WooCommerce 9.3: Optimizations, accessibility improvements, and more Release Posts

WooCommerce 9.3 has been released on September 11th, 2024. This post highlights what’s new in this version of WooCommerce.

See our update guide.
Download directly from WordPress.org.

Other important information:

📀 This release does include a database update.

Latest Release:

👉 WooCommerce 9.3.1

About:

✅ Backwards compatible
Commits: 392
Contributors: 77

Whats coming in 9.3

Coming soon mode: improvements and optimizations
Improved product meta checkbox UI
Shortcode checkout accessibility improvements
More new features and updates
API Updates
Other important information
Changelog
Get WooCommerce 9.3
Contributors

Coming soon mode: improvements and optimizations

Add site visibility badge to admin menu #50775 / Add site visibility settings confirmation modal #50759 / Add woocommerce_coming_soon option for all sites #50581 / Rename woocommerce_is_store_page to woocommerce_is_extension_store_page #50771

We’ve addressed various pieces of feedback we received by moving the site visibility badge to the admin menu and adding a confirmation modal when changing from a live site to coming soon mode. We also optimized the performance of all sites by preventing an unnecessary front-end query. Additionally, we’ve implemented a new filter to allow extensions to include their pages in the “store pages only” coming soon protection.

Improved product meta checkbox UI

Update product data meta box checkboxes UI #50619

We’ve improved the interface when managing product data in the Add Products screen. In accordance with W3C’s recommendations, the checkboxes shown in the header of the product data box are now shown before their descriptive labels. Along with this change, the spacing between checkbox items has been increased to improve readability.

Shortcode checkout accessibility improvements

Add aria-required attributes to WC form fields #48371

The aria-required="true" attribute has been added to required form fields on the shortcode checkout and whenever the woocommerce_form_field() function is used. The aria-required attribute was chosen over the required attribute to avoid backwards compatibility issues

More new features and updates

Significant reduction in plugin size

Image Optimization: Compress pattern placeholder images #50405

We’ve optimized the WooCommerce plugin and substantially reduced its file size. Compared to version 9.2, which was 20.5MB, version 9.3 has achieved a 27% overall size reduction. A key factor in this improvement was the compression of certain assets, shrinking them from 10MB to just 4MB. This considerable decrease in plugin size offers several benefits for WooCommerce users, including faster load times and reduced server storage requirements. For e-commerce stores, where performance is crucial, this optimization can lead to improved user experience amongst other benefits.

Improved wp-admin stability

[Remote Specs] Treat empty arrays as valid cached values #50521 / Make menu_task_count safer #50533 / Update AdditionalPayments task to use default gateway suggestion #50674 / Remove remote API call in “Grow your business” task #50479

Previously, there was a cache bug that caused requests to the WooCommerce.com API endpoints to affect the load times of wp-admin pages for merchants who have enabled marketplace suggestions. We’ve fixed the bug to ensure that an API failure does not impact the admin experience. We’ve also removed irrelevant API requests that may run on wp-admin pages.

API Updates

REST: Update product stock when removing line item from order #50606
Store API: Do not resume orders with pending status #50531
CYS – Move the ai/business-description endpoint to woocommerce admin API #50359
CYS – Move the ai/images endpoint to woocommerce admin API #50365
CYS – Move the ai/patterns endpoint to woocommerce admin API #50372
CYS – Move the ai/store-info endpoint to woocommerce admin API #50363
CYS – Move the ai/product endpoint to woocommerce admin API #50393

Other important information

Database updates

To improve performance, the woocommerce_coming_soon option is now set by default on all sites. #50581

The meta key used for coming soon mode has been updated to be stored in the user.woocommerce_meta, rather than the user.meta attribute. #50664

Security improvement: CSV Import

In #51344, we hardened the CSV product import process against sniffing content from server files outside of the WordPress install directory.

Remote error logging is coming in WooCommerce 9.4

As mentioned in our pre-release post, WooCommerce 9.3 was originally planned to include remote error logging – an opt-in feature that would allow stores to send error logs to Woo. During some final testing, we identified an issue with this feature that would make it harder for store owners to debug fatal errors. Therefore, we have disabled remote error logging in WooCommerce 9.3.1 – the version set as stable on WordPress.org – and plan to reintroduce it in WooCommerce 9.4.

