Advanced Restaurant for WooCommerce

1. Overview

Advanced Restaurant for WooCommerce turns your WooCommerce products into a one-page ordering menu and adds the things a kitchen needs on top: opening hours, an "Open Now" or "Closed" status, a header message, a "restaurant closed" switch, extras and add-ons from PPOM for WooCommerce, and a delivery day and time selection at checkout. On the Plugins screen the plugin is listed as "Restaurant for WooCommerce Pro", which is the name in its file header; the settings screen is titled "Restaurant Settings".

You add the shortcode [wxp_restaurant] to a page. Each product category with published products becomes a section of the menu. Customers search, filter, add dishes with one click, choose variations and add-ons in a popup, review their order in a basket that slides in from the right, and continue to the normal WooCommerce cart and checkout. At checkout they choose a delivery day and, if you enable it, a time slot, based on your opening hours.

The plugin keeps no menu of its own. Names, photos, prices, short descriptions, stock and categories come from your WooCommerce products. Orders are ordinary WooCommerce orders, so your payment methods, shipping methods, coupons, taxes and emails keep working.

How it works

1. You put your dishes in product categories, tick Is Non-Vegetarian where it applies, and add the shortcode to a page.
2. In WooCommerce → Restaurant you set opening hours, switch on delivery day and time selection, choose what the menu shows, and pick colours.
3. Customers add dishes. A dish without options goes straight into the basket. A dish with variations or PPOM fields opens a popup first. The request goes to WooCommerce's AJAX endpoint (?wc-ajax=wxp_add_to_cart), the server prices any add-ons, and the basket on the page is refreshed.
4. At checkout the customer picks a delivery day (and time). The choice is validated against the slots that are available at that moment, saved to the order, and shown on the thank-you page, in order emails and on the order screen.

At a glance

What it does not do

• It does not stop ordering when you are closed. Opening hours and the "Restaurant is closed" switch change the badge, the messages and the delivery fields. Customers can still add items and check out (the one exception: with Display Date Selection on and no delivery day available, checkout is refused; see Delivery day and time at checkout). With the closed switch on, the delivery fields are hidden and not required.
• It does not limit the number of orders per slot, add delivery fees or zones, block holidays, or offer separate pickup and delivery choices. The fields are called Delivery Day and Delivery Time for every order.
• It does not support opening hours that run past midnight (see Opening hours) or more than one opening period per day.
• It does not show PPOM fields on variable products, and it ignores PPOM field types other than select, radio, checkbox, text and textarea.
• It does not let customers change quantities in the basket. They can remove a line, or change quantities on the cart page.
• It is built for one menu per page. The markup uses fixed element IDs and the script reads the first menu's data only.
• It does not create kitchen displays, order-status pages or printing. It has no block, widget, REST route or WP-CLI command.

How it relates to Restaurant for WooCommerce (free)

Restaurant for WooCommerce is the free plugin with the same shortcode (see its documentation). This plugin replaces it; it does not extend it.

• Can both be active? WordPress allows it, but only this plugin works. After all plugins have loaded, the free plugin checks for this plugin's class WooExperts_Restaurant_Pro (or the function wxp_restaurant_pro()), and if it exists, the free plugin does not start. It registers no shortcode, menu item, script or style. On the Plugins screen, administrators see the free plugin's notice: "Restaurant for WooCommerce Pro is active, so the free Restaurant for WooCommerce plugin is not used. You can deactivate it." Network activation counts too.
• Same shortcode. [wxp_restaurant] and categories="..." work the same way. The same WooCommerce → Restaurant menu item (slug wxp-restaurant) is used, and the same product tick box and meta key, _is_nonveg, so your diet flags carry over in both directions.
• No data moves. The free plugin has no settings, so there is nothing to import. Customisations made for the free plugin (CSS variables such as --wxp-accent, and theme templates in your-theme/restaurant-for-woocommerce/) do not apply to this plugin. This plugin has its own layout and templates.
• Only in this plugin: opening hours, the "Open Now" or "Closed" status, header and closed messages, the closed switch, PPOM add-ons, delivery day and time selection, the settings screen (switches for basket, search and filter, and colours), and the licence and update client.
• Different front end. This plugin's menu is not the redesigned menu of the free plugin 1.2. The comparison below lists the differences that follow from the code.

2. Requirements

3. Installation

1. Make sure WooCommerce is installed and active.
2. Open Plugins → Add Plugin, click Upload Plugin, choose the plugin zip you downloaded from wpexpertshub.com, and click Install Now, then Activate. The menu label is the one in WordPress 7.1.2; older versions word it slightly differently.
3. If the free Restaurant for WooCommerce plugin is installed, deactivate it. It stays idle while this plugin is active, and its shortcode is the same.
4. Open Plugins → WpExperts Hub Licences, paste your licence key and click Activate licence (see The licence and updates).
5. Add [wxp_restaurant] to a page, then open WooCommerce → Restaurant to set opening hours, delivery fields, menu options and colours.

