The document provides an overview of essential WooCommerce customization concepts, detailing tools and techniques such as PHP, CSS, snippets, and staging. It covers important practices like backups, troubleshooting errors, using hooks, and understanding changelogs and deprecated functions. The information is aimed at helping users effectively customize and manage their WooCommerce sites.

1. WooCommerce Customization:
Definitions
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2. WooCommerce (“WC”, “Woo”)
● Launched in 2011
● “Develop WooCommerce” dev blog
woocommerce.wordpress.com
● docs.woocommerce.com
● github.com/woocommerce
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3. PHP (“Hypertext Preprocessor”)
● Programming language .php
● HTML vs PHP: PHP executes a
calculation on the server, and then
the result is returned as HTML
● E.g. <p><?php echo date(“Y”); ?></p>
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4. CSS (“Cascading Style Sheets”)
● Style sheet language that defines
HTML formatting (style.css)
● “Selector” (id, class, tag)
● “Declaration” (“property”: “value”)
● E.g. h1 { color: red; }
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5. Snippet
● Piece of PHP code that adds a
specific functionality to WP/WC
● It’s a mini-plugin!
● Goes into child theme’s
functions.php
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6. Staging
● Service that should be offered by
your hosting company
● 1-click cloning and 1-click pushing
● Used to test updates, new plugins,
themes, snippets, troubleshooting
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7. Backup
● Made of 2 files: .ZIP (WordPress
files) + .SQL (Database “DB”)
● 1-click restore via hosting
● Should be stored somewhere
different than your own server
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8. WordPress / WC “Hook”
● Provided to allow your snippets to
“hook into” WP/WC i.e. call
functions at specific times/places
without overriding core files
● Actions vs Filters (add / edit)
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9. Text/code editor
● Software used to code (PHP, CSS, etc)
● Find/replace, syntax highlighting,
undo/redo, auto backup
● NotePad++, Atom, Sublime, Visual
Studio Code
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10. FTP
● “File Transfer Protocol”
● Software to transfer files between
your computer and your server e.g.
download style.css, customize it,
upload it back to the server
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11. phpMyAdmin
● Access your WP DB online
● Import / export / bulk update / bulk
delete / backup / clean / search &
replace
● Very delicate. Advanced only
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12. Troubleshooting
● Trying to understand why
WooCommerce is not running /
freezes / displays weirdly / takes you
to error pages (404/500)
● WC “Status” @ WP dashboard
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13. Error 500
● Site is “broken”
● There is a PHP Fatal Error. A simple
missing “,” can break your site
● WP_DEBUG to the rescue
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14. Changelog
● Record of notable changes in WC
software
● Know the difference: 3.5.2 > 3.5.3
vs 3.5.2 > 3.6.0 vs 3.5.2 > 4.0.0
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15. “Deprecated”
● Function that is replaced by another,
hence becomes obsolete
● WC deprecates functions @ each
update
● Snippets / plugins should adapt
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