Changelog

See all bug fixes and improvements

Fix – Revert update to React 18 in Checkout block. #51289
Fix – Add check to ensure themes API is safe #51081
Fix – CYS – Remove usage of prepare_item_for_response function in Images endpoint. #50923
Fix – Add ability for a screen reader to announce the current tab on a single product page. #50373
Fix – Add a label to the product pagination for the woocommerce pagination #49924
Fix – Add aria-current to the current link in My Account side nav #49800
Fix – Add aria-label on View order button to aid in accessibility for screen readers #49424
Fix – Add CSS outline for site visibility badge keyboard accessibility #50794
Fix – Add scope attribute and aria-label to the product attributes table #49768
Fix – Add to Cart with Options – Fix translation when used inside the Single Product block. #50628
Fix – Allow verified parameter to be set by REST API request #50525
Fix – Avoid PHP warnings if add-to-cart.php template does not pass aria-describedby_text #48969
Fix – Cart block: Strip HTML tags and decode HTML entities in quantity change notifications. #50541
Fix – Changed from using React.render to React.createRoot for marketing coupons as it has been deprecated since React 18 #48832
Fix – Changed from using React.render to React.createRoot for payment methods promotion, shipping settings region zone as it has been deprecated since React 18 #48835
Fix – Changed from using React.render to React.createRoot for print shipping banner as it has been deprecated since React 18 #48831
Fix – Changed from using React.render to React.createRoot for product-usage-notice-modal as it has been deprecated since React 18 #50765
Fix – Changed from using React.render to React.createRoot for wc addon tour as it has been deprecated since React 18 #48833
Fix – Changed from using React.render to React.createRoot for WCAdmin uses as it has been deprecated since React 18 #48785
Fix – Changed instances of prime marks inappropriately used when apostrophes are supposed to be used for some parts of WC Admin JS/TS/TSX files #50776
Fix – Clear product unique ID (global_unique_id) when duplicating products. #50629
Fix – Compatibility Layer: fix ‘woocommerce_before_single_product_summary’ hook position. #50392
Fix – CYS – Improve the error when a request fails due to permissions #50211
Fix – CYS – Update the “show_on_front” setting to “posts” to avoid overriding the “page” template. #50083
Fix – CYS: disable zoom out on fonts/color pairs iframe #50498
Fix – CYS: Fix auto scroll when a new block is added. #50431
Fix – CYS: Improve opt in flow #50529
Fix – Display address card for virtual products if shopper’s address is known #50127
Fix – Enable skipped E2E tests for attributes #50143 #50143
Fix – Ensure coupon errors are visible on block checkout when invalid coupons are removed. #50412
Fix – Ensure low and no stock email notification routine is triggered whenever product stock changes #49583
Fix – Ensure session object is initialized before attempting to get chosen shipping methods #50774
Fix – Ensure that the orders REST endpoint behaves the same as the UI when updating an order to remove a line item. #50606
Fix – Featured Product: Fix variable product Selection dropdown #50633 #50633
Fix – Fix “Product Meta” translations – Register the block server side. #50625
Fix – Fix: ensure the global product object is always ready for compatibility layer by disabling default render routine of Product Templates inner blocks. #49971
Fix – Fix activating the installed subscription when the user has multiple active licenses for the same product. #49803
Fix – Fix address heading level on My Account page. #49764
Fix – Fix an admin bar CSS positioning bug in WordPress.com on mobile #50709
Fix – Fix cart shortcode updates when not used on the main cart page. #50524
Fix – Fix core profiler checkbox vertical alignment and border color #50151
Fix – Fix core profiler set up my store button and TOS are too close to each other #50579
Fix – Fix e2e Google for WooCommerce strict mode violation error #50189
Fix – Fixed Core Profiler’s sticky footer button problem #50727
Fix – Fixed placeholders in the classic cart shipping calculator to update with country selection. #49684
Fix – Fixes a bug where some express payment buttons weren’t being rendered correctly #49304
Fix – Fix extensionCartUpdates to surface generic error messages, and include documentation for the error handling. #49762
Fix – Fix focus order on checkout block page. #49649
Fix – Fix navigation badge decreases when installing extension in “Grow your business task” #50584
Fix – Fix page titles of the cart and checkout page when using blocks and FSE themes. #49986
Fix – Fix rescheduling of actions that are blocked by other delayed actions #50082
Fix – Fix the “Add payment methods” link in LYS congrat screen redirects to a blank page #50609
Fix – Fix translation – Avoid registering blocks in the wrong context. #50615
Fix – Fix Product meta console error. #50680
Fix – Fix store-title endpoint – Pass default value to get_option. #50673
Fix – Hide save changes button in main payments screen #50064
Fix – In Remote Specs, treat empty arrays as valid cached values so individual engines can return default values. #50521
Fix – Keep focus on shipping option input once selected #49360
Fix – Make the matching variations alert a live region #50132
Fix – Only count published products in productCount #50503
Fix – Prevent fatal error if NULL is provided in array_search under Jetpack Stats #50696
Fix – Prevent Store API orders being placed with empty state #50028
Fix – Prevent sync-on-read from affecting results of HPOS diff CLI tool. #49726
Fix – Product Collection: Fix max price query to include prices less or equal to the given max value. #49917
Fix – Product Collection: fix the preview if used in Products by specific Category or Tag #49889
Fix – Product Price block: prevent price amounts from breaking into multiple lines #50660
Fix – Properly detect active plugins in multisite WP installations. #50417
Fix – Reduce error noise in the user profile screen, by removing the requirement for custom fields to have a class attribute. #48079
Fix – Remove Active Shipping Zones check for displaying shipping calculator on the Cart Page. #49214
Fix – Single product block – Fix translation for title and description in edit mode. #50599
Fix – Store API: Do not resume pending orders–create a new order instead #50531
Fix – Transform labels in shipping zone region selector to decode html entities #50694
Fix – Treat post_type=product as a shop page. #50567
Fix – Update product order status colors to ensure accessible color contrasts #49934

