Is Prevention Better Than Cure?

Yes, and we’ll explain why it’s important to update WooCommerce (and WordPress).

According to The Merging Future technological advancement is developing at such a rapid rate that computers double their capabilities every 12 to 18 months, along with this progression we see the continuous development of the information technologies that use them, but so do the hackers, malicious code distributors and data thieves.

It is important that the software on your website is updated regularly for security reasons. WordPress is an open source software, this means that multiple coders from all over the world contribute to identifying and correcting security issues because it is in the best interest of the community to solve it. Not updating your website leaves you with a vulnerability that can be exploited. 

Another reason to update your site is for performance purposes, developers are continuously running on the performance hamster wheel, an eternal journey to improve website speeds and fix software bugs. Each new software release has better performance and fewer bugs than its predecessor.

Compatibility is a significant factor for updating the software on your website. Most plugin developers will release updates with WordPress to ensure that they take full advantage of new security and performance features. Some elements of your site may not render as they should due to compatibility issues with updates.

WordPress reports that the release of WooCommerce Version 3.5, scheduled to go live on 23 October, is the last minor release for 2018. Updating the software on your website as new versions are released is important to prevent major issues from occurring, as fixing these at a later stage will cost a lot more to rectify, than if the website is kept up to date. 

New features of WooCommerce 3.5

Some of the features that we can expect to see in the updated version include;

• Endpoints improvement to the Rest API v3.
• Improved default copy for transactional emails that are friendlier and more human, aimed at improving customer experience and reducing template overrides.
• Custom product database tables have been developed and optimised for product data, providing large performance boosts and improving scalability.
• Products can be exported by category in the CSV exporter.
• Low stock thresholds can be set for individual products.
• Improved payment method settings page.
• The introduction of error logging for transactional emails.
• Action Scheduler background processing library used by the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin is now a feature included in WooCommerce.
• Template file changes have been updated with new wording.

Need assistance with website updates? Contact us!

Further reading on WooCommerce v3.5 features and the importance of updates:

https://woocommerce.com/posts/why-keep-woocommerce-updated/

https://woocommerce.wordpress.com/2018/09/12/woocommerce-3-5-beta-is-here/

https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce/blob/master/readme.txt#L162