The plugin's row on the Plugins screen carries two links: Settings (to WooCommerce → Restaurant) and Licence (to the licence screen, for users who can manage_options).

The licence and updates

The plugin bundles the WpExperts Hub licence and update client (licence/class-wpxh-licence-client.php, version 2.0.0). One screen, Plugins → WpExperts Hub Licences, manages every WpExperts Hub plugin on the site that bundles the client. Each plugin has its own card. This plugin's card is titled "Advanced Restaurant for WooCommerce". It is shown to users who can manage_options.

Activate a licence

1. Find your licence key in the purchase email. The screen says it is also shown in My Account → Downloads on wpexpertshub.com.
2. Open Plugins → WpExperts Hub Licences, paste the key into the Licence key field of this plugin's card and click Activate licence. Only letters, digits and hyphens are kept from what you type.
3. The card changes its badge from "Not active" to "Active" and shows the key masked (the first four and last four characters; a key of 10 characters or fewer is shown in full). The server's answer is shown in a message above the form.

Deactivate a licence

Click Deactivate licence on the card. The screen advises: "Deactivate before moving the plugin to another live site." The plugin tells the server, and removes the key and the status from this site even if the server cannot be reached or has already removed the key, so a site is never stuck. In that case the message reads "Licence removed from this site."

Lost your key

While no licence is active, a section "Can't find your key? Email it to me" opens a field. Enter the email address used for the purchase and click Send licence key. The plugin asks the server to email the key to that address. If the address is not valid you see "Please enter the email address used for the purchase."

Updates

• Updates come through the normal WordPress updates screen (Dashboard → Updates) and the Plugins screen. The client adds this plugin to the list WordPress builds when it checks for plugin updates.
• The update information is cached for 12 hours. If the server cannot be reached, the previous information is kept and the plugin tries again after one hour.
• When the server gives no download address (no active licence on this site), the plugin row under an available update says "Automatic update is unavailable for this plugin. Activate your licence to enable updates." with a link to the licence screen. The comments in the client say the server returns the package address only for sites with an active licence; the server is outside this plugin, so that part is not checked here.
• On the Plugins screen, administrators see "Activate your WpExperts Hub licence to receive updates for: ..." with a Manage licences link while any plugin that uses the client has no active licence.
• If the server later says a licence is no longer active for this site, the card shows "Not active" and the key stays in the field so you can activate it again.
• The plugin works without a licence. The code never checks the licence status before running a menu, settings or checkout feature; the licence only affects updates.

What the client sends, and when, is listed under Privacy.

What activation creates

Nothing. The plugin registers no activation hook and creates no table, user role, cron event, page or upload folder. The settings option _wxp_restaurant_opts is first written when you save WooCommerce → Restaurant. The licence options are written when you activate a licence.

Updating

Your settings, licence status and order data are kept. Notes for sites coming from earlier versions (from the changelog for 1.5):

• Colours are now printed as inline CSS on the menu page. Earlier versions wrote a stylesheet and fonts to wp-content/uploads/rfw. Version 1.5 no longer writes there, and the code does not delete an existing folder.
• New orders store the delivery day as Y-m-d. Orders stored with the old text format still display correctly.
• The licence client was replaced. Existing activations are kept.
• The text domain is now restaurant-for-woocommerce-pro. Translation files made for the old text domain no longer apply.

Deactivating and deleting

The plugin has no uninstall.php and no deactivation hook. Deactivating or deleting it removes no data: the settings option, the licence options, the _is_nonveg product meta and the delivery details on orders all stay. Deactivate your licence first (see above) if you delete the plugin or move it to another site.

Multisite

The plugin starts on plugins_loaded (priority 5), so WooCommerce is found when it is network-activated. Settings and licence options are stored per site (get_option). The licence screen is added with admin_menu, so it appears under each site's Plugins menu; nothing is added to the network admin.

4. Quick start

1. Check that Settings → General has the right timezone.
2. Put your dishes in product categories. Tick Is Non-Vegetarian on meat and fish dishes.
3. Create a page with the shortcode [wxp_restaurant] (add categories="starters,mains" to pick and order sections) and publish it. Use the shortcode once per page.
4. Open WooCommerce → Restaurant → Menu Settings. Enter From and To times for each day (24-hour, for example 10:00 and 22:00; 0 closes a day) and click Save Changes.
5. Open the Checkout Fields tab, tick Display Date Selection (and Display Time Selection if you want time slots), keep the interval at 15 or change it, and save. Enter opening hours first: with no open days, customers cannot check out.
6. Place a test order. Check the Delivery Day and Delivery Time fields at checkout, then the thank-you page, the email and the order screen.
7. Optional: install PPOM for WooCommerce and attach a field group to a simple product to offer add-ons.

5. Features

The shortcode and which dishes it lists

The shortcode also accepts a menu attribute (default lunch). It changes nothing on the page; it is only passed to the wxp_restaurant_menu_category_args filter as $menu. In the admin area (for example in some page builders' editors) the shortcode prints nothing.

