Support for WooCommerce Blocks

Hi @jethrohazelhurst,

The new WooCommerce Blocks Cart and Checkout are only available with the feature plugin and will be eventually supported.
Support for blocks is one of the next major features for some time in Q2 but can’t say too much more about the timeline.

The old PayPal Standard integration comes with a checkout block.
But for the moment, PayPal Payments only works with the regular shortcode pages.

Kind regards,
Niklas

Hi @niklasinpsyde

This is a bit of a let down for a plugin deployed under the WooCommerce account. It seems like an oversight to not have this ready with WC Blocks, while the original template system was left in the dust feature-wise. Not trying to be rude, as I don’t know what kind of hurdles development of this plugin are, but it’s not like this switch wasn’t given a very long notice.

Information for anyone reading:

1. PayPal Standard ended support and maintenance this month (March 2022), and WC just gave out a notice to switch to this plugin.
2. PayPal Standard is not included with WC Core after 5.5
   https://developer.woocommerce.com/2021/07/12/developer-advisory-paypal-standard-will-be-hidden-on-new-installs/
3. PayPal Standard will continue to work, though not be actively maintained. I imagine WC will at least push critical security updates for a short while, due to how many people will likely not be switching any time soon. But, that’s uncertain, and PayPal themselves may be less likely to assist if something goes awry.

Some possible solutions:

1. Stick with PayPal Standard and wait it out. New installs will need to use WebToffee or figure out how to activate Standard (if possible) via dev means. WebToffee:
   https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/express-checkout-paypal-payment-gateway-for-woocommerce/
2. Switch to PayPal Payments, then either revert to the legacy template files or install a plugin which handles the checkout page. IE:
   https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/fluid-checkout/

• This reply was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by Zachary Elkins.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by Zachary Elkins.

Hi @zacharyelkins,

PayPal Standard is hidden on new WooCommerce installations but can be re-enabled with a filter. While it will continue to work for a while, the lack of support for the Standard gateway means it cannot be recommended anymore though.

The original idea was to have Blocks support ready by now but things don’t always go according to the plan and priorities may change.
Compared to Standard, PayPal Payments is more complex and will eventually provide exponentially more Block-related interactions that all need to work reliably.

What’s important to keep in mind though is that the Checkout Blocks as a “feature plugin” are essentially beta software and far from being done with development.
We already implemented Blocks with other popular payment gateways and can speak from experience that supporting features like this early on causes a lot of additional work and headaches. Potential issues are still unavoidable in the current state of Blocks as most major Blocks update usually caused something to break in the implementation.

When the new Blocks are no longer a feature plugin and become a core part of WooCommerce, then PayPal Payments will certainly be ready for it. But there is currently no timeframe for support of the Blocks feature plugin. It will eventually happen but that’s all we can say for the moment as we are focussing on improving stability rather than adding new unstable features.
So we hope for your understanding as we understand the desire for a new Checkout experience but we also want it to work reliably and nothing less.
For the moment, the shortcode Checkout is still the default and not yet legacy.

Kind regards,
Niklas