Custom Order Status - How I can set an order status sequence?
The plugin allows you to create custom order statuses and assign them manually to the order; you could also create a sequence of statuses through the "Next Actions" field.
For example, if you set the "Test2" status in Next Actions for "Test" status, the "Test2" status will be visible in "Actions" column when an order is in "Test" status.
So the "Next Actions" is useful to create a "sequence" of your statuses.
In addition, the first status assigned to the order depends on the payment gateway the customer chooses in checkout.
For example:
- Direct bank transfer -> the new order will be set in "On hold" status
- Paypal -> the order will be set in Pending Payment and when the customer pays it will be set to:
Processing (if the order needs to be shipped)
Completed (otherwise)
Furthermore, the plugin allows you to override the default WooCommerce order statuses: this is useful to customize the default name for example.
Sequence Example
So, for example, if you use Paypal and your products need to be shipped, you could create the following order status sequence:
New Order (Pending Payment)-> user pays -> Processing -> Shipped -> Delivered -> Completed
In this sequence, the following are custom order statuses: Shipped, Delivered.
Furthermore you can also override the Processing status to change its name to "In Shipping"
So the new sequence will be:
New Order (Pending Payment)-> user pays -> In Shipping (processing) -> Shipped -> Delivered -> Completed
To do it you should:
- create new custom order status: "Shipped"
- create new custom order status: "Delivered"
- override the Processing status to change its name to "Assembling"
- in "Assembling" (Processing) status, set "Next Actions" to "Shipped"
- in "Shipped" status, set "Next Actions" to "Delivered"
- in "Delivered" status, set "Next Actions" to "Completed"
Emails
About notifications, for custom order statuses, the plugin allows you to set "Email Settings", so when the order is set in that status, the email will be send, for example, to the customer (or to admin).
For overridden statuses, notifications are managed by WooCommerce, so if you want, for example, edit the content of "New Order" emails you should override the WooCommerce email template files, as you can read in the following guide: https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/template-structure/