The WooCommerce Review and Approval plugin works with Product Add-Ons Ultimate to create a workflow between you and your customers. This workflow allows:
- Users to upload files and instructions as part of their order
- You can then work on these files and upload new versions for the customer to view in their Account page
- Customers can review your revised versions, request further changes, or approve the files
How to get started
Remember: you’ll need Add-Ons Ultimate to be installed and activated as well as Review and Approve.
1: Create a field with a review workflow
Typically, you might want to allow the user to upload a file to initiate a workflow. In this case, create a new upload field in one of your products. Click here for how to add a new field in Add-Ons Ultimate.
A review workflow can be initiated from any field type – it doesn’t need to be an upload field. For example, you could use a checkbox field so that if the user checks the option, a workflow will be initiiated.
In this example, we’re using an upload field.
Check the ‘Review workflow’ option in the upload field settings. This will create a workflow for this field.
You can also create a textarea field for users to enter some instructions.
Save and publish your product. That’s all you need to do to create a product where users can upload files for you to rework.
2: Define the settings
The Review and Approve plugin has very minimal settings:
You can set the maximum number of iterations in your workflow by changing the value in ‘Maximum number of revisions’.
You can also ensure that a new user account is automatically generated at checkout for any orders containing files to be reworked. Just choose ‘Yes’ in the ‘Account creation during checkout’. User accounts are required for the Review and Approve plugin to work fully.
3: Review new orders
When a user places an order that includes a file for you to rework, you’ll get a standard email. This will contain the uploaded file plus any instructions.
You can also see new orders that require your attention by using the filter in WooCommerce > Orders:
By choosing ‘Waiting on admin upload’ you can see all new orders that require your response.
You can also see any orders that are in process – either where you’ve uploaded a new version and you’re waiting for the customer’s response, or where the customer has approved the revision.
4: Uploading a revision
Once you’ve checked out the customer’s request in the new order and made the revisions to their uploaded file, you can submit your new version to them for review.
In the order screen, you’ll see a new ‘Approval Workflow’ section.
First, upload your new file by clicking the ‘Choose file’ button in the Approval Workflow section.
Then, change the order status to ‘Waiting for customer review’.
Finally, update the order. This will automatically generate an email to the customer to tell them that they have a new revision to review.
You can also add a note to customers by using the standard WooCommerce Notes feature.
Enter your comment in the ‘Add Note’ section then set ‘Note to Customer’ and click ‘Add’. This will generate a note that will be displayed in the customer’s Account page.
5. After the customer review
The customer can either request a further revision or approve an option that you’ve sent them. When they do so, you’ll receive an email and the order status will be updated, either to ‘Rejected by customer’ or ‘Approved by customer’.
Depending on the status, you can either make further revisions or process the order in the normal way.
6. Enable more field types
If you’d like to ensure that other fields types also have the review workflow option, you can add them with a simple snippet:
| <?php | |
| /* | |
| * Enable workflow for other field types | |
| */ | |
| function prefix_integrated_field_names( $fields ) { | |
| $fields[] = 'checkbox'; | |
| return $fields; | |
| } | |
| add_filter( 'rawc_pewc_integration_integrated_field_types', 'prefix_integrated_field_names' ); |
Here’s how to add the snippet.
Further reading
You can also check out this article for more information on creating file approval workflows in WooCommerce.