My Courses > CustomizeWoo > Module 1 > Lesson 04: Mistakes to Avoid

Mistakes to Avoid

MARK LESSON AS COMPLETE

Spoiler alert: the biggest mistake is not using a child theme. Other methods, tools or plugins are not ideal. Child theme is your “One stop shop“ for placing your customization: it’s easy to backup / find / access.

Video

Please note: English captions are enabled by default (click on “CC” in the video player to disable). Also, you can click on the “gear” icon to manage quality and playback speed. Enjoy!

Sorry, this video is visible to logged in and fully registered students only.
If you already enrolled in this course, please LOG IN
Otherwise, please enroll in the FREE / PRO COURSE
For any other queries, feel free to get in touch

18 thoughts on “Mistakes to Avoid”

  1. Manish Khalkho

    Hi Rodolfo, as you mentioned that theme with woocommerce folder should be avoided but what would you suggest if client select or provide some theme which has already a woocommerce folder. In my case I am using avada theme with avada page builder which has already a woocommerce folder.

    Is avada builder + woocommerce + WCFM is good combination for the multi-vendor ecommerce in customization point of view.

    what would be your suggestion in this scenario.

    Reply
    1. Rodolfo Melogli

      Thanks for your comment Manish!

      Avada is one of the most sold WooCommerce themes of all times – as long as you keep it up to date I doubt the /woocommerce folder can be a problem for your setup.

      On the other hand, I’m not a big fan of the /woocommerce folder, so it it were me, I’d switch to a more light-weight and WooCommerce-friendly theme. Just my 2 cents

      Reply
  2. Kelvin

    Hi Rodolfo, what is your suggestion to build a staging site by sub-domain or sub-folder, as most of the paid plugins or SSL cert require registering the site domain per license when using sub-domain as staging site will be considered as a separate site and require a separate license. If using a sub-folder, the file path is another issue that we will face.

    If the hosting doesn’t provide the staging service, do you have any good plugins that can do better? I usually use the Duplicator but sometimes it takes a long time to do the backup and restore if the site contains a very large size of wp-contents.

    Could you share your experience?

    Reply
    1. Rodolfo Melogli

      Great questions!

      what is your suggestion to build a staging site by sub-domain or sub-folder, as most of the paid plugins or SSL cert require registering the site domain per license

      Great plugins have no problem with staging, as they detect that’s a staging site already and new keys are not required. Unfortunately not all plugins have this feature. There is no solution otherwise and you’ll need to use a second licence.

      If the hosting doesn’t provide the staging service, do you have any good plugins that can do better?

      No, I prefer switching hosting in such case. Staging is too important.

      Reply
  3. amanda

    As oxygen builder disabled a theme completely, I add custom code via the custom snippets plugin. Just wondering what you’re view on this is?

    Reply
    1. Rodolfo Melogli

      Hi Amanda! I’m of the opinion that if something works for you, then it is ok to keep going like that. For example, I still use a code editor (NotePad++) which is not really advanced or WP-compatible, but because I’m very familiar with it I keep using it.

      On the other hand, a custom snippets plugin probably saves the code into the DB, so you’ll need to study exactly where it stores that in case your site goes down or you need to migrate your website.

      Let me know if that makes any sense!

      Reply
  4. yonatan76

    Hi Rodolfo – Great advices on how to pick plugins for Woo. Thank you 🙂

    Reply
    1. Rodolfo Melogli

      Excellent!

      Reply
  5. Marcel BOTEZAT

    Hello Rodolfo,
    Related with the free SSL Certificates from different hosting companies: What’s the reason to choose a paid SSL Certificate when you could have one for free? Of course, you can tell me about the type of SSL Certificate, Level of Validation, Validity Period, Level of Trust and other features that make the difference. How to decide if a free SSL Certificate is enough for my Woocommerce Shop or do I need a paid one?

    Reply
    1. Rodolfo Melogli

      Good question Marcel! So, free Let’s Encrypt SSL certs are absolutely fine and I use it on this same website. Paid SSL certificates, on the other end, provide you with warranty in case of a data breach (please check before purchasing) and support. Other than that, Let’s Encrypt certs are totally valid and PCI compliant.

