Development Archives - Business Bloomer

WooCommerce Blocks: The Extensibility Challenge

In the fast-evolving landscape of ecommerce, WooCommerce has long stood out as a flexible and powerful platform, largely thanks to its deep extensibility. Developers (like myself), agencies, and store owners have historically leveraged its robust hook system to customize virtually every aspect of an online store.

However, with the advent of block-based editing and the new Cart and Checkout blocks, a palpable tension has emerged within the community. This shift, while promising a more streamlined user experience, has inadvertently created new hurdles for those who build and extend on the platform.

The very superpower of effortless customization, once a hallmark of WooCommerce, seems to have been diminished, leading to a crucial conversation about the future direction of the platform and its commitment to the developer ecosystem.

This was vividly illustrated in a WooCommerce Slack “office hours” session held just yesterday, where core block developers were present, and numerous passionate community developers participated.

The discussion went through the heart of these concerns, exploring the challenges faced by extension developers and the urgent call for renewed focus on developer-centric extensibility.

Fixing QIT PHP Compatibility for WooCommerce Marketplace Submissions

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In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a member sought advice on submitting a plugin to the WooCommerce Marketplace.

The challenge was passing the Quality Insights Tool (QIT) PHP Compatibility check when using Composer dependencies, like Symfony MBString polyfill, which triggered false positives.

Despite using conditional loading for PHP 8.0+ and comments to bypass checks, the issue persisted.

Best WooCommerce Plugins for License Management

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In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a member sought advice on lightweight, optimized plugins for managing licenses and enabling remote updates of WooCommerce plugins.

The discussion highlighted the need for efficient and actively maintained solutions to avoid performance issues.

The conversation revealed several options, including plugin alternatives, server-side solutions, and even custom coding. For WooCommerce store owners selling digital products, finding the right license manager can improve customer experience, automate updates, and secure product access.

WooCommerce: Managing Store Redesigns Without Losing Data

Redesigning a WooCommerce store can be a rewarding yet complex task, especially when ensuring the live site continues to operate seamlessly. The challenge lies in merging changes from a staging environment to the production site without losing critical transactional data such as orders and customer details.

For stores with frequent sales or high traffic, even small downtime or data inconsistencies can result in significant customer dissatisfaction or financial loss.

Most developers and store owners wrestle with questions like: Should they opt for a manual migration, leverage hosting tools for selective syncing, or use advanced solutions like two-way syncing tools?

Each method has its own benefits and pitfalls, from time investment to automation reliability. Moreover, ensuring the integrity of WooCommerce’s scattered database structure adds to the complexity.

Let’s explore the common approaches and best practices for tackling store redesigns while keeping the live site functional and data intact.

WooCommerce Devs: Grow Your Plugin Business on WPBay

Creating high-quality plugins is only half the battle. The real challenge lies in gaining visibility for your product, generating traffic, and capturing value in a sustainable way – ideally through recurring, stable revenue. As any developer knows, building an excellent product often isn’t enough without effective marketing behind it.

This challenge is particularly acute for smaller developers who lack a large audience or the resources to invest heavily in marketing and sales infrastructure. Many turn to marketplaces as a solution, only to find these platforms are often uncompetitive, imposing restrictive terms and limitations that can effectively hold developers hostage through one-sided agreements.

That’s why we’ve created WPBay: a developer-first marketplace designed as a genuine alternative. We offer a real solution with low commission rates, flexible licensing and pricing options, non-exclusivity, and powerful developer tools.

With WPBay, you can finally sell your plugins and themes on your own terms, maintaining control while reaching the audience you deserve.

Should There Be a “Classic WooCommerce” Plugin?

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In a recent Twitter thread, I asked why no one had yet built a “Classic WooCommerce” plugin — something akin to Classic Editor and Classic Widgets.

After all, those two plugins have over 12 million active installs combined, proving there’s a strong demand for keeping things… well, classic.

The tweet triggered a few replies, so I thought I’d expand on the idea here. What would such a plugin actually do, and more importantly, would it be useful?

Let’s dive into this “just curiosity” thought experiment and explore potential use cases, roadblocks, and community sentiment.

Running Custom Server-Side Code on Checkout Field Blur in WooCommerce

A recent query in the Business Bloomer Club asked for advice on executing custom server-side code when a user enters their email address during checkout in WooCommerce, specifically after the field loses focus (similar to how the cart updates for coupons and shipping).

This setup can be useful for verifying user input dynamically without a full page refresh.

Here’s a guide on how to achieve this functionality using AJAX and JavaScript.

Resolving Undefined Variable Errors in WooCommerce Custom Code

In a recent Business Bloomer Club thread, a member encountered an undefined variable error in a WooCommerce snippet they were using to display custom order statuses on the admin dashboard.

Despite the functionality working correctly, Query Monitor flagged an error message due to a missing initial value for a PHP variable. Properly initializing this variable before using it is essential to prevent PHP errors and ensure code stability.

Here’s a breakdown of the issue and a step-by-step solution to help avoid similar problems in your custom WooCommerce snippets.

Optimizing functions.php to Improve WooCommerce Site Performance

In a recent Business Bloomer Club thread, a member sought advice on reducing the Time to First Byte (TTFB) on their WooCommerce store. They noted that their functions.php file was overloaded with custom functions and wondered if this might be impacting the site’s loading speed.

For WooCommerce and WordPress developers, a large functions.php file can lead to slower load times if not managed carefully. Here’s a closer look at best practices to ensure functions in this file are optimized and only run when needed, ultimately improving site performance.

How to Migrate a WooCommerce Site to a New Design Without Losing Data

In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a WooCommerce developer sought advice on the best way to migrate an existing WooCommerce site to a new design and theme.

Unlike typical migrations, this one required extra care as the live site had ongoing new orders, customers, and product updates, along with a loyalty program. Given the complexity, the goal was to migrate only the theme, design settings, and additional plugins without overwriting any live data.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to minimize downtime and avoid common issues.

Best Practices for Developing a WooCommerce Site Across Multiple Machines

In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a developer asked for advice on managing WooCommerce theme development across multiple devices.

Switching between local machines and keeping code in sync is a common challenge, especially for developers who alternate between local environments and live sites. The community shared several strategies, including using Git, virtual environments, and syncing tools to streamline multi-device development.

Here’s a breakdown of the recommended approaches, along with tools and workflows for each.

How to Replace WooCommerce Product Loop Structure with a Bootstrap-Friendly Layout

In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a user wanted to replace WooCommerce’s default product loop HTML structure with a layout more compatible with Bootstrap’s “container – row – col” classes.

While modifying woocommerce_product_loop_start() to replace <ul> with <div> is straightforward, changing the default <li> markup in content-product.php requires further customization.

Here’s a guide on options for creating a Bootstrap-friendly WooCommerce product grid without entirely overwriting core templates.

Best Practices for Passing Data from PHP to JavaScript in WooCommerce

In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a member asked about the most effective way to pass PHP data to JavaScript, specifically an array of image attachment IDs intended for a lightbox script.

Passing data between PHP and JavaScript can sometimes be tricky, especially when aiming to avoid page reloads or dealing with dynamic content.

WooCommerce provides several methods to streamline this, including wp_localize_script and wc_enqueue_js. Here’s a breakdown of popular approaches and tips for choosing the best method based on your project’s needs.

Tag: Development