Override templates

Hey,
You can override. If you use our templates as a base then you can place our templates into your child theme and those will override our plugin and thus you will control the templates but since you are using our templates and not woocommerce templates you will still be using the hooks are plugin adds into the email templates so our plugin will work. Of course if you break the templates or remove the hooks you will be back to out plugin not working.

The main thing is that people copy woocommerce templates into their child themes and those templates do not have the hooks that would allow our plugin to work. So when someone has an issue it’s fairly common for us to confirm they didn’t override the templates with woocommerce templates because that will prevent this plugin from working.

As a general rule I do not suggest you override templates including overriding our templates. There are hooks that you can use and it’s a better way for maintenance.

In terms of the order table what exactly are you wanting to do, it’s possible I can offer a suggestion.

I hope that clarifies ??

Ben

I am trying to modify the order details table, which includes info generated from the email-order-details template and from the email-order-items template. I had overridden the woocommerce templates and your plugin is still working, since your plug-in was still including info from those templates, which your plugin does not modify (but would be awesome if they did) but if it isn’t the right way, then please walk me through. Which files should I copy where.

The other issue is that I am using qTranslate-XT and upon initial testing, translation were working, but then the info was coming in both languages, with the [:es] [:en] [:] tags, so we just set the heading and subject in both languages with a /, and the recipient sees something like Gracias/Thank you as a workaround.

I am trying to modify the order details table, which includes info generated from the email-order-details template and from the email-order-items template.

Can you tell me specifically what you are wanting to do, without that I can’t offer any suggestion, yes you can override and that is fine but you will need to keep up with file changes.

qTranslate-XT support would be who you need to talk to about this, I was under the impression that the qTranslate family was no longer active. However if someone is working on it you would need to talk with them about how you force their language tags to work inside of a woocomerce email.

Ben

Well, I know what needs to be modified in the original templates. And I can find it in yours, I just need to know where to copy your templates to where, before editing. That’s all. It works for now, but you said it is the wrong way to do it.

What do you mena by keep up with the changes? I am just eliminating items from the PHO to not show in tables, such as quantity amount, table headings, etc.

qTranslate-XT is the continuation. I thought it has to be a compatibility issue with your plug-ins, since that part worked but not the part inside woocommerce, but then after a while neither does.

It works for now, but you said it is the wrong way to do it.

Hey,
I want to be clear, it’s not about the “wrong” way to do it, I just don’t recommend you do it because you are responsible to update the template and keep it working when you override it. Woocommerce updates its templates regularly.

In terms of removing the quantity table heading if you use responsive mode in the plugin then that part of the table is changed.

See here: https://www.kadencewp.com/blog/responsive-woocommerce-emails/

Ben

I’ve already made a copy of the Kadence templates, and made the changes. Just need to know where to copy these – the original Woocommerce folder with the same oath in the child theme or a mirror path of the Kadence folder in the child theme?

What I am doing (maybe you can add it as a feature later?) – is: 1. eliminate the heading of the order details (Product, Quantity, Price), 2. eliminate the Product Quantity field, and 3. eliminate total and sub-total. In addition, we want to eliminate “Order” and leave nothing, or replace it with “payment,” and then have the placeholder for order number fetch and populate the number.

Yes, the responsive part was taken into account and the email reads well, currently, on any screen type/size, but we want to do it the right way.

Let me know what you mean by keep up with the changes? You mean if we use your templates then we do not have to, or we still have to keep up with the changes, in which case in that regard it would be the same?

You would do that through the woocommerce child theme path, so woocommerce/emails in your child theme.

If you override templates then you are solely responsible for them, doesn’t matter if you override from Kadence or woocommerce once you place them in your child theme you have to manage them going forward, so probably not a big deal but something you should be aware of any time woocommerce or Kadence updates since the templates would be affected by either plugin.

This isn’t a bad thing just simply something you should be aware of, it’s impossible to predict when/if the templates you override would be updated but if they are then you would either need to update your child theme or at least be aware of what changed to know whether or not you need to update your child theme.

I hope that clarifies and to be clear I don’t expect the options you want to be part of Kadence Email designer options in the future.

Ben

Right, thank you. But can / should I override the original order-details and order-item templates or the ones from Kadence? You state in the last post that it doe snot matter, but a few posts prior, you say it does (or at least that is what I took away).

And if the latter, still the same folder in my child theme?

Form what I have read, the things I want to do cannot be done via hooks, but if they can, it would obviously be much better…

Hey,
It does matter, use the Kadence one. In the context of you being responsible for the template, it doesn’t matter. I was only trying to explain that you are responsible for the template regardless of if you use Kadence or not when you override.

Yes in your child theme in the woocommerce/emails folder.

Ben

OH ok. You had said the original ones did not have the hooks…and then had posted in other posts you could not override but then that you could and that one of the two would prevent the plugin form working. So when is it ok to override and still allow the plugin to work? That’s the part I am confused about.

p.s. I am correct in stating that the only way to accomplish wag I want is with overrides, correct?

It’s always “ok” to override, what you override with will determine if the plugin works. Most people override woocommerce templates with the core templates, find that they are difficult to edit, and thus look for a plugin like ours, install it and then wonder why the plugin doesn’t work, that is because they’ve overridden the templates with core ones and thus overriding this plugin. This is why you would see us frequently ask if a user is overriding templates and tell users not to. You are not the typical case ??

No, you don’t need to override templates. It’s an option, and perhaps the easiest option given what you want. If your place if I wanted to change the order table like you are suggesting I would do that but I’m also a full time developer and live in the Woocommerce development space so maintenance for me would mean nothing. ??

If you are comfortable with controlling the templates then it’s a great option. If you wanted to get more technical but also build out something with potentially less maintenance you can unhook the order details section of emails and add just only what you want. If you don’t want to control templates then I would suggest an option where you use a system that replaces woocommerce emails altogether and allows you to send custom emails from scratch like jilt or Sendinblue.

I hope I’m bringing clarity ??

Ben

I am interested in this:

“If you wanted to get more technical but also build out something with potentially less maintenance you can unhook the order details section of emails and add just only what you want.” – but didn’t think it was possible. With those changes I am OK with Woocommerce emails with your plug-in. It’s perfect but for that – but it’s still the best plug-in for editing emails. Please and thank you?

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by ajparedes.

That isn’t something I can write for you. I’m only explaining what is possible.

Look at the main email template: https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce/blob/master/templates/emails/customer-processing-order.php#L40

There you will see on line 40 the action that pulls in the order details. That is the simplest way to unhook the order details table, note that you will need the woocommerce emails class object.

But again as I mentioned this is more technical and this is not something I can write for you.

Ben

Hi,

I’d like to follow up on this topic with a similar question.

I am currently using Weglot as translation tool. Weglot translates content on the server-side on the fly. However, I am running into issues regarding dynamic texts which should not be translated (e.g. order note). Weglot allows to exclude DOM elements from translating by using predefined css classes for DOM elements.

Is there any other way to add css classes to the emails without touching the core Kadence email templates?

Your help would be appreciated.

Best
Dennis