WooCommerce: Do Something When Product is Published

A client needed to add “something” upon product publishing. For example, product meta key “total_sales” with value = 0 gets added automatically once a WooCommerce product is created.

So, how do we run (“hook”) our function when a new product is published?

woocommerce-hook-action-on-product-publish
WooCommerce: add_post_meta on product creation

PHP Snippet: Add Custom Meta When a Product is Published

In here we trigger our function when a product goes from a non-published status (‘draft’, ‘pending’, ‘private’, ‘future’) to ‘publish’ status.

/**
 * @snippet       Hook into product publishing
 * @how-to        Get CustomizeWoo.com FREE
 * @author        Rodolfo Melogli
 * @compatible    WooCommerce 6
 * @community     https://businessbloomer.com/club/
 */

add_action( 'transition_post_status', 'bbloomer_add_custom_meta_on_publish_product', 9999, 3 );

function bbloomer_add_custom_meta_on_publish_product( $new_status, $old_status, $post ) {
   if ( 'product' === $post->post_type && 'publish' === $new_status && 'publish' !== $old_status ) {
      update_post_meta( $post->ID, 'total_amount', '0' );
   }
}

Where to add custom code?

You should place custom PHP in functions.php and custom CSS in style.css of your child theme: where to place WooCommerce customization?

This code still works, unless you report otherwise. To exclude conflicts, temporarily switch to the Storefront theme, disable all plugins except WooCommerce, and test the snippet again: WooCommerce troubleshooting 101

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Rodolfo Melogli

Business Bloomer Founder

Author, WooCommerce expert and WordCamp speaker, Rodolfo has worked as an independent WooCommerce freelancer since 2011. His goal is to help entrepreneurs and developers overcome their WooCommerce nightmares. Rodolfo loves travelling, chasing tennis & soccer balls and, of course, wood fired oven pizza. Follow @rmelogli

8 thoughts on “WooCommerce: Do Something When Product is Published

  1. I tried your code and i had a problem. It runs only when i go to products and click add new and as a result $post returns an object with empty properties. When i publish my product it doesn’t do anything. Am i doing something wrong?

    1. Hi there, try this new version and let me know

  2. after publish, if we turn product published to draft for some time & publish again

    function re run.

    can we limit it to run once only.

    not everytime for same product that got published in past.

    1. Hi Arun thanks so much for your comment! Yes, this is definitely possible, but I’m afraid it’s custom work. If you’d like to get a quote, feel free to contact me here. Thanks a lot for your understanding!

  3. Good snippet, however you’ll probably want to add a quick check for the post type:

    if ($post->post_type != ‘product’) return;

    Otherwise you’ll end up adding extra meta data for all posts, including non-products.

    1. Brilliant, thank you Joshua:)

  4. Hi Rodolfo,

    Is there any way to utilise this code snippet to notify authors when their products have been published? I am using woocommerce to sell books, and the books are uploaded by authors. I have set that Woocommerce products allow for authors on the product page, but I am struggling to notify them once their product has been published.

    I would love any help you can offer.

    Thank you so much.

    1. Ronel, thanks for your comment!

      The answer to your question is: YES, of course. Everything is possible – it’s just a matter of understanding what’s the most time- and cost-effective way to do it ๐Ÿ™‚ I can develop this for you if you’re interested – simply contact me at infoATbusinessbloomer.com

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