Gift Wrapper still in beta 4.0
Things have been slow-going because there are numerous projects on the project heap and none too pressing. I’ll be pushing WooCommerce Gift Wrapper 4.0 out of beta soon, but not before a long-awaited and much-needed 1 week actual vacation. If you’re curious about 4.0, turn on your beta access under your WordPress->Settings->Gift Wrapper License, and ping the WordPress plugin updater API (or just wait a day for it to cycle). Or you can fetch it under your online account at giftwrapper.app/account (reset your password if you don’t have one).
Probably one of the cooler features that will come with 4.0 (and which is included in 4.0-beta5) is compatibility with Elementor, such that Gift Wrapper widgets can be made in Elementor. This requires Elementor PRO, which includes WooCommerce support (the free version of Elementor does not do WooCommerce stuff). For people who have created cart and checkout pages using the Elementor page builder, this means that gift wrap prompts can be added inside columns and/or to other areas of the page. For what it’s worth, adding wrap prompts to other page areas can be done pretty easily anyway using hooks included with the plugin, but since that involves some knowledge of WordPress and PHP coding, it’s out of most lay people’s reach. Elementor fascinates me because 5 million people use it, and yet it actually does functions which aren’t that far out of reach using not much more than basic code. It removes mystique from WordPress capabilities that aren’t really that mystical. There is some deep irony between the heavy Elementor use and what I’m about to say next.
It’s worth your time and money to hire a WordPress developer if you want your WordPress site customized. You can stare at the screen for hours trying to make sense of the Greek of PHP, or trying to just change a color or move something on the page. Or you can pay someone who can accomplish your goals in a matter of hours. Folks will hire a car mechanic, they’ll hire a plumber, but they will avoid hiring a developer. How do I know? Because in most cases, I’m not hired until something breaks! And even then, I find out that my client spent hours or days trying to fix it themselves. I typically can fix most WordPress site issues within minutes providing I have the passwords I need, so keep that in mind if you’ve spent hours or days. However, if you want to learn how to code and maybe become a developer, it’s well worth your time to keep staring at the screen trying to make sense of that Greek. I have heard and I agree that troubleshooting is a great way to learn how to code. Fixing websites is how I learned some computer languages… after about 20 years of staring. 😉
Anyway, you come to WordPress and you come to plugin developers to make your life easier, so thank you for allowing us to do that for you. I am glad many of you stay in touch with your comments and ideas for these plugins, otherwise there wouldn’t be so much growth. Please stay well, and have a great day.
4.0 Betas Changelog
Here is what has gone on with 4.0 so far:
= 4.0-beta5 - 22 Sept 2021 =
/**
* 4.0 is possibly a breaking release esp. if you are using WCGWP templates or custom CSS.
* Make sure to review your products, cart and checkout pages!
* See beta releases in changelog below for further changes between version 3.2.2
*/
* Feature - Elementor Pro widget compatible (must have pro for Elementor *WooCommerce* support)
* Fix - show gift wrap selection in cart for checkbox/attribute-style wrapping
* Tweak - "Cart/Checkout" gift wrap re-named "Order" wrapping to reflect what is actually going on. Per-product wrap is still called "Product" gift wrap.
* Tweak - nonces added to frontend forms
= 4.0-beta4 - 8 Sept 2021 =
* Fix - Change to modal-cart-checkout.php template to avoid disrupting the DOM and strange CSS behavior making prices "appear" negative
* Feature - Allow for different settings between cart and product as far as showing and linking thumbnails.
* Tweak - Clarify settings pages language, esp around how to set wrap category and what cart/checkout wrap actually means (order wrap).
* Tweak - Improvement to animate.css, especially for exit animations
= 4.0-beta3 - 21 July 2021 =
* Feature - 'wcgwp_modal_checkout_template' and 'wcgwp_list_cart_checkout_template' filters to allow for using alternative template, esp. when custom hooks are used in placement.
= 4.0-beta2 - 7 July 2021 =
* Feature - Cue in cart and on product pages when item cannot be gift wrapped. Can be turned on in general settings, and filtered using 'wcgwp_cannot_wrap_notice' hook
= 4.0-beta1 - 2 July 2021 =
/**
* 4.0 is possibly a breaking release esp. if you are using WCGWP templates or custom CSS.
* Make sure to review your products, cart and checkout pages!
*/
* Tweak - Add 'wcgwp_get_posts_args' filter hook to allow for post argument filtering, e.g. in case of using alternative stock mgmt system
* Tweak - Begin delicate and awkward cleanup of some WCGWP CSS and a dash of inline style for some predictability (using CSS grid)
* Accessibility improvements, replace href link prompts with buttons.
Take note! This means prompts previously styled as href links are now <button>s. Style accordingly.
* Tweak - Remove need for preg_match() in add_giftwrap_to_product() method in wc-gift-wrapper-cart-item.php
* Feature - Add "Remove Gift Wrap" prompts for after gift wrap is added as attribute in cart
* Tweak - Don't repeat product title twice in cart when simple checkbox giftwrap used.
* Feature - show product parent relationship when simple checkbox wrap used for cart item wrap
* Testing with WC 5.4
(Warning: if you don’t really know what beta means, it’s probably best to stick with version 3.2.2 for now.)