See all updates and tweaks

Update – Added more paths to remote logger query param whitelist #51108
Update – Update WooCommerce Shipping Promo Banner to install the latest version of WooCommerce Shipping instead of WCS&T. #50970
Update – Add abbreviations for fields GTIN, UPC, EAN, OR ISBN #50042
Update – Add additional fields to new product editor e2e tests. #50241
Update – Add confirmation prompt for site visibility settings when changing from live to coming soon mode #50759
Update – Add pattern validation for global_unique_id #50501
Update – Add remote logger as a log handler to wc logger #50430
Update – Add request_uri prop to remote logging data #50671
Update – Add woocommerce_coming_soon option for all sites #50581
Update – Comment: Fix typos in documentation. #50282
Update – CYS – Add tests for the Full Composability feature. #49748
Update – CYS – Run appropriate tests depending on the WordPress version. #50016
Update – CYS – Update icon and text colors in the assembler. #50478
Update – CYS: Improve opt-in flow fonts. #50086
Update – CYS: Improve opt-in flow patterns. #50080
Update – CYS: Improve tracking survey #50196
Update – CYS: Improve tracking survey #50354
Update – CYS: Update the tracking URL to the external Fiverr link in sidebar of the Add your logo screen. #50753
Update – Enable remote logging feature flag #50351
Update – feat: add aria-required attributes to WC form fields #48371
Update – Fixed log-out link behavior so that redirects work, and so that security nonces are automatically added to link in navigation menus. #49605
Update – Migrate LYS user meta #50664
Update – Move marketing task to things to do next task list #50487
Update – Move site visibility badge to admin bar. #50775
Update – Remove “Need help?” modal from onboarding #47812
Update – Remove all links from the CYS sidebars #50414
Update – Remove remote API call from marketing task #50479
Update – Remove WooCommerce Navigation client side feature and deprecate PHP classes. #50190
Update – Renamed columns inside In-App Marketplace > My subscriptions and added action to turn auto-renewal on for a subscription #49985
Update – Rename woocommerce_is_store_page to woocommerce_is_extension_store_page #50771
Update – Reverting the new buttonAttributes API. This will be included in a later release #50763
Update – Revert the Zoom Out feature for the CYS experience #50535
Update – Show expiring and expired notices to active and unconnected subscriptions #50383
Update – Store API: Remove the need for nonces when using cart tokens. Remove deprecated X-WC-Store-API-Nonce header. #50025
Update – Strip HTML tags from aria-label in wc_help_tip function #50103
Update – Text adjustments on shipping zones settings page #50136
Update – Update AdditionalPayments task to use default payment gateways #50674
Update – Update add product task button section UI #50580
Update – Update all blocks to use API Version 3. #48720
Update – Update Blueprint settings layout. #50724
Update – Update core profiler continue button container on extension screen #50582
Update – Update Store Alert actions to have unique keys. #50424
Update – Update WooCommercePayments task is_supported to use default suggestions #50585
Tweak – Add GTIN in structured data #50087
Tweak – Add link to title, remove link from a description, minor copy changes to site visibility settings page #50781
Tweak – Add the woocommerce_should_clear_cart_after_payment filter to influence whether the cart should be cleared after payment. #44515
Tweak – allows the quantity selector on block cart page to render as readonly when editable is false #49450
Tweak – Bump Jetpack COnnection, Jetpack Constants and a8c MC Stats #50471
Tweak – Extract the checkbox list option logic into its own component #50566
Tweak – Make geolocation_ajax_get_location_hash case-insensitive, to reduce the number of cache misses. #45439
Tweak – Optimize large image files #50517
Tweak – Product Collection: fix the PHP deprecated warning #50661
Tweak – Reduce core profiler sticky footer height #50788
Tweak – Remove colon from product data meta box checkboxes #50619
Tweak – Remove the code related to the automatic Products (Beta) -> Product Collection upgrade. #50440
Tweak – Set timeout to 2 seconds for helper product-usage-notice-rules endpoint request #50821
Tweak – Update size of site visibility badge. #50792
Tweak – Vertically center product meta elements #50826

