What does BigCommerce's www redirect setting control for a headless channel?

Definition: BigCommerce documents www_redirect as a channel-level setting for a headless channel's unique checkout URL. The update endpoint accepts www, no-www, or none for this field.

Key facts

• BigCommerce's Update Storefront SEO Settings reference identifies the endpoint as PUT /v3/settings/storefront/seo and describes www_redirect as the control for a headless channel's unique checkout URL.
• The companion Get Storefront SEO Settings reference uses channel_id to retrieve channel-specific values. Without it, the request addresses global settings.
• The update reference lists www, no-www, and none as the allowed values for www_redirect.
• BigCommerce's headless channel setup guide treats the storefront domain and checkout domain as separate channel configuration steps.
• The Checkout Domains guide states that the checkout domain is a property of the channel and must share a main domain with the channel's storefront URL.

What URL does the setting control?

The setting concerns the hostname used for hosted checkout on a headless channel. BigCommerce's channel setup guide says that checkout pages are hosted and that a headless storefront gets its checkout domain through the channel site's checkout URL endpoint. The same guide points to the Settings API for configuring the checkout URL's www_redirect setting.

The storefront and checkout URLs have separate roles. The storefront URL identifies the headless site, while the checkout URL identifies the domain where BigCommerce serves checkout. BigCommerce's Checkout Domains guide describes checkout as a channel property and says a checkout URL must share a main domain with the storefront URL. A storefront at www.example.com can therefore use checkout.example.com under that documented same-domain rule.

How is www_redirect sent to the API?

The update operation is a PUT request. BigCommerce documents channel_id as a query parameter for channel-specific settings and separately states that a headless channel can use channel_id in the request body to control this checkout setting. The request body uses the www_redirect field:

{
  "www_redirect": "no-www"
}

The reference lists three enum values: www, no-www, and none. Their names identify the hostname form exposed by the setting. The reference does not describe the redirect sequence for each value, such as which hostname receives the redirect or which response code is used.

The endpoint requires the X-Auth-Token header. BigCommerce lists the store_v2_information modify scope and the store_v2_information_read_only scope in its authentication details.

How does channel inheritance work?

The update reference says that null deletes an override for a channel and restores inheritance from the global level. The get reference gives the corresponding read behavior: when channel-level settings are requested, null indicates that a field has no channel override and inherits the global value.

A channel-specific check therefore needs the channel identifier. The documented read operation is:

GET https://api.bigcommerce.com/stores/{store_hash}/v3/settings/storefront/seo?channel_id={channel_id}
Accept: application/json

If the returned www_redirect value is null, BigCommerce documents that state as inheritance. If the response contains www, no-www, or none, the channel has a value for that field. The response schema places www_redirect alongside meta_description, meta_keywords, and page_title in SEOSettings.

FAQ

Does this setting change the headless storefront domain?

No. The documentation associates the setting with the headless channel's unique checkout URL. BigCommerce configures the headless storefront URL and checkout URL through separate channel site operations.

What does none do?

none is one of the three allowed enum values. BigCommerce's reference does not define its exact redirect behavior, so the value should be confirmed against the channel's observed checkout response before it is treated as a particular hostname policy.

How can you tell whether a channel overrides the global value?

Request the storefront SEO settings with channel_id. A null field means that the channel value is inherited from the global level, according to BigCommerce's get reference.

Related terms

• How can an agency tell whether BigCommerce channel SEO settings inherit global values?
• How can a BigCommerce channel SEO override be removed?
• How does a BigCommerce headless storefront resolve a page from a URL path?

Sources

1. BigCommerce, "Update Storefront SEO Settings", n.d.
2. BigCommerce, "Get Storefront SEO Settings", n.d.
3. BigCommerce, "Creating Channels", n.d.
4. BigCommerce, "Checkout Domains", n.d.

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