link, you can use that instead.
  2. Click the install button.
  3. Shopify shows a permission screen. Click Install app.
  4. You land on the Champ dashboard at app.getchamp.net. A Welcome to Champ window opens.
  5. Click Next, then Next, then Take me to the dashboard.

What you should see: the Champ dashboard, with a menu on the left (Forums, Design, Settings and more) and a Set up your forum checklist.

Note Champ asks Shopify for one permission only: to read your customers (read_customers). It uses this to know which customer is signed in, and to read the customer tags that control who can see which forum. Champ cannot see your orders or products, and it cannot change anything in your store.

Step 2: Start your free trial#

Your forum stays offline until you subscribe. Subscribing starts a 14-day free trial. You are not charged until the trial ends. After that, Champ costs $29 USD every 30 days, billed on your Shopify invoice.

  1. In the Champ dashboard, open Billing (under Account in the left menu).
  2. Click Subscribe – $29 USD every 30 days, 14 days free.
  3. Shopify opens its plan page. Approve the plan.

What you should see: a page that says Thanks for subscribing! Click Take me to my dashboard to go back.

Tip While you are not subscribed, the top bar of the dashboard shows a Subscribe — 14 days free badge. When the badge is gone, you are subscribed.

Step 3: Open your forum#

Your forum is already on your store. Its address is:

https://yourstore.myshopify.com/community/champ

Replace yourstore.myshopify.com with your own store address. If your store has its own domain (for example yourstore.com), you can use that instead.

To open it, click View my forum at the top of the dashboard's home page. You can also click View forum in the top bar on any dashboard page.

What you should see: the forum, inside your store's own design, with your store's header and footer around it. It is a real page on your store, not a separate website.

You can change /community/champ to a different address later. Read how to change your forum's address first. The wrong value makes the forum impossible to reach.

Step 4: Create your first forum#

A forum is a room for one subject, like "Recipes" or "Help with your order".

  1. In the Champ dashboard, open Forums.
  2. Click Create forum. The Add forum page opens.
  3. In Name of the forum, type a short name.
  4. In Description, write one line that says what belongs in this forum.
  5. Click Save.

What you should see: your new forum in the list on the Forums page. Open your forum (Step 3) and it is there too.

Tip Start with three to five forums. A new community looks empty when it is spread over many rooms. Add more when people are posting. The forums guide explains categories, access and ordering.

Step 5: Add the forum to your store's menu#

Nothing on your store links to the forum yet. Add a menu link so customers can find it. This does not change your theme's code.

  1. In the Champ dashboard, open Settings.
  2. Find the section Show the forum on your store. Under Menu link, copy the address shown. It is your forum's full address, for example https://yourstore.com/community/champ.
  3. In your Shopify admin, go to Content → Menus.
  4. Open the menu you want. This is usually the main menu or the footer menu.
  5. Click Add menu item.
  6. Type a name customers will understand, like "Community" or "Forum". Do not use "Champ" — your customers will not know what it means.
  7. Paste the address into Link. Paste the full address. The menu editor does not accept a short path like /community/champ on its own.
  8. Save the menu.

What you should see: open your store in a new tab. Your new menu item is there. Click it and the forum opens.

You are done. Your forum is live and customers can find it.

These are optional. None of them change your theme's code. If you uninstall Champ, they are removed.

Community button. A small button that floats on every page of your store and opens the forum. It works with every theme.

  1. In the Champ dashboard, open Settings and find Show the forum on your store.
  2. Click Turn on in theme editor. Your Shopify theme editor opens.
  3. Make sure Community button is switched on under App embeds. You can set its label, its corner of the screen and its colours.
  4. Save in the theme editor.

Sections for your pages. These need an Online Store 2.0 theme (most themes from 2021 or later). In the same Show the forum on your store section, click:

  • Add community banner — a heading, a line of text and a button to the forum. Good on your home page or a help page.
  • Add latest topics — a list of the newest forum discussions. Each visitor only sees topics they are allowed to see.

You can also add them yourself: in the theme editor, click Add section and look under Apps for Community banner and Latest forum topics.

If something goes wrong#

The forum says "The forum is not currently available". You have not subscribed yet, or your subscription has ended. Do Step 2.

The install gets stuck or shows an error page. Try these in order:

  1. Clear your browser's cookies for Shopify, then try again.
  2. Sign out of Shopify. Then sign in at app.getchamp.net/login and install from there.
  3. Try the Chrome browser. Some browsers and browser extensions do not work well with the Shopify admin.

Still stuck? Email us. Tell us your store address and what you saw. A real person reads every email.

Uninstalling Champ#

Read this before you uninstall.

  • Uninstalling ends your subscription. You pay every 30 days in advance, and unused days are not refunded. If you uninstall partway through, you lose the days you already paid for.
  • To stop paying but keep Champ installed, cancel your subscription instead. In the Champ dashboard, open Billing and use the Cancellation section. You can subscribe again later.

When you uninstall, we keep your forum content, because many stores reinstall. If you want it deleted for good, email us. We will delete it and confirm.

Download a copy of your data#

You can download your forum data at any time.

  1. In the Champ dashboard, open Data.
  2. Under Export data, click Request export.
  3. Wait a minute or two, then refresh the page.
  4. Click the download link that appears.

The download link is deleted after about 30 minutes. You can request one export per hour.

The file is in JSON format (a standard data format that other software can read). It contains your:

  • Forums
  • Topics
  • Posts
  • Users

Each record includes the IDs that link it to the others. For example, a post includes the ID of its topic and its author. This lets you rebuild the same structure in another tool.

Two things are not included: avatar images that members uploaded, and the list of who upvoted what. Each post does include its total number of upvotes.

Need your members' email addresses? Use Request user export on the same page. It includes each member's Shopify customer ID, email address, post and topic counts, and points.

Next#