• Categories. Without the attribute, the plugin asks WordPress for product categories that are not empty. In WooCommerce 11.1.2 they come back in the order of Products → Categories. Child categories are sections of their own, in the order WooCommerce returns them (not grouped under their parent). Each name carries a count in brackets. The server prints the category's product count as WordPress stores it (products assigned directly to that category). When the page loads, the script replaces the count in the category list with the number of dishes in that section (a parent section includes its children's dishes) and updates it while a customer searches or filters. The count in the small-screen drop-down is not changed by the script.
• Dishes. For each category the plugin asks WooCommerce for products with the status Published, with no limit on the number. WooCommerce's default product order applies, which is newest first. A product in a child category is also listed in its parent's section (WooCommerce includes child categories in a category query by default).
• No other filter. Catalog visibility is not checked, so products set to "Hidden" are listed. WooCommerce's "Hide out of stock items" setting is not consulted: an out-of-stock dish stays on the menu and shows Sold out.
• If there are no categories to list, the menu area shows the header, the search and filter controls and the script's message "No items found that match your search/filter."

The menu page

• Screens 768px wide and up: a category list on the left (sticky while you scroll) and the dishes on the right. Clicking a category scrolls to its section over 0.8 seconds. The active category follows the section in view.
• Screens up to 767px wide: the category list is replaced by a drop-down, Select Category, that sticks to the top. Categories with no matching dish are disabled in it.
• Each section starts with a heading with the category name. Each dish shows a vegetarian or non-vegetarian mark, its name, price (as WooCommerce prints it, sale prices included), short description (HTML kept) and, if the product has one, its photo (floated left, up to 120px wide, 86px on small screens).
• Above the dishes: the header (see Header and closed message), the Veg filter and the search box. The last two can be switched off.

Search and Veg filter

• The search box (placeholder "Search within menu") filters as you type. It matches the dish name and the short description, ignoring upper and lower case (accents are not ignored). A clear button empties it.
• Veg Only and Non Veg Only are two tick boxes that work like radio buttons: ticking one unticks the other. Search and filter combine.
• Sections and categories with no match are hidden. When nothing matches, the menu shows "No items found that match your search/filter."
• Both controls are switched off in WooCommerce → Restaurant → Menu Options (see Menu Options).

The Is Non-Vegetarian flag

Edit a product and tick Is Non-Vegetarian in the row of tick boxes next to the product type. Its help text is "Check if item is Non-Vegetarian." The tick box shows for simple and variable products. Every other product is shown with the vegetarian mark.

• The value is stored in the product meta _is_nonveg as yes or no.
• It is saved only when you save a product from the classic product editor (the plugin hooks woocommerce_admin_process_product_object). Quick edit, bulk edit, the REST API and imports leave it unchanged. Before 1.5 those saves reset it to "no".
• To set it in an import or script, write the meta key _is_nonveg with the value yes.

Adding dishes

• A dish without options (a simple product with no PPOM fields): clicking Add adds one to the basket. Each further click adds one more. While the request runs, an overlay covers the menu.
• A dish with options (a variable product, or a simple product with PPOM fields): clicking Add or the underlined link Customization under it opens the popup.
• A dish that cannot be bought shows Sold out instead of the button. That covers out-of-stock products and any product that WooCommerce reports as not purchasable, for example a product without a price. In WooCommerce 11.1.2, external and grouped products always report "not purchasable", so they show as "Sold out" on this menu.
• A short message tells the customer the result ("Item successfully added to your cart." or the reason it failed). In the popup it appears inside the form and the popup closes 1.5 seconds after a success; on the menu it appears as a message at the bottom of the page for 2.5 seconds.
• After a successful add, the basket and its count are refreshed, and the theme's mini cart is asked to refresh through the jQuery event wc_fragment_refresh. The plugin does not dispatch the block mini cart's own event.
• Items and keyboard: the Add button, the category list and other controls are focusable and respond to Enter and Space. Esc closes the basket.

Variable products in the popup

• The popup shows the product name, its price in brackets (for a variable product the lowest price, prefixed with "From"), one drop-down per attribute (each starting with "Select Option"), a quantity box and the button Add to cart.
• When you choose a value, the other drop-downs are narrowed to the values that exist together with it. When every attribute is chosen, the price changes to the chosen variation's price. Clear Selection resets the choices.
• Without a full selection, adding shows "Please select option." For attributes whose variation accepts "Any ..." the customer's choice is sent along and WooCommerce validates it.
• The variations offered are those WooCommerce returns as available for the product. In WooCommerce 11.1.2 that excludes variations that are disabled (not published) or without a price and, only when "Hide out of stock items" is on, out-of-stock variations. The popup does not read the stock status of a variation, so with that setting off an out-of-stock variation can be selected; WooCommerce then refuses it when the customer clicks Add to cart, and its message ("You cannot add ... to the cart because the product is out of stock.") is shown in the popup.
• The popup is a fancyBox 3.5.7 window. It locks page scrolling while open.

