Checkout and downloads issues

Hey there!

I’ll tackle your questions one by one below.

> Once the transaction is completed on Paypal and I received my email with the downloads link, and go back (as a customer) to the website – the cart is not emptied and the checkout page is still there. I have to manually cancel the transaction in the checkout to clear it. This should happen automatically.

This could be a few different things.

* Once you’ve completed the payment, what’s the order status? There could be IPN issues.
* Do you have any caching enabled on your site?
* Could you please share a copy of your site’s System Status? You can find it via WooCommerce > Status. Select “Get system report” and then “Copy for support”.? Once you’ve done that, paste it here in your response.

When I clicked on one link to save the file however, I got an error messaage appearing in my browser that “the file could not be downloaded as the source can’t be found”.

You’ve verified that the file is in place in the product settings – does it work correctly when you try to download the file from My Account rather than from the email?

Which file download settings are you using under WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Downloadable Products > File download method ?

If you try switching to a different method, does it work for you?

An order can only be marked as complete once the product file has been successfully downloaded by the customer, and if there are any errors, such as the source file can’t be found – I should be notified.

I understand where you’re coming from – when WooCommerce marks an order as complete, you as the shop owner think that everything is all set, which isn’t the case in this situation as the customer can’t download their file.

Those status such as pending, processing, completed, etc., mostly correspond to the order’s payment status. Given that it’s a digital download, it skips the processing step and goes straight to completed. That gives the customer immediate access to the file.

WooCommerce doesn’t have a way to track if the customer was able to successfully download their files. Most of the time, it’s a non-issue as this works perfectly. If you’d like to pursue this, you can add it as an enhancement request on the WooCommerce Github repository:
https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce/issues/new/choose

The checkout doesn’t tell the customer that once the payment is confirmed they will receive an email with the download links. How can I include this important information at the TOP of the checkout page?

The best way to do this is with a little bit of code – here’s a good snippet that’ll help you get started:
https://gist.github.com/bekarice/ce7b04fe8158dc736e0c

Do you encode the download links? in other words, are my downloadable products secure and protected from unauthorised downloads?

We do, depending on the download setting that you use. You can control that via
WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Downloadable Products > File download method

Here’s some more background information:
https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/digital-downloadable-product-handling/#section-1

Hi
thanks for your reply.

Cart and checkout

The order status is COMPLETED.
Yes, I do have a caching plugin, but it should not override the behaviour of the checkout.
I won’t post my system details on a public forum, sorry. When I was asked to provide the report previously, I was given an email address to send it to.
however, in this case it’s not required as the downlloads are now working fine.

Download error’message

it appears you misunderstood the issue. It’s not about a download error – I have fixed the file link and it works fine now – but about the fact that WHEN there was an error and the file did’t download, as a buyer I saw only a very brief error message which quickly disappeared, and as the vendor I was NOT notified by WC that one of the purchased files was not downloaded.
You said “most of the time it’s a non-issue”. Well yes, but when a link does get broken, then this becomes an issue. I recommend that an alert of an error with file download be included. I’m not a developer and don’t have access to the github, so could you include this issue for development on my behalf please.

Checkout instructions
thank you for the snipets, I will test them.

Link encoding
thanks, all clear.

Hi
before you close this ticket I have one more question about customising the layout and content of the checkout page.

The options in the WP customiser are very limited – for example, I can’t delete or add fields, or move them around.

Do you have ready-made templates I can choose from, or an easy way to customise the checkout page? (I’m not a developer and have no coding skills, but can insert and customise snipets in my Snipet Plugin)

thanks

Hey there!

however, in this case it’s not required as the downlloads are now working fine.

I’m glad to hear you sorted out the downloads problem!

Well yes, but when a link does get broken, then this becomes an issue. I recommend that an alert of an error with file download be included. I’m not a developer and don’t have access to the github, so could you include this issue for development on my behalf please.

You don’t need to be a developer to post this on Github – I’m not a developer, either. ?? Anyone is welcome to add information. It’s something you need to do for yourself, as you know exactly what behavior you’re looking for, and what problem you’re looking to solve. This is the beauty of open source software like WooCommerce – everyone can contribute in their own way.

Do you have ready-made templates I can choose from, or an easy way to customise the checkout page? (I’m not a developer and have no coding skills, but can insert and customise snipets in my Snipet Plugin)

If you’d like to move around fields on the checkout page, I can recommend our Checkout Field Editor plugin:
https://woocommerce.com/products/checkout-fi-gateway/

Please do note that it won’t cover the earlier question of adding notifications to the page – the best way to do that is still using a snippet.

Hi

many thanks.

Regarding the checkout page template – it’s not so much about moving the fields around but DELETING the fields I don’t want (e.g. Company name – even if it’s optional) and ADDING new fields.

and of course moving the fields – in my checkout email address needs to be at the top right underneath the name, not at the very bottom as this is the most important contact detail for digital downloads.

In addition – how can I remove a note showing at the very top of the checkout page: “Have a coupon? Click here to enter the code”.
This note is redundant as entering the code happens on the cart page.

The snippet worked well to add a new note that I wanted, but how can I delete a note which is already there?

Maybe try these hooks.
https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/tutorial-customising-checkout-fields-using-actions-and-filters/

You could definitely do this with code, as @serafinnyc mentions.

You can indeed use the Checkout Field Editor plugin to add and remove fields, and to rearrange the fields within the normal block area for those fields. You can also use it to add new fields at checkout.

In addition – how can I remove a note showing at the very top of the checkout page: “Have a coupon? Click here to enter the code”.
This note is redundant as entering the code happens on the cart page.

Here’s how:
https://businessbloomer.com/woocommerce-move-remove-coupon-form-cart-checkout/

Googling is great for this kind of thing – I Googled “woocommerce remove coupon checkout” and this was the second hit. Many things in WooCommerce are customizeable and have been documented by people in the community.

great many thanks to both ??

Hi Hannah

you said

If you’d like to move around fields on the checkout page, I can recommend our Checkout Field Editor plugin:
https://woocommerce.com/products/checkout-fi-gateway/

This is a Checkout Finland Payment Gateway for WC which I can’t use.

It’s not free (I wouldn’t pay $79 USD just to be able to re-arrange the checkout fields) but also the store currency must be set to Euro.

I’m in Australia and my store currency is AUD, and so this is not the right plugin for me.

That was just a side comment on your suggestion. otherwise, I’m happy to close this thread.

By the way, could please a WC member advise Stef (@serafinnyc) not to launch personal attacks on users just because his posts are confusing and undecided – like on my other thread
https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/mailchimp-integration-74/page/2/#post-11498844

that’s unprofessional, unwarranted and not wanted here.

If you’d like to move around fields on the checkout page, I can recommend our Checkout Field Editor plugin:
https://woocommerce.com/products/checkout-fi-gateway/

Whoops, sorry about that! I shared the wrong link. If you’re still curious, here’s the correct plugin:
https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-checkout-field-editor/

It is indeed a paid plugin, as we base our business on adding extra options to WooCommerce.

If you don’t want to use a paid plugin, you can make the modifications yourself with code:
https://businessbloomer.com/woocommerce-move-reorder-fields-checkout-page/

By the way, could please a WC member advise Stef (@serafinnyc) not to launch personal attacks on users just because his posts are confusing and undecided

As I mentioned in the other thread, we’re here to support the plugin. Any problems you have with other community members can be addressed to the mods via the Make www.ads-software.com Slack in #mods: https://wp-info.org/slack/

many thanks Hannah.