Scaly Advent & Deal Calendar: Documentation

What the app does

The app puts a calendar with doors on your storefront: an advent calendar in December, or a deal calendar for any other period, such as Black Week or Easter. Each door opens on its day. Behind it is one of your products or a collection, an image, and optionally a discount code that is valid on that day only. When a shopper opens today's door, the code is applied to the cart automatically.

Future doors stay closed, and their offers are not even in the page source, so nobody can peek ahead.

Quick start

1. Open the app and start the setup assistant. It appears by itself the first time you open the app.
2. Pick a template or your own design, choose colors or upload an image, and optionally pick a product for door 1.
3. Save. The assistant creates a test calendar with all doors open, so you can click through it right away. It never creates discount codes.
4. Add the calendar section to your theme, as described in the next step.
5. Back in the app, fill in the remaining doors, set the period and switch the preview off when you are ready to go live.

Adding the calendar to your store

You do not need to activate anything in the app. The calendar is its own section in your theme, not an app embed. You add it where it should appear:

1. In the Shopify admin, go to Online Store → Themes → Customize.
2. Click Add section and choose Advent & Deal Calendar under Apps.
3. In the section settings on the right, choose the calendar under Calendar: its number, or Automatic.
4. Click Save. Only then do visitors see the calendar.

The button Add to home page in the app opens the theme editor with the section already placed on your home page. This works with all Online Store 2.0 themes, such as Dawn and the current Shopify themes.

Several calendars

You can create up to ten calendars, for example an advent calendar and a Black Week calendar. Each calendar has a fixed number. That number is what you choose in the theme section.

The overview Calendars & deals lists all of them with their status, period and progress. From there you edit, turn on or off, duplicate and delete calendars. Deleting a calendar also deletes the discount codes the app created for it. A copy starts turned off and has its own discount codes.

With Automatic in the theme section, the section shows the calendar that is running right now, otherwise the next one to start, otherwise the one that ended last. If two run at the same time, the lower number wins. Calendars that are turned off or have their preview on are skipped, so a test calendar can never take over your live section.

Period and opening time

• Advent: 24 doors from 1 to 24 December of the chosen year.
• Own period: a start date, the number of doors (up to 31) and the rhythm: a new door every day or every week.
• Opening time: the time at which the day's door opens, in your store's time zone. Before that time, yesterday's door is still the current one.

The summary below the settings always shows the exact dates, so you do not have to count.

What is behind a door

Each door links to a product or a collection. The door shows the product image or the collection image. A door without a product or collection shows an image in a window when it is clicked, and activates its discount code in the background.

You can set defaults for all doors, such as one image or one discount, and change single doors where needed.

Discount codes

Codes created by the app are real discount codes in your Shopify admin under Discounts. They are created or updated when you save, and are only valid while their door is the current one: from its opening time until the next door opens (a week later in a weekly rhythm). When a shopper opens the door, the code is applied to the cart automatically.

One discount for all doors

The simplest setup: one discount, for example 10 percent, that applies to every door. Choose whether it applies to the whole order, to the door's product or collection only, or to selected collections.

A discount per door

Turn on Set the discount per door to give each door its own discount, or none. You can also enter a code you created yourself in Shopify. The app then uses it as it is and does not change it.

Code format

Codes created by the app look like ADVENT-2026-01: prefix, year, door. Calendar 2 and higher add their number to the default prefix, such as ADVENT2-2026-01, so two calendars never create the same code. You can set your own prefix under Code format. It applies to every code the app creates for that calendar, whether you use one discount for all doors or one per door. Existing app codes are renamed when you save.

Design

• Grid or your own image: in image mode, the doors sit on top of your poster at the positions you set.
• Colors: a color template, colors derived from your brand color, or your own colors for closed and opened doors.
• Order of the doors: ascending, descending or shuffled.
• Heading, text and button texts in the theme section.

Door animation and earlier doors

With Door animation on, today's door keeps swinging open and closed, so it catches the eye. Under Earlier doors you choose what happens to the doors of previous days:

• Stay open: they stay open and still lead to their product.
• Close again: only the current door is open. Earlier doors look closed and no longer lead to their offer.
• Keep swinging: with door animation on, earlier doors swing open and closed too.

Preview and testing

The preview opens doors regardless of the date: all doors, or the doors up to a chosen day. It is visible to every visitor who sees the calendar, so test in a copy of your theme. Discount codes keep their real dates during the preview.

Plan

The app needs an active plan after the free trial. Without one, the app only shows the plan page, and the calendar is hidden in your store until you choose a plan. Your settings are kept. You manage your plan in the app under Settings, or in the Shopify admin under Settings → Apps.

If something does not work

The calendar does not appear

• Check that the section is added to the theme you are looking at, and that you saved.
• Check the calendar number in the section, and that the calendar is turned on.
• In the theme editor, the section shows a note when a calendar is turned off or no plan is active.

The wrong door is open

• Check the start date and the rhythm. In a weekly rhythm, door 1 stays the current door for the first seven days.
• Check the opening time: before it, the previous day's door is still the current one.
• Check that the preview is switched off.
• With Automatic, the section may show a different calendar than you expect. Choose a fixed number to be sure.

The code is not applied

Codes created by the app are only valid on their day. Check under Discounts in the Shopify admin that the code exists and is active, and that it applies to the products in the cart.

Uninstalling

Apps are uninstalled in the Shopify admin under Settings → Apps. Remove the calendar section from your theme first.