Would WordPress be what it is if there were no WooCommerce? Quite irrelevant that question is, I know! But, let’s face it. We live in the world dominated by WordPress and WooCommerce plugins. Therefore, the new release from WooCommerce is as potent as it is from the Automatic.
Back in October, WooCommerce released their latest edition: WooCommerce 3.2. According to WooCommerce release, it is the release for “Improved Coupons and Extension Management.” The WooCommerce team declared this release dedicated to the improved Admin experience. It is a micro release. Hence, it is fully backwards compatible with versions 3.1 and 3.0.
Managing Orders with and without Coupon Codes
The users of previous versions would be aware what a pain point it was to manage coupons and discounts. The version 3.2 is extremely promising in terms of in this aspect. WooCommerce 3.2 has a number improvements for the cart and to apply the coupons. To apply coupons, all you need to do is “Edit an Order.” Afterwards, you just need to click “Apply Coupon” and enter the Coupon Code.
This new feature manages all the backward & forward calculations automatically. Additionally, if there are orders with the coupon codes and you wish to remove that – you can do that using the same method. The system will manage the calculations on its own. For order processing and for the marketing teams, it is a serious relief as to how seamlessly, you can maintain the orders.
Products Shortcode Improvements
The users of WooCommerce extensions would be aware managing multiple products shortcode was a serious task. However, with WooCommerce 3.2, you can sandwich all the product shortcode into one. A single unified product shortcode will support all legacy product shortcodes. Here’s the gitHub guide for implementation.
Features for WooCommerce Extensions Management
Compatibility issues are one of the most commonly faced issues while updating any software. Especially, while updating the CMS platform. While managing several WooCommerce plugins and WooCommerce extensions, you might easily be facing this issue with major updates. WooCommerce 3.2 provides a fix for this issue now.
WooCommerce 3.2 users will get a warning for the outdated WooCommerce plugins & WooCommerce extensions. Before installing the update, the Admin Panel will run the version check for all the plugins & extensions you are using. And you will get a warning if any one of them may or may not have compatibility issues. Then you can choose to either request for compatibility test or disable the WooCommerce plugin or the WooCommerce extension.
WooCommerce Extension Management
With the new release of WooCommerce 3.2, users will be able to manage the extensions more effectively. Same as the WordPress WP-Admin, users will be able to filter the extensions. The available filters are Active, Inactive, Installed, Expired and Download(ed). Also, once you connect your site with the WooCommerce account, you will be able to identify the Downloadable WooCommerce Plugins for your store.
In an all-new feature, WooCommerce has added a new feature to share your plugins and extensions. If you are an agency or a developer, you may often require to share your WooCommerce extensions. You may directly share your subscriptions with your clients or your other sites. It will completely remove the requirement to connect the partner site to your personal WooCommerce account.
Features for Developers
If you require any help for any of the WooCommerce Products you use, you may look for help using new CRUD system. This takes care of the need for direct queries. CRUD is literally a short form of “Create, Read, Update, Delete.” It is an online knowledgebase & training for the WooCommerce developers.
You can log and view fatal errors in “System Status > Logs”. Similarly, there are few more debugging tools included. You can view the ChangeLog for more details.
Other New Features
- Enhancement of keyboard, screen reader support and select boxes on the checkout
- Share order details with the customer directly from the Order Page using “Edit” option
- Renewed functionality for payment gateways, shipping & logistics and other opt-in services such as taxation, shipping labels, etc.
- Sorting in the search results
- Sorting for grouped product field through drag & drop feature to have high-level control to arrange products in specific order using front-end
- Managing the maximum depth of the categories for the product category widget
Before the Update
As it is the case with any update, you must follow certain standard procedures before installing the update. Review the WooCommerce documentation about how to update. You should also make sure that you have the backups in your database. Once it is all set, push the go button in your Admin.
As WooCommerce 3.2 is a minor release, and ideally there should be no concerns. However, you hit the roadblock due to any unforeseen use cases, you can always revert to 3.1.
AppJetty – your WooCommerce and WordPress extension store is happy to present some of the leading WordPress extensions and WooCommerce extensions. You can rely on us for any support you may seek for WordPress and WooCommerce extensions.