See all features and additions

Add – Add an additional field for the email settings that sets the footer text color #49648
Add – Add blueprint behind a feature flag for testing purposes. #49763
Add – Add field for the email footer text color #49648
Add – Add function to clear system status theme info cache #50803
Add – Add methods required by extensions to control product feature usage based on subscription status. #50218
Add – Add parameter to avoid attempting to create the logs directory if it doesn’t exist #49766
Add – Add Pattern button to no blocks view on the CYS assembler #49981
Add – Add reactified main payments screen #49972
Add – Add reactify-classic-payments-settings feature flag #49966
Add – Add tracks for WordPress Importer/Export pages. #50769
Add – Add FilteredGetDataTrait, OrderAwareControllerTrait, and StatsDataStoreTrait for extension developers to reuse while creating custom Analytics #49425
Add – Implement server-side remote error logging #49599
Add – Inform screen reader users when mini cart updates #48295
Add – Integrate JS remote logging package in WooCommerce Admin #50134
Add – Product Collection: emit the JS event when PC block is rendered #50166
Add – Product Collection: Enable Context-Aware Previews by Adding usesReference to registerProductCollection #49796
Add – Track frequency of unhandled JS errors with MC Stats #50155
Add – Use MC Stats for PHP fatal error counting #49658
Add – [E2E tests]: Add product description using the block editor #50232 #50232