PPOM for WooCommerce add-ons

With PPOM for WooCommerce active, fields attached to a simple product (directly, or through its categories) appear in the popup. The plugin also treats the product type subscription (from WooCommerce Subscriptions) like a simple product for this. It does not offer PPOM fields on variable products.

• A field is used only if its type is one of these five and it has a data_name. Fields of other types are not shown, not priced and not required. The plugin does not read PPOM's conditional-logic settings; every supported field is shown.
• Option labels show the option price in brackets. The label puts your currency symbol in front of the stored price value, so a percentage price is displayed as, for example, ( +£10% ).
• The field's title is shown as the label, with an asterisk when it is required. The field's description is shown under the input.
• Server-side processing. The browser only sends the chosen option IDs or text. The server looks the options up again in the product's PPOM fields, so it takes names and prices from PPOM, not from the browser. Options whose ID is not found are dropped. Text is cleaned with sanitize_textarea_field().
• Prices. A fixed price is added as it is. A percentage price (for example 10%) is calculated against the product's current price, rounded to the store's decimals. For a text or textarea field, the field's price is added when the customer typed something. Only prices above zero are added. The sum is added to the item price in the cart, per unit.
• Required fields on the server. A required field (required = on in PPOM) with no value stops the add with "%s is a required field." (the field title). The minimum and maximum of checkbox fields are checked only in the browser.
• In the cart and order. Each field becomes a cart item data entry (name = field title, value = the chosen options, with "(+price)" after options that cost something). The same entry is saved on the order line as item meta, with the price in the text. Two lines with different options stay separate lines in the cart.
• On the product page itself, PPOM works as usual. The menu does not use PPOM's own cart handling.

The sidebar basket

• A tab with the basket icon and the item count sits at the right edge of the window, halfway down. Clicking it slides the basket in from the right (25% of the window, at least 350px; the full width up to 480px wide). The close button, or Esc, closes it.
• The basket is headed "Your Basket". Each line shows a remove button, the thumbnail, the name and options, the quantity and the unit price. An empty basket says "Your basket looks a little empty."
• Below the lines are two buttons: Cart and Checkout. The Checkout button also shows the cart total (WooCommerce's cart contents total: after discounts, without shipping and fees; it includes tax only when your prices are entered including tax).
• Quantities cannot be changed in the basket. Remove a line to take a dish out.
• With Disable Cart Sidebar ticked, neither the tab nor the basket is printed, and the menu has no link to the cart or checkout. Add one with your theme's header cart, or a button on the page.

Opening hours

Opening hours are entered on WooCommerce → Restaurant → Menu Settings, one From and one To box per day, Monday to Sunday.

• Format. The label says "24-hour format (HH:MM)". The plugin accepts H, H:MM or HH:MM (also with a dot: 10.30), with hours 0 to 23 and minutes 0 to 59, or exactly 24:00. It is saved as HH:MM. Anything else is saved as empty, which closes the day.
• Closed days. Enter 0 in a box, or leave a box empty, to close that day. With either box empty or 0, the day counts as closed. By default every day is empty, so every day is closed until you enter hours.
• One period, same day. A day is open only when its To time is later than its From time on the same day. Hours that run past midnight (for example 18:00 to 02:00) count as closed. To close at midnight, use 24:00.
• What the hours control. The "Open Now" or "Closed" badge on the menu, and the delivery days and times offered at checkout. They do not block adding to the cart. They do not block checkout either, except that with Display Date Selection on, a customer for whom no delivery day is available cannot place the order (see the warning under Delivery day and time at checkout).
• The badge is worked out when the page is built, in the site's timezone. There is no script that updates it, so a page served from a cache can show an old status.

Header and closed message

The menu header is printed by the action wxp_menu_header (template templates/header.php). It shows, from top to bottom:

1. Status. If Restaurant is closed is ticked: "Closed", with an information icon whose tooltip says "We are closed today." Otherwise, if the current time is inside today's hours: "Open Now" and today's hours, for example "10:00 am – 10:00 pm (Today)" (12-hour format with am or pm). Otherwise: "Closed", with an icon whose tooltip shows "Opening Hours" and today's hours, or "We are closed today." when today is closed.
2. Close Message. Shown only when Restaurant is closed is ticked and the message is not empty.
3. Header Message. Shown only when Display Header Message is ticked and the message is not empty. It appears whether or not the restaurant is closed.

Both messages accept the same basic HTML as a WordPress post (links, bold, lists) and are cleaned with wp_kses_post(). The two message boxes can be coloured (see Colours). The status badge cannot.

Delivery day and time at checkout

When Display Date Selection is ticked and Restaurant is closed is not, the plugin adds a required delivery choice to checkout. With Display Time Selection also ticked, it asks for a time as well. The fields apply to every order on the site, including orders with no menu items and orders using local pickup.

