So you want to make changes to your WooCommerce products? Using WooCommerce revisions is the best way to update your products and keep a record of those changes.
Before you do, be careful. By default, revisions are not enabled in WooCommerce. So if you make any mistakes, you won't be able to roll back to a previous version of your product. Fortunately, it is possible to set up WooCommerce revisions successfully with the help of the PublishPress Revisions Pro plugin.
Some background on WooCommerce Revisions #
People have been asking WooCommerce to support revisions for years. This post on the WooCommerce ideas forum was started in 2012 and is still being updated. This Github issue contains feedback from the WooCommerce team and their explanation is that the WordPress core doesn't have enough features.
As a result, if you make changes to a product, you will not see the “Revisions” area you normally see for WordPress posts and pages.
My guess is that the developers decided to hide the “Revisions” feature because it just wasn't very useful.
However, there are some workarounds available. I'll explain how you can almost entirely restore revisions to WooCommerce products.
How to see the Revisions link for WooCommerce products #
Let's get the “Revisions” link back. Try adding the code below to your theme’s functions.php file:
add_filter( 'woocommerce_register_post_type_product', 'wpse_modify_product_post_type' );
function wpse_modify_product_post_type( $args ) {
$args['supports'][] = 'revisions';
return $args;
}Once that code is in place, you will now see a “Revisions” area in the “Publish” box when you edit a product. Keep in mind that to see this area, you always need to save changes to an existing product.
If you don't see the Revisions link, check to see whether Revisions are working in other areas of your site. The most common problem is that some hosting companies automatically disable the Revisions feature for your whole site.
What WooCommerce information is stored in revisions? #
After enabling the revisions link, you might be disappointed because of the most data about your products will not be recorded. The default product revisions will only record changes to text boxes such as the Title and Description. The default revisions do not track changes to the Regular price, Sale price, SKU and other fields. This image show the default “Compare” area for WooCommerce revisions.
Using PublishPress Revisions Pro #
The PublishPress Revisions Pro plugin has support for meta data, which is what WooCommerce uses to store extra data.
Install PublishPress Revisions Pro into your site. Afterward, if you click the “Browse” button you will still see the WordPress core with revisions with very little data. However, there will now be a “Revisions” link in the sidebar.
- Edit a WooCommerce product.
- Check the “Save as Pending Revision” box.
- Click “Update”.
- Click “View Revision Queue”
- You can also click “Revisions” in the WordPress admin menu.
- Click the “Compare” link for a revision.
- You can now see almost all of data for your WooCommerce product. PublishPress Revisions Pro has recorded changes to the SKU, the Stock Status, and many other fields:
PublishPress Revisions can even handle WooCommerce product images:
Please note: PublishPress Revisions Pro is a new product and it's possible that one or two fields from WooCommerce or 3rd party plugin may not be recorded in revisions. If this happens, let us know and we'll fix it for you.
Summary of WooCommerce product revisions #
Out-of-the-box, WooCommerce does not have support for WordPress revisions. Even if you restore the “Revisions” area to the sidebar, you will still not be able save your data in revisions.
However the PublishPress Revisions Pro plugin does offer a solution and is able to store your WooCommerce product data in revisions.
Get PublishRess Revisions Pro and more #
Join PublishPress today and you'll get powerful publishing and permissions plugins to improve your WordPress site.