WooCommerce 9.3 has been released on September 11th, 2024. This post highlights what’s new in this version of WooCommerce.
See our update guide.
Download directly from WordPress.org.
Other important information:
- 📀 This release does include a database update.
Whats coming in 9.3
- Coming soon mode: improvements and optimizations
- Improved product meta checkbox UI
- Shortcode checkout accessibility improvements
- More new features and updates
- API Updates
- Other important information
Coming soon mode: improvements and optimizations
Add site visibility badge to admin menu #50775 / Add site visibility settings confirmation modal #50759 / Add woocommerce_coming_soon option for all sites #50581 / Rename woocommerce_is_store_page to woocommerce_is_extension_store_page #50771
We’ve addressed various pieces of feedback we received by moving the site visibility badge to the admin menu and adding a confirmation modal when changing from a live site to coming soon mode. We also optimized the performance of all sites by preventing an unnecessary front-end query. Additionally, we’ve implemented a new filter to allow extensions to include their pages in the “store pages only” coming soon protection.
Improved product meta checkbox UI
Update product data meta box checkboxes UI #50619
We’ve improved the interface when managing product data in the Add Products screen. In accordance with W3C’s recommendations, the checkboxes shown in the header of the product data box are now shown before their descriptive labels. Along with this change, the spacing between checkbox items has been increased to improve readability.
Shortcode checkout accessibility improvements
Add aria-required attributes to WC form fields #48371
The aria-required="true" attribute has been added to required form fields on the shortcode checkout and whenever the woocommerce_form_field() function is used. The aria-required attribute was chosen over the required attribute to avoid backwards compatibility issues
More new features and updates
Significant reduction in plugin size
Image Optimization: Compress pattern placeholder images #50405
We’ve optimized the WooCommerce plugin and substantially reduced its file size. Compared to version 9.2, which was 20.5MB, version 9.3 has achieved a 27% overall size reduction. A key factor in this improvement was the compression of certain assets, shrinking them from 10MB to just 4MB. This considerable decrease in plugin size offers several benefits for WooCommerce users, including faster load times and reduced server storage requirements. For e-commerce stores, where performance is crucial, this optimization can lead to improved user experience amongst other benefits.
Improved wp-admin stability
[Remote Specs] Treat empty arrays as valid cached values #50521 / Make menu_task_count safer #50533 / Update AdditionalPayments task to use default gateway suggestion #50674 / Remove remote API call in “Grow your business” task #50479
Previously, there was a cache bug that caused requests to the WooCommerce.com API endpoints to affect the load times of wp-admin pages for merchants who have enabled marketplace suggestions. We’ve fixed the bug to ensure that an API failure does not impact the admin experience. We’ve also removed irrelevant API requests that may run on wp-admin pages.
API Updates
- REST: Update product stock when removing line item from order #50606
- Store API: Do not resume orders with
pendingstatus #50531 - CYS – Move the
ai/business-descriptionendpoint to woocommerce admin API #50359 - CYS – Move the
ai/imagesendpoint to woocommerce admin API #50365 - CYS – Move the
ai/patternsendpoint to woocommerce admin API #50372 - CYS – Move the
ai/store-infoendpoint to woocommerce admin API #50363 - CYS – Move the
ai/productendpoint to woocommerce admin API #50393
Other important information
Database updates
To improve performance, the woocommerce_coming_soon option is now set by default on all sites. #50581
The meta key used for coming soon mode has been updated to be stored in the user.woocommerce_meta, rather than the user.meta attribute. #50664
Security improvement: CSV Import
In #51344, we hardened the CSV product import process against sniffing content from server files outside of the WordPress install directory.
Remote error logging is coming in WooCommerce 9.4
As mentioned in our pre-release post, WooCommerce 9.3 was originally planned to include remote error logging – an opt-in feature that would allow stores to send error logs to Woo. During some final testing, we identified an issue with this feature that would make it harder for store owners to debug fatal errors. Therefore, we have disabled remote error logging in WooCommerce 9.3.1 – the version set as stable on WordPress.org – and plan to reintroduce it in WooCommerce 9.4.
Reposted from WooCommerce
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