Classic checkout

• Two selects, printed after the order notes field (the action woocommerce_after_order_notes, which runs even if you turned order notes off): Delivery Day (field name _wxp_date, required) and, with time selection on, Delivery Time (_wxp_time, required).
• Delivery Day starts with "Select Option", then the available days. If no day is available it holds only "No delivery days available". Delivery Time is filled by a script (wxp-check.js) with the times of the chosen day, keeping the chosen time if it is still valid after the checkout refreshes. The script loads on the checkout page only when date selection is on.
• On submit the server checks the posted day and time against the slots available at that moment. If the day is empty or not available, checkout stops with "Please choose an available delivery day." If time is on and the time is empty or not valid for that day: "Please choose an available delivery time."

Checkout block (since 1.5)

• The plugin registers one select with WooCommerce's Additional Checkout Fields API in the location order, so it appears in the "Additional order information" step of the Checkout block. It is required.
• With date selection only, the field is Delivery Day (id wxp-restaurant/delivery-day); each option is a day, such as "Tomorrow". With time selection on, the field is Delivery Time (id wxp-restaurant/delivery-slot); each option combines day and time, such as "Today – 6:30 pm".
• If no slot is available the select holds only "No delivery slots available", and checkout fails with "Please choose an available delivery time."
• The options are worked out when the page loads; the chosen value is validated again against the slots available when the customer places the order.
• The block field is not registered at all when date selection is off or the restaurant is closed.

Which days and times are offered

• Days: the plugin looks at today and the next four days, five calendar days in all. You can change that number with the filter wxp_restaurant_delivery_days. A day is skipped if it is closed, or if it is today and the closing time has passed. A day is also skipped when no slot fits into it (for example an opening window shorter than the interval, because the first slot is the first boundary after opening); this applies in date-only mode too. Closed days are not replaced by later days, so you may be offered fewer than five.
• Labels: "Today", "Tomorrow", then the weekday and date in the form "Thu Oct 9th" (translated by WordPress).
• ASAP: offered first, on the same day only, while the current time is inside that day's opening hours. Its saved value is ASAP.
• Slots (with time selection on) are spaced by the Timeslot Interval, on multiples of the interval in the site's timezone (a 30-minute interval gives :00 and :30). The multiples are counted from the start of the Unix epoch in local time, which matches midnight only for intervals that divide 1,440 minutes evenly (5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 60 and so on); an interval such as 7 or 25 minutes gives slot times that shift from day to day. The first slot of a future day is the first boundary after the opening time, and the last slot may fall exactly on the closing time. On the same day a slot must be at least one interval away from the current time.

Worked examples (interval 15 minutes, open 10:00 to 22:00): at 14:07 today, ASAP is offered and the first slot is 2:30 pm (the 2:15 pm boundary is only 8 minutes away). Tomorrow starts at 10:15 am and ends at 10:00 pm. With a 60-minute interval at 14:07, the first slot today is 4:00 pm (3:00 pm is 53 minutes away) and tomorrow starts at 11:00 am. If you open at 10:05, the first slot tomorrow with a 15-minute interval is 10:15 am.

Where the delivery details go

The choice is saved on the order as meta, whichever checkout was used (written through the order object, so it works with HPOS):

• _delivery_date: the day, as Y-m-d for new orders. The Checkout block also stores WooCommerce's own copy of the field value under the key _wc_other/wxp-restaurant/delivery-slot (or .../delivery-day).
• _delivery_time: the time as shown at checkout (for example 6:30 pm), or ASAP. It is empty when time selection is off.

They are shown as "Delivery Day" and "Delivery Time":

• On the thank-you page, in a list printed at the start of the order details (woocommerce_thankyou, priority 1). On the block order confirmation page it appears through WooCommerce's "Additional Information" block (woocommerce/order-confirmation-additional-information), which runs the same hook (checked in WooCommerce 11.1.2). The page needs that block to be present.
• In order emails that run the woocommerce_email_order_meta action (priority 1): in WooCommerce 11.1.2 these include the new order email to the admin, and the processing, completed, on-hold, refunded, cancelled, failed, invoice and customer note emails, in HTML and plain text. A custom email template that omits the hook will not show them.
• On the order screen under the shipping address, as a read-only list. The block field itself is hidden from the order screen's editable fields, because saving the order would otherwise overwrite the customer's choice with whatever slots are available now.
• The day is printed in your site's date format (Settings → General). Orders placed with the old text format (before 1.5) are converted for display.

The WooCommerce → Restaurant screen

Open WooCommerce → Restaurant (slug wxp-restaurant, users who can manage_woocommerce). The screen, titled "Restaurant Settings" with "V1.5 Pro", has five tabs in a left column: Menu Settings, Menu Options, Checkout Fields, Menu Colors and Help / FAQ. Every setting is documented under Settings.

• All tabs are one form. A Save Changes button on any tab saves every field on every tab.
• After saving, "Settings saved." appears. If the security check fails or you lack the capability, nothing is saved and no message appears.
• Unticking Display Date Selection unticks Display Time Selection at once (time needs date).
• The Help / FAQ tab has short answers on the shortcode, the free and Pro plugin, the diet flag, variable products, PPOM, missing categories and support.

Colours

The twelve colours (see Menu Colors) are printed as one block of inline CSS added after the plugin's stylesheet. They apply to the menu, the popup, the basket and the two message boxes. The CSS is added only on pages that show the menu, and only after you have saved the settings at least once. Until then the stylesheet's own colours apply, which differ from the defaults shown on the screen. After the first save, all twelve values (including defaults) are printed.

Where each colour is used:

• Primary Color: the highlight of the active category (a gradient from white), the basket tab's background and border, the heading of the basket, the text colour of the count badge, and the background of the mobile category bar.
• Primary Font Color: text in the menu, popup and basket, placeholders, and the active category's text.
• Link Color: the "Customization" link, the close icons, the remove icons, and the popup's close border.
• Sidebar Cart Icon Color: the basket icon. Sidebar Qty Count Color: the count badge's background.
• Qty Button Background: the quantity box in the popup.
• Button Color and Button Text Color: the popup's Add to cart button and the basket's Checkout button (the total shown inside Checkout is a slightly lighter shade of the button colour).
• Header Message Text/Background and Close Message Text/Background: the two message boxes.

What WooCommerce still checks

• The product must exist and be published. A variable product needs a valid variation of its own.
• WooCommerce's cart runs its own checks when the item is added: purchasable, in stock, enough stock, and "Sold individually". Failures are shown as the message.
• This plugin does not run woocommerce_add_to_cart_validation. WooCommerce's cart class does not apply that filter itself; the product-page form handler and WooCommerce's own AJAX handler do (checked in WooCommerce 11.1.2). Other plugins that validate items only through that filter (for example minimum or maximum quantity rules) therefore do not see items added from this menu. Their checks at the cart and checkout pages still apply.
• After an add or remove, the server recalculates the cart totals, so coupons and taxes are applied as normal.
• When an add fails, the plugin shows WooCommerce's error notices as the message and clears all pending notices of every type from the session.

Security token and page caching

Requests from the menu carry a WordPress nonce (action wooexperts-menu, sent as check) printed into the page. A WordPress nonce is valid for between 12 and 24 hours by default (checked in WordPress 7.1.2), so keep the page's cache at 12 hours or less. When the token has expired, for example because a cache served an old copy of the page, the server answers "Your session has expired. Please reload the page and try again." This plugin does not retry with a fresh token; reload the page. The basket, the count and the header status are built when the page is generated and are refreshed only after a cart change (and the status not at all), so exclude the menu page from page caching, or keep its cache short.

Compatibility

• HPOS: declared; delivery details are written to order objects.
• Cart and Checkout blocks: declared; the delivery choice works in the Checkout block (see above).
• Mini carts: after a cart change the plugin triggers wc_fragment_refresh (jQuery), which refreshes fragment-based mini carts in themes. It does not dispatch wc-blocks_added_to_cart, so the Mini-Cart block shows the change on its next load.
• Themes: the plugin enqueues its style and script when the shortcode is rendered. The readme and product page do not name tested themes.
• Translation: text domain restaurant-for-woocommerce-pro. The plugin folder contains no translation files.

6. Settings

All settings are saved together as one array in the option _wxp_restaurant_opts (not loaded automatically at start-up). The Key column shows the array key; the form field name is wxp-res[key]. Ticking a check box saves 1; leaving it empty saves 0. Until you save for the first time, the defaults below apply.

Menu Settings

Menu Options

Checkout Fields

Menu Colors

Each setting is a WordPress colour picker. A value is accepted if it is a hex colour such as #b0d9f9 or #bdf (with the #). Anything else is replaced by the default.

The licence settings are not on this screen. They are on Plugins → WpExperts Hub Licences (see The licence and updates).

7. Developer reference

Shortcode

Filters and actions the plugin fires

Offer seven days of slots, and remove Sundays from every slot list:

add_filter( 'wxp_restaurant_delivery_days', function () {
    return 7;
} );

add_filter( 'wxp_restaurant_delivery_slots', function ( $slots, $settings ) {
    foreach ( array_keys( $slots ) as $date ) {
        $dt = DateTimeImmutable::createFromFormat( '!Y-m-d', $date, wp_timezone() );
        if ( $dt && '0' === $dt->format( 'w' ) ) {
            unset( $slots[ $date ] );
        }
    }
    return $slots;
}, 10, 2 );

Exclude two products from every section, and print a line under the header:

add_filter( 'wxp_restaurant_menu_product_args', function ( $args, $slug, $atts ) {
    $args['exclude'] = array( 123, 456 ); // product IDs
    return $args;
}, 10, 3 );

add_action( 'wxp_menu_header', function ( $opts ) {
    echo '<p class="my-menu-note">Kitchen closes 30 minutes before the end of opening hours.</p>';
}, 20 );

AJAX endpoints

Requests go to WooCommerce's endpoint ?wc-ajax=wxp_<action>, as POST, available to logged-out visitors. Each handler verifies the nonce (action wooexperts-menu, POST parameter check).