See all developer updates

Dev – Execute test env setup on host instead of wp-env container #51021
Dev – Added code docs with examples to the Analytics classes #49425
Dev – Add lost password e2e tests #50611
Dev – Add unit tests for the product_add_publish track. #49916
Dev – CI: introduce PHPUnit tests sharding. #50084
Dev – CI: minor speed boost of wp-env startup. #50445
Dev – CI: speedup assets size verification job execution time. #50178
Dev – CI: Use a single shard when re-running failed tests in CI #50492
Dev – CI config: update changes list to include more paths #50399
Dev – Clean up unused images #50516
Dev – CYS – Document possible Intro pages #50171
Dev – CYS – Move the “ai/patterns” endpoint to woocommerce admin API. #50372
Dev – CYS – Move the “ai/store-info” endpoint to woocommerce admin API #50363
Dev – CYS – Move the ai/business-description endpoint to woocommerce admin API #50359
Dev – CYS – Move the ai/store-title endpoint to woocommerce admin API #50352
Dev – CYS – Move the ai/images endpoint to woocommerce admin API #50365
Dev – CYS – Move the ai/product endpoint to woocommerce admin API. #50393
Dev – CYS: add E2E tests for fonts installation. #50210
Dev – E2E tests: add a flaky test reporter for Core e2e tests #50259
Dev – E2E tests: add an option to skip the env setup script running before test execution #50620
Dev – E2E tests: add buildkite-test-collector for blocks e2e tests #50642
Dev – E2E tests: add environment reporter #49988
Dev – E2E tests: add hpos-disabled env and tagged tests with hpos tag #50448
Dev – E2E tests: fixed broken logo picker tests #50473
Dev – E2E tests: fix flakiness in page-loads customer page test #50559
Dev – E2E tests: fix flakiness in product attributes test #50485
Dev – E2E tests: removed Github reporter #50256
Dev – E2E tests: Removed unnecessary pause in the test #50043
Dev – E2E tests for verifying approve, spam and reply to product reviews. #50060
Dev – Fix E2E tests SKU field id #49729 #49729
Dev – Fixes a flaky product variations e2e test #50807
Dev – Fix Metrics CI job #50214
Dev – Fix optional param in PHPdoc for WC_Admin_Marketplace_Promotions to generate code-reference w/o warnings #50732
Dev – Fix the Metrics job by adding a missing NVM install step #50482
Dev – Make the Metrics tests use utilities provided by the updated @wordpress/e2e-test-utils-playwright package. #50626
Dev – Mark ReportTable tableData prop as not required #50816
Dev – Monorepo: enable new linting rules for PHP (PSR-4 naming, Strict types declaration). #49438
Dev – Monorepo: tweak Webpack loaders paths filtering for better build perfromance. #49714
Dev – move block theme docs to docs site folder #50638
Dev – move part of checkout docs to main docs folder #49984
Dev – Move ReportError to @woocommerce/components as AnalyticsError #50108
Dev – moving product collection docs to main docs folder #50368
Dev – Reduce duplicated code in Analytics controllers, unify their behavior and API. #49425
Dev – Reduce the amount of duplicated code in Analytics DataStores. #49425
Dev – Removed defaultProps from React functional components since they will be deprecated for React 19 #50266
Dev – Removed directive to disable woocommerce_coming_soon in e2e tests so that we get better test coverage #50344
Dev – Render a React placeholder for offline and WooCommerce Payments settings sections #50008
Dev – Replace Automattic\WooCommerce\Admin\API\Reports\*\Query classes with a single GenericQuery class. #49425
Dev – Switch render() to createRoot().render() to use React 18 features. #48843
Dev – Tests: moved api core tests as a suite in e2e-pw #50024
Dev – Tweak the lost password e2e logic #50666
Dev – Update @wordpress/e2e-test-utils-playwright core dependency to wp-6.6 #50274
Dev – Updated e2e tests docs to clarify the use of environments #50530
Dev – Updated the workflow prompting for testing instructions to only run once (preventing double comments) #50034
Dev – Update E2E tests for linked list and variation creation with new component changes. #50128
Dev – Update lys e2e tests to test with both classic and block themes #50657
Dev – Update Playwright to 1.46.1 from 1.45.1 #50772
Dev – Update WP version to 6.6 in Blocks wp-env config. #49704
Dev – Use stricter text selector on test #50848
Dev – [Filter Products by Price]: Update view when changing the min/max value #50651 #50651

See all enhancements

Performance – Cache order dates in options for performance. #50066
Performance – Compress pattern placeholder image assets #50405
Performance – Improve performance of maybe_assign_default_product_cat by only dropping cache and term recounting if changes were made in the database #50006
Performance – Improve setup_tasks_remaining performance #50655
Enhancement – Add a filter to override the SKU database lock. #49755
Enhancement – Add email type to Checkout block email field. #48611
Enhancement – Add filter woocommerce_is_store_page to modify whether Coming Soon mode considers a URL a store page or not. #50174
Enhancement – Add username in email reset-password link #49737
Enhancement – CYS: improve CTA #50278
Enhancement – Ensure wccomHelper data is only loaded on the Extensions page where it’s needed. #49758
Enhancement – Fixed minor issues in the developer documentation recently added by public resources team #50845
Enhancement – Hide zoomed product images for screen readers. #50003
Enhancement – Improve hover style on product tabs when using the Minimal style in the Product Details block #50605
Enhancement – Make screen readers announce notice messages once page loads. #50061
Enhancement – Refactor: Migrate the All Products block to API version 3 #50203
Enhancement – Remove opacity from the hover style of the mini cart button #50240
Enhancement – Use standard link color in legal disclaimers on core profiler #50830
Enhancement – Add query params masking to remote logger #51108