Pre-Orders (Advanced)

Goal

Sell a product before it is in stock, take a deposit at checkout, and collect the balance when the product is released. A pre-order record is created from the customer's order, tracked through its own status, and settled by a scheduled job using the store's existing WooCommerce payment gateway.

Tier and entitlement

Field	Value
Tier	Premium
Entitlement key	pre-orders-advanced
Admin tab	pre-orders
Module key	pre-orders-advanced
Settings prefix	aiowc_po_

Hooks register only when aiowc_module_enabled_pre-orders-advanced is true and the licence permits the pre-orders-advanced entitlement.

What the code does

• Two product meta fields mark a product as a pre-order and give it an expected availability date.
• A product marked as a pre-order reports as in stock through woocommerce_product_is_in_stock, so it stays buyable while out of stock, and shows a badge in the product summary.
• When an order is processed, every pre-order line item in it becomes a pre-order record holding the product, variation, customer, order, deposit type and amount, product price and availability date.
• The balance is charged by taking the customer's default stored WooCommerce payment token for the gateway the order used and calling that gateway's own process_payment. The plugin ships no payment provider of its own; it drives whichever gateway the store already has.
• A charge that cannot proceed marks the pre-order failed with a reason — wc_unavailable, order_missing, no_customer_or_gateway, no_token, gateway_unavailable, gateway_failed or exception.
• Customer notifications logged per pre-order, sent by wp_mail. The types are confirmation, reminder, charge_due, charged, shipping_soon, shipped and failed.
• A shortcode a customer can use to see the status of their pre-orders.

Settings

Read through ModuleSettings with the aiowc_po_ prefix; defaults are PreOrdersAdvancedModule::DEFAULTS. The settings endpoint accepts exactly these six keys.

Setting	Default	Meaning
enable_pre_orders	true	Master switch for pre-order behaviour
require_deposit	false	Whether a deposit is taken rather than the full price
deposit_type	percentage	How deposit_amount is read
deposit_amount	50.0	Deposit size, as a percentage or a fixed amount depending on the type
auto_charge_on_release	true	Whether the daily charge job settles balances automatically
notify_before_days	7	Days before the availability date that the reminder is sent

Product fields

Rendered into the WooCommerce product editor on woocommerce_product_options_advanced and saved on woocommerce_process_product_meta. The save handler checks edit_product and verifies the product-meta nonce itself rather than relying on WooCommerce having done so.

Meta key	Field	Meaning
_aiowc_po_enabled	Enable pre-order (checkbox)	Stored as yes or no
_aiowc_po_availability	Availability date (YYYY-MM-DD)	Expected release date

Admin screen

Admin tab pre-orders. It lists pre-orders by status and offers the per-record actions the REST layer exposes — charge, cancel, fulfil and send a notification — plus the settings form.

Database schema

Created by Schema/PreOrdersSchema.php at schema version 1.0.0.

Table	Holds
{prefix}aiowc_pre_orders	One row per pre-ordered line item, with deposit, balance due, status and availability date
{prefix}aiowc_pre_order_notifications	A log of notifications sent for a pre-order

REST endpoints

Namespace aiowc/v1. All responses use the shared envelope.

Method	Path	Purpose	Required args	Permission
GET	/pre-orders	List pre-orders, filterable by status, paginated	—	Manage
POST	/pre-orders	Create a pre-order record	product_id, order_id	Manage
GET	/pre-orders/{id}	Read one pre-order	id	Own record or manage
POST	/pre-orders/{id}/charge	Charge the outstanding balance now	id	Manage
POST	/pre-orders/{id}/cancel	Cancel the pre-order	id	Manage
POST	/pre-orders/{id}/fulfill	Mark the pre-order fulfilled	id	Manage
POST	/pre-orders/{id}/notify	Send one notification of the given type	id, type	Manage
GET	/pre-orders/my	The signed-in customer's pre-orders	—	Signed in
GET	/pre-orders/settings	Read settings	—	Manage
PUT / PATCH / POST	/pre-orders/settings	Update settings	—	Manage

POST /pre-orders also accepts variation_id, user_id, deposit_type, deposit_amount, product_price and availability_date.

WooCommerce integration

Hook	Priority	Effect
woocommerce_product_options_advanced	default	Renders the two product fields
woocommerce_process_product_meta	10	Saves the two product fields
woocommerce_product_is_in_stock	10	Reports a pre-order product as in stock
woocommerce_single_product_summary	24	Prints the pre-order badge
woocommerce_checkout_order_processed	30	Creates pre-order records from the order's line items

Shortcode

Shortcode	Purpose
[aiowc_pre_order_status]	Shows the current customer's pre-order status

No block is registered.

Emitted actions

Action	Fired when
aiowc_pre_order_charged	A balance charge succeeds, or there was nothing left to charge
aiowc_track_event with pre_order_charged	A gateway charge succeeds

Background jobs

Both run on the WordPress cron scheduler, daily.

Hook	Purpose
aiowc_pre_orders_charge	Charges balances for released pre-orders when auto_charge_on_release is on
aiowc_pre_orders_notify	Sends availability reminders notify_before_days ahead of the release date

Entitlement limits

The pre-orders-advanced entitlement gates the module as a whole. No cap on the number of pre-order products or records is implemented in the module's code.

Related documentation

• Module Architecture