The JSON answer has res (bool), message and fragments: div.wxp-cart-in (the basket HTML) and span.cart-count (the count). The script replaces the elements that match each selector. The legacy endpoint ?wxperts-ajax=add_to_cart (and remove_item) still works for pages cached with an old script; it runs on template_redirect at priority 0, defines DOING_AJAX and sends no-cache headers.

Server messages: "This item is not available.", "Please select option.", "%s is a required field." (PPOM), "Your session has expired. Please reload the page and try again.", "Something went wrong!", "Item successfully added to your cart.", plus WooCommerce's own error notices.

JavaScript configuration

assets/js/menu.js (handle restaurant-script, in the footer, depends on jquery, wxp-fancybox-js and the BlockUI handle) receives the global wxpmenu with: wxp_ajax_url (WooCommerce endpoint with %%endpoint%%), wxp_ajax (home URL, for the legacy endpoint), wxp_nonce, wxp_currency (the currency symbol) and the translated strings (wxp_select, wxp_add_to_cart, wxp_added_to_cart, wxp_wrong, wxp_select_opt, wxp_clear, wxp_no_item, wxp_require, wxp_min, wxp_max, wxp_min_one, wxp_opt_req, wxp_opt_allow, wxp_from, wxp_add, wxp_close). Handles: styles restaurant-style and wxp-fancybox-css; scripts restaurant-script, wxp-fancybox-js and, on the checkout page when date selection is on, restaurant-check (assets/js/wxp-check.js, with the object wxp_check_tr). The style, the menu script and fancyBox are registered on every front-end page and enqueued only when the shortcode is rendered; the checkout script is registered and enqueued only on the checkout page.

Templates

• templates/menu.php receives $items (category slug to products) and $cats (slug to name and count). It is loaded with wc_get_template() using WooCommerce's default template folder, so WooCommerce looks for your-theme/woocommerce/menu.php and then your-theme/menu.php before the plugin's copy (checked in WooCommerce 11.1.2). The plugin does not document an override path. The bundled script and stylesheet expect the plugin's markup (.wxp-menu-container, .wxp-item-btn, #wxpmenu-cart, ...), and the layout was not built for overriding.
• templates/header.php is included directly by the wxp_menu_header callback and cannot be overridden. Remove the callback or add your own with the same action.
• templates/dashboard.php is the admin screen, included directly.

PHP classes and functions

The plugin does not declare a public PHP API. These are the pieces the plugin itself uses.

• wxp_restaurant_pro() returns the main object (class WooExperts_Restaurant_Pro): settings (get_settings(), get_settings_fields(), get_color_defaults()), PPOM access (get_ppom_fields()). It declares a public property $licence, but nothing assigns it; the licence client is a static class that registers itself.
• WpExpertshub_Restaurant (classes/class-wpexpertshub-restaurant.php): shortcode, menu data, colours, opening hours (is_open(), get_day_range()), delivery slots (get_delivery_slots()), checkout fields, order display.
• RFWCP_Wexperts_AJAX (classes/ajax.php): the AJAX handlers, basket HTML and PPOM option processing (get_option()).
• WPXH_Licence_Client_V2 (licence/class-wpxh-licence-client.php): the licence and update client.
• Constants: WXP_RESTAURANT_PRO_FILE, WXP_RESTAURANT_PRO_VER (1.5), and for the licence server WPXH_LICENCE_SERVER (optional, see Privacy).
• Checkout block field ids: wxp-restaurant/delivery-day and wxp-restaurant/delivery-slot (class constants BLOCK_DAY_FIELD and BLOCK_SLOT_FIELD).

WordPress and WooCommerce hooks the plugin uses

The licence client adds its own hooks: admin_init, admin_notices, pre_set_site_transient_update_plugins, plugins_api (priority 20), http_request_args, http_request_host_is_external, upgrader_process_complete, in_plugin_update_message-<plugin> and the Licence link in plugin_action_links_<plugin>.

Options, meta and stored data

The plugin has no custom tables, user meta, cron events, roles or custom capabilities and no REST routes. The settings screen needs manage_woocommerce; the licence screen needs manage_options.

Form field names

Useful for scripts and tests. Menu page: wxp-search-item (the search box), wxp-item-type (the two Veg filter tick boxes, values veg and non-veg) and wxp-cat-select (the category drop-down on small screens). Settings form: the hidden field wxp-res-save (value 1), the nonce field wxp-res-admin (action wxp-res-save) and the values under wxp-res[...]. Checkout: _wxp_date and _wxp_time.