      Reply
  6. Noëlle

    Hi Rodolfo, I have been working with the Divi theme ever since it came out. A lot of my projects come from members of the Divi community. After watching this video yesterday, I contacted Divi and asked whether they delete and add WooCommerce hooks. And they do.

    I’m unsure how to feel about this. On the one hand, I really enjoy the Divi community and hesitant to stop using it all together. On the other hand, I’ve been having some doubts about it for a while. Of course this issue adds to it.

    But – what if being a Divi + Woo specialist is a great niche to be in? There are very few Divi designers who are good at Woo. Do you have any tips on how I’d go about learning how to customise a Divi Woo site specifically, should I decide to go that route? It’s developer documentation is very thin…

    On the bright side, I am building my first Storefront website next week!

    Reply
    1. Rodolfo Melogli

      Hi Noelle 🙂 As long as Divi does not have a /woocommerce folder (like other themes), then you’re good to go. If Divi is removing WooCommerce trigger functions and adding its own, you can always remove Divi trigger functions and code your own (more in module 4 and 5).

      Storefront does exactly that in some template files – it removes WooCommerce functions and adds its own – it’s then easy for you to do a file search through Storefront files and code a remove_action() to customize functionality.

      Divi+Woo is a great niche, so keep it up!

      Reply
      1. Noëlle

        Hey Rodolfo, thanks for your reply! I’ve been digging in the Divi files and as far as I can see, Elegant Themes just added PHP to name CSS selectors, add compatibility and do things like this:

        remove_action( 'woocommerce_before_main_content', 'woocommerce_output_content_wrapper', 10 );
add_action( 'woocommerce_before_main_content', 'et_divi_output_content_wrapper', 10 ); 
add_action( 'eventon_before_main_content', 'et_divi_output_content_wrapper', 11 );

        I could not find a /woocommerce folder. So it looks like I’m good. Pfew! The Storefront build I am working on has been a lot of fun so far, though. But yeah, happy I don’t need to say goodbye to Divi for Woo websites that need PHP customisation. 🙂

        Reply
        1. Rodolfo Melogli

          Great!

          Reply
  7. Shessvy

    Question? Who do you know what a good plugin is for WooCommerce, are they any files or code that could give us insight?

    Reply
    1. Rodolfo Melogli

      Hi Shessvy, good question! I follow several rules for picking the right ones (not 100% reliable of course). The most important is not code-related; instead I really value the quality of support and the skills of its plugin developers.

      Usually buying official plugins from the WooCommerce marketplace is a guarantee, however they can be expensive. If price is a problem, my second choice is YITH, a company which specializes in WooCommerce plugins so it must be good. They have a wide presence on the WordPress repository with their plugins’ free versions, so they don’t hide behind the curtain and are available to reply to support requests for free. They have a team of 40+ employees.

      When we move even further, there are many things to consider. Codecanyon, for example, is not my favorite. Many plugins are often discontinued and there is no long-term guarantee, as well as no-questions-asked returns. Plugins are cheaper but it is for a reason.

      And then you have the independent plugin developers, usually a 1-person business, such as the popular Aelia Currency Switcher or James Kemp’s Iconic WooCommerce plugins. In those case, I personally know the developers and are a current client of them, so I know how much effort they put into coding and supporting.

      As you can see this is very subjective, but the more you work with WooCommerce the better you become at picking the right plugins. Hope this helps!

      Reply
  8. Shessvy

    this is really good info, many people do not know how to tell if a theme is good or bad, you gave a clear reason and ways to see.. Great info on this one! It would be cool if you had some downloadable PDF so we can print some of this out..

    Reply
    1. Rodolfo Melogli

      Thank you Shevvsy! I actually had the downloadable slides as part of the lesson resources, but Slideshare is having problems with their WordPress embed functionality. For now, you can check them at https://www.slideshare.net/BusinessBloomer/woocommerce-customization-mistakes-to-avoid

      Reply
Questions? Feedback? Support? Leave your comment now!
_____

If you are writing code, please wrap it between: [php]code_here[/php]

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *