Product Questions & Answers

Goal

Let shoppers ask a question on a product page and let the shop — or other customers — answer it. Questions and answers are held in the plugin's own tables rather than as WordPress comments, pass through a moderation queue, and can be voted on.

Tier and entitlement

Field	Value
Tier	Premium
Entitlement key	qa
Admin tab	product-qa
Module key	qa
Settings prefix	aiowc_qa_

Hooks register only when aiowc_module_enabled_qa is true and the licence permits the qa entitlement.

What the code does

• A question form and the question list render below the product summary on the single product page, and the same list is available anywhere through a shortcode.
• Guests may ask a question when allow_guest_questions is on, supplying a name and email address. Signed-in users are identified by their account.
• New questions and answers land as pending when require_approval is on, and are only shown once approved.
• Moderation moves an item to approved, rejected or spam. The same three transitions exist for both questions and answers, selected by the type argument.
• Voting is recorded in its own table against either a question or an answer.
• A daily job notifies the shop about questions that are still unanswered.
• Answers submitted through the REST API require a signed-in user; questions do not.

Settings

Read through ModuleSettings with the aiowc_qa_ prefix; defaults are QaModule::DEFAULTS.

Setting	Default	Meaning	Consumed
allow_guest_questions	true	Whether a signed-out visitor may ask	Yes — the product form and the ask service
require_approval	true	Whether new questions and answers start as pending	Yes — the question and answer services
notify_admin	true	Whether the shop is emailed about new activity	Yes — the notification service
enable_shortcode	true	Whether [aiowc_qa] is registered at all	Yes — checked before add_shortcode
enable_voting	true	Intended to switch voting off	No — the key is declared but never read, so voting is always available

The settings are editable from the Settings tab on the Product Q&A screen, over GET and PATCH/POST/PUT on /qa/settings (administrator-only). ⚠️ An earlier version of this page said there was no endpoint and that the values could only be changed through the option row; that route was added on 2026-09-14.

🔴 A route is not the same as an effect. enable_voting above is still declared and never read, so turning it off in the new form changes the stored value and not the behaviour. That is tracked separately.

Admin screen

Admin tab product-qa. Two tabs — Questions and Answers — both showing the pending moderation queue with approve, reject and spam actions, backed by the moderation endpoints below. The screen carries no settings form, matching the absence of a settings endpoint.

Database schema

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

Table	Holds
{prefix}aiowc_qa_questions	Questions, with product, author, status and timestamps
{prefix}aiowc_qa_answers	Answers belonging to a question
{prefix}aiowc_qa_votes	Votes cast against a question or an answer

REST endpoints

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

Public and customer

Method	Path	Purpose	Required args	Permission
GET	/qa/product/{id}	Questions and answers for a product, filterable by status, paginated	id	Rate-limited public read
POST	/qa/ask	Ask a question; also accepts author_name and author_email	product_id, question	Public write check
POST	/qa/{id}/answer	Answer a question	id, answer	Signed in
POST	/qa/{id}/vote	Vote on a question or an answer; target selects which	id, value	Public write check

Moderation

Permission: manage. Each takes a type argument selecting question or answer.

Method	Path	Purpose	Required args
GET	/qa/moderation/queue	Pending items, filterable by type, paginated	—
POST	/qa/moderation/{id}/approve	Approve an item	id
POST	/qa/moderation/{id}/reject	Reject an item	id
POST	/qa/moderation/{id}/spam	Mark an item as spam	id

WooCommerce and WordPress integration

Hook	Priority	Effect
woocommerce_after_single_product_summary	60	Renders the Q&A block below the product summary
init	default	Handles the non-JavaScript form submission

Shortcode

Shortcode	Purpose
[aiowc_qa]	Renders the Q&A list. Registered only when enable_shortcode is on

No block is registered, and the module hooks no WooCommerce order or email action.

Background jobs

Hook	Schedule	Purpose
aiowc_qa_notify_unanswered	Daily, on the WordPress cron scheduler	Notifies the shop about unanswered questions

Entitlement limits

The qa entitlement gates the module as a whole. There is no cap on questions, answers or votes in the module's code.

Related documentation

• Module Architecture