Overview
Chapters is a Shopify app that lets merchants sell online courses through their store. Live class lessons use Zoom — this guide walks through how a merchant connects their Zoom account, schedules live class meetings, and (when needed) disconnects.
Who hosts the meeting: the meeting runs on the merchant's own Zoom account — free and paid Zoom plans both work. Chapters never hosts meetings itself; we only call Zoom's API to create, update, and delete meetings on the merchant's behalf. Students never leave your store: they join the session inside the course player.
1. Install Chapters on your Shopify store
The Zoom integration lives inside Chapters, which is a Shopify app. Install Chapters first:
- Visit chapterslms.com and click "Install on Shopify" (or find Chapters in the Shopify App Store).
- Approve the requested Shopify scopes (products, orders, customers — needed to auto-create course products and enroll students on order).
- Chapters opens inside your Shopify Admin. You're ready for step 2.
2. Connect your Zoom account
Inside Chapters in your Shopify Admin:
- Click Settings in the left sidebar.
- Open the Live Classes tab.
- In the Zoom card, click Connect Zoom.
- You'll be redirected to Zoom's OAuth approval page — sign in if needed and approve the requested permissions.
- Zoom redirects you back to Chapters Settings, which now shows Connected as your-email@example.com with a Disconnect button.
That's it. Chapters can now create meetings on your Zoom account. You only need to do this once per Shopify store, and a free Zoom account is enough — you don't need a paid Zoom plan to run live classes.
3. Schedule a live class meeting
After Zoom is connected, you can schedule meetings from any LIVE-type lesson:
- Open a course in Chapters.
- Add a new lesson (or edit an existing one) and set its type to Live Session.
- The lesson modal shows a Schedule Zoom meeting form: pick a start date & time and a duration.
- Click Create Zoom meeting. Chapters calls Zoom's API to create the meeting on your account.
- The modal switches to a "Scheduled" state showing the meeting URL, with Reschedule and Delete actions.
The meeting now appears on your Zoom dashboard (zoom.us → Meetings) like any other scheduled meeting, and your enrolled students see the session in the course player on your store, with a live countdown until start time.
Recording works exactly as it does on any of your Zoom meetings — you record on your own account, using whatever recording options your Zoom plan includes. To offer a replay for students who missed the live time, add the recording to the course as a regular video lesson; video hosting and streaming are already included with Chapters.
4. Reschedule or delete a meeting
- Reschedule: open the lesson, change the date, time, or duration in the meeting card, then click Update meeting. The change syncs to Zoom instantly.
- Delete: click Delete meeting in the lesson modal. Chapters deletes the meeting from your Zoom calendar via the API.
5. What students see
Enrolled students find the live session as a lesson inside the course, on your own domain — there is no separate Zoom link to email around and no meeting ID to share.
- Pre-start countdown: before the session begins, the lesson shows a live countdown to start time.
- Join in the course player: when the class starts, students join directly inside the course player — the Zoom meeting is embedded on the lesson page using Zoom's Meeting SDK.
- Calendar file: students can download a calendar (.ics) file for the session and add it to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook.
- Push reminders: students who have enabled push notifications in the student portal get reminders 30 minutes and 5 minutes before the class starts.
Because joining happens through the course player, the session sits behind the same sign-in as the rest of the course — students use their normal Shopify customer account, and only enrolled students see the lesson.
6. Disconnect or remove the integration
You can disconnect Zoom from Chapters at any time, or remove the Chapters app from your Zoom account. Both methods clear all stored Zoom credentials from our database.
Option A — Disconnect from Chapters Settings
- In Chapters → Settings → Live Classes → Zoom card, click Disconnect.
- Chapters immediately clears your stored OAuth tokens, refresh tokens, and the connected user email from our database.
- Existing meeting links on past lessons continue to work (the meeting still exists on Zoom), but Chapters can no longer create or modify meetings until you reconnect.
Option B — Remove from Zoom Marketplace
- Go to Zoom Marketplace → Manage → Installed Apps.
- Find Chapters and click Remove.
- Zoom sends a deauthorization webhook to Chapters, which immediately clears all your stored Zoom data from our database.
What we store, what we don't
Per the Privacy Policy, when you connect Zoom we store on your behalf:
- OAuth access token and refresh token (used only to create, update, and delete meetings on your account)
- Your connected Zoom user's display name and email (shown back to you in Settings as confirmation)
- Meeting metadata for meetings we create — meeting ID, scheduled time, duration, join URL
We do not store Zoom passwords, meeting recordings, attendee lists, or any in-meeting content. Tokens are encrypted at rest in our PostgreSQL database (Supabase) and cleared immediately on disconnect or app removal.
See the full Privacy Policy for details.
Troubleshooting
"Couldn't complete Zoom connection" after authorizing: Usually means Zoom has deauthorized our access on their side, or our credentials aren't matching. Try clicking Connect Zoom again from Settings. If it persists, contact support.
"Couldn't create the Zoom meeting" when clicking Create: Your stored tokens may have been revoked from Zoom's side. Click Disconnect in Chapters Settings, then Connect Zoom again to refresh.
Students are stuck on the countdown / "meeting has not started": Chapters creates meetings with the host required to start first (default Zoom security). Start the meeting from your Zoom client at the scheduled time, then students can join from the course player.
Support
Questions, bug reports, or feedback? Email chapters@pixipace.com — we typically reply within one business day.