When it comes to eCommerce platforms, WooCommerce is one of the most popular choices. It’s a WordPress plugin that turns your WordPress site into a fully functioning online store. And it’s perfect for small businesses because it’s free and open source.
But one of the things that can make WooCommerce tricky to use is understanding how to create custom endpoints.
In this article, we’re going to demystify custom endpoints and show you how to create them in WooCommerce. By the end of this post, you’ll know how to:
- What are custom endpoints?
- Why you might need to create a custom endpoint
- How to create a custom endpoint in WooCommerce
What are custom endpoints?
An endpoint is simply a URL that is used to access a specific resource on a website. For example, when you go to Facebook and login, the URL you see in the address bar is https://www.facebook.com/.
The “/” at the end of the URL is the endpoint. It’s the resource that Facebook uses to load your profile page.
Why you might need to create a custom endpoint
There are two primary reasons why you might need to create a custom endpoint in WooCommerce:
- To add extra functionality to your online store: For example, you might want to add a “My wishlist” page or a “customer service” page that isn’t part of the default WooCommerce setup.
- (For developers) To access data stored in WordPress:: If you’re a plugin or theme developer, you might need to access data stored in WordPress (such as user information) that isn’t normally accessible through the WooCommerce REST API.
How to create a custom endpoint in WooCommerce
(For developers) There are two ways to create custom endpoints in WooCommerce: using the "woocommerce_register_post_type", "woocommerce_register_taxonomy", or "woocommerce_register_endpoint" . action hooks; or by using the "init", "parse_request" .action hooks.
