Summary
WooCommerce will remove ZeroClipboard (a JQuery plugin used to manage clipboard interactions) from its dependencies in an upcoming release. Plugins, themes and other projects that still use this library are strongly encouraged to find another solution.
The details
ZeroClipboard is a jQuery plugin designed to support simple copy and paste operations. When it was first introduced, around 8 years ago, it was one of the best tools for the job. However, browsers have improved considerably since then and the Flash-based approach used by ZeroClipboard should arguably now be avoided.
WooCommerce itself stopped actively using ZeroClipboard in its 3.2.0 release, around 5 years ago, but continued to bundle the library in case other plugins depended on its presence. Enough time has now elapsed, though, that we feel it can safely be removed.
How can I tell if this affects me?
Most up-to-date WordPress sites using regularly updated plugins and themes are unlikely to be impacted.
If you wish to take extra precautions, consider updating WooCommerce on a staging site first of all and perform some testing. You can also use plugins like Query Monitor to proactively detect if zeroclipboard is still being enqueued by your theme or by any of your other plugins.
What action should I take?
If you are a site owner and discover that your site still needs ZeroClipboard, try following our standard conflict-testing steps to identify the specific component that relies on ZeroClipboard and then reach out to that component’s author or support team for further assistance. As a last resort, if the plugin is essential to the operation of your site, you could also consider temporarily postponing updates.
If you are the developer or maintainer of a plugin or theme that depends on WooCommerce’s copy of ZeroClipboard you are strongly encouraged to adopt a modern, supported alternative.
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