File layout

• restaurant-for-woocommerce-pro.php: header, bootstrap, settings, PPOM field reader, licence registration.
• classes/class-wpexpertshub-restaurant.php: menu, opening hours, slots, checkout fields, order display.
• classes/ajax.php: AJAX handlers and basket HTML.
• licence/class-wpxh-licence-client.php: licence and update client.
• templates/menu.php, templates/header.php, templates/dashboard.php.
• assets/js/menu.js, assets/js/wxp-check.js, assets/js/admin.js, assets/js/jquery.fancybox.min.js (fancyBox 3.5.7).
• assets/css/front.css, assets/css/admin.css, assets/css/jquery.fancybox.css, assets/fonts/wcc.* (icon font), assets/imgs/loader.svg.
• readme.txt.

8. Privacy

What the licence client sends

All requests are sent as JSON by wp_remote_post(); WordPress adds its usual User-Agent header with the WordPress version and your site's address (checked in WordPress 7.1.2). Certificate checking is on, except when the licence server's host is a local development host (.local, .test, .localhost, localhost or 127.0.0.1). The server address can be changed with the constant WPXH_LICENCE_SERVER or the filters wpxh_licence_server and wpxh_licence_sslverify. The plugin does not send order, customer or menu data to the licence server. What the server does with the data is outside this plugin.

9. Troubleshooting

10. FAQ

11. Changelog

1.5 - 27/09/2026

• Security - New licence client: licence data is exchanged as JSON only (the old client unserialized server responses) and a failed server request can no longer cause a fatal error.
• Enhancement - One "Plugins → WpExperts Hub Licences" screen manages the licences of all WpExperts Hub plugins (previously only one plugin's licence page could be opened when several were installed). Existing activations are kept.
• Enhancement - Updates are delivered through the standard WordPress update screen for sites with an active licence; "Email me my key" added.
• Fix - Fatal error when the add-to-cart request contained a missing/invalid product ID.
• Fix - "Is Non-Vegetarian" flag was reset to "no" whenever a product was saved outside the product editor (quick edit, REST API, imports).
• Fix - Settings were saved on the front end hook without a capability check; now saved on admin_init for users with manage_woocommerce and every value is sanitised.
• Fix - Delivery days that are set to 0 (closed) were still offered for future days, including a 12:00 am slot.
• Fix - Delivery time could be submitted empty ("Select Delivery Day" had the value 0) and day/time were not checked against available slots.
• Fix - Delivery day stored as a localised string ("Sun Sep 27th") could not be read back (1970 dates in non-English sites, wrong year around New Year). New orders store Y-m-d; old orders still display.
• Fix - Timeslot interval 0 caused a division-by-zero fatal error.
• Fix - PPOM options: fields assigned through several groups or categories were not shown, non-sequential fields broke the popup, percentage prices caused a TypeError, and required fields are now validated on the server.
• Fix - Variable products with multi-word attributes or global attributes (term slugs) could not be added to the basket.
• Fix - Add-to-cart failures (out of stock, expired nonce, network error) left the menu blocked; customers now see the error message.
• Fix - Menu script relied on BlockUI being loaded by the theme; it is now a declared dependency (WooCommerce 10.3+ handle supported).
• Fix - Removed writing a generated stylesheet and fonts into wp-content/uploads/rfw; colours are now printed inline.
• Fix - PHP 8.2 dynamic property deprecations; escaping of all output; plain-text e-mails no longer receive HTML.
• Fix - Mobile: sidebar basket overflowed on narrow screens.
• New - Delivery day/time field for the Checkout block (Additional Checkout Fields API), saved to the same order meta as the classic checkout.
• New - Shortcode attribute categories="slug1,slug2".
• New - Out-of-stock items show "Sold out" instead of an add button.
• New - Header mini cart is refreshed after adding items from the menu.
• Tweak - AJAX requests use the WooCommerce AJAX endpoint (the old ?wxperts-ajax endpoint still works).
• Tweak - WordPress colour picker replaces the bundled Spectrum library.
• Tweak - Declared compatibility only for HPOS and Cart/Checkout blocks (removed incorrect product block editor, analytics, navigation and marketplace declarations); tested with WordPress 7.1 and WooCommerce 11.1.
• Tweak - Plugin boots on plugins_loaded, so WooCommerce is detected when network-activated; the free version now stays idle whenever Pro is active.
• Tweak - Text domain changed to restaurant-for-woocommerce-pro (matches the plugin folder).

1.4 - 20/02/2024

• Minor tweaks.

1.3 - 08/02/2024

• Menu scroll fixed.

1.2 - 24/01/2024

• Compatibility Check.

1.1 - 18/02/2023

• Compatibility Check.

1.0 - 04/05/2021

• Initial release.

12. Support

Email support@wpexpertshub.com. Include:

• Your order ID.
• The plugin version (1.5 or the version you run), your WordPress version and your PHP version, and your WooCommerce version and theme.
• The address of the menu page, and whether you use the classic checkout or the Checkout block.
• What you expected, what happened, and what you already tried. A screenshot of the settings and of any message helps.