How Do I Use Events in WooCommerce?

If you’re running a WooCommerce store, chances are you’ll want to take advantage of the built-in events system to help automate some tasks. Events can be used to trigger actions when certain conditions are met, such as when an order is placed or when a product is added to the cart.

There are two ways to use events in WooCommerce: via the Action and Filter Hooks API, or by using the dedicated WooCommerce Events API.

Action and Filter Hooks

The Action and Filter Hooks API is the most flexible way to use events in WooCommerce. With this method, you can define your own custom functions to run when an event is triggered. For example, you could create a function that sends an email notification whenever a new order is placed.

To use this method, you first need to add a custom function to your child theme’s functions.php file. This function will be executed whenever the specified event is triggered. Here’s an example of how to do this:

add_action( ‘woocommerce_new_order’, ‘my_custom_function’ );
function my_custom_function( $order_id ) {
// do something here..
}
In this example, we’ve added a custom function that will be executed whenever a new order is placed. The $order_id variable contains the ID of the order that was just placed.

You can also specify multiple functions to be executed when an event is triggered. To do this, simply pass an array of function names to the add_action() or add_filter() function:

add_action( ‘woocommerce_new_order’, array( ‘My_CustomClass’, ‘my_custom_function’ ) );

The WooCommerce Events API

The WooCommerce Events API is a simpler way to use events in WooCommerce. With this method, you can specify which actions should be taken when certain events are triggered, without having to write any custom code. For example, you could use the Events API to automatically send an email notification whenever a new order is placed.

To use the Events API, you need to add a dedicated WooCommerce-events.php file to your child theme. This file should contain an array of event objects, each of which specifies what action should be taken when a particular event is triggered. Here’s an example of how this might look:

$events[] = array( ‘event’ => ‘woocommerce_new_order’, ‘action’ => array( ’email’ => true ), ‘recipient’ => get_option( ‘admin_email’ ) );In this example, we’ve specified that an email notification should be sent whenever a new order is placed. The email will be sent to the address specified in the recipient option (in this case, the administrator email address).