WooCommerce 2.3 Release

WoCommerce Version 2.3 was released recently under the codename «Handsome Hippo». The developers announced changes to the UI, front- and backend as well as some technical changes in API and CSS.

Changes in appearance and design

• A more simplistic ‘flat’ design for themes without a specific WooCommerce integration and updated email design
• The ability to remove products from the cart via the cart widget
• Classes / markup for responsive tables (see the orders table on ‘my account’)
• Moved the ‘Proceed to checkout’ button to a more appropriate location
• An ‘undo’ option when removing products from the cart
• The +/- quantity increment buttons – `input type=”number”` is well supported making this feature redundant.
• The style settings (button colors etc).
• The ability to create non pre-tax coupons, read full post here

Technical Changes

1. Template debug mode will now remove all template overrides for template loading functions.
2.  CSS pre-processor switched from LESS to Sass , and included bourbon. «.less» files are not supported anymore.
3. The order summary and payment section of the checkout have been decoupled making it possible for you to move each component independently via theme/plugin modification.  See github.com/woothemes/woocommerce/tree/master/templates/checkout for the latest.
4. WooCom migrated away from chosen in favour of Select2 . Select2 is the more actively developed script and has been adopted by WordPress core which helps make WooCommerce that little bit more efficient. Select2 will be introduced to WP in Version 4.2 .
5.  a new Geolocation class was included and changed the way taxes are displayed to customers on the frontend. Customers will now see taxes based on their address, and you have the option to enable their location to be geolocated when they visit your store.
6. Who has already used Webhooks API in 2.2  knows that previously they could only be created via API calls. 2.3 includes a Webhooks UI which will allow users to create them via the settings page. For instructions on using Webhooks see: docs.woothemes.com/document/webhooks/

Conclusion

As version 2.3.1 came out just one day after the release of 2.3 and was quickly followed by 2.3.2 up to 2.3.5 it seems like 2.3 isn’t very stable for now. It might be a good choice to wait some time to update from 2.2 to 2.3 and then highly recommended in a secure testing area.

Good Luck!