Conditional Shipping Rules

Overview

Conditional Shipping Rules does not create a shipping method. It edits the rates WooCommerce has already produced: hiding a method when the cart does not qualify for it, revealing one that is normally hidden, overriding a cost, adding to it, or making it free.

Because it filters woocommerce_package_rates, it works with whatever methods the store already has — flat rate, free shipping, a carrier plugin — rather than replacing them. A rule names an action, an optional target method, a cost, a priority and the conditions under which it fires.

It is for stores whose methods are correct but whose availability depends on the cart.

Availability

Item	Value
Module key	shipping-rules
Tier	Premium
Entitlement key	shipping-rules
Admin tab	shipping-rules
Enabled option	aiowc_module_enabled_shipping-rules (off until turned on)
REST namespace	aiowc/v1

Enabling the module creates the three tables below, seeds the defaults and schedules the cache refresh job.

registerHooks() returns early when the licence does not grant shipping-rules. The REST routes register next, and the rate filter registers only when enable_filter is on — so switching that setting off stops the module touching checkout while leaving its screens and routes working.

Settings

Stored in the bundled option row aiowc_as_settings.

Stored key	Default	Meaning
enable_filter	true	Whether the rules are applied to checkout rates at all.
dimensional_weight_enabled	false	Whether a dimensional weight is computed and made available as a condition.
dimensional_weight_factor	5000.0	The divisor used for that calculation.
free_shipping_threshold	0.0	A cart total above which shipping is free. Zero means no threshold.

Rules

A rule carries one action:

Action	Effect on the rates WooCommerce produced
show	Reveals the target method.
hide	Removes the target method from checkout.
set_cost	Replaces the method's cost with the rule's cost.
add_cost	Adds the rule's cost to the method's own.
free	Sets the cost to zero.
disable	Turns the rule off without deleting it.

Rules are ordered by priority, and each may be scoped to a custom zone defined by this module rather than to a WooCommerce zone.

Conditions

Conditions are stored per rule and evaluated with the operators >=, <=, =, !=, in, not_in and between.

Condition kind	Types
Numeric	cart_total, weight, item_count, dimensional_weight
String	country, state, postcode
List	category, product, user_role, coupon_applied

dimensional_weight is only meaningful when dimensional_weight_enabled is on; with it off the value is not computed.

Custom zones

The module keeps its own zone table, so a rule can target a set of countries, states and postcodes that does not correspond to any WooCommerce shipping zone. A zone has a name, its country/state/postcode lists, a priority and an active flag.

Admin screen

This module has two administrator surfaces, and they are not the same screen.

• Shipping Rules in the Empora admin is the React screen reached from the module's own tab.
• A separate top-level Shipping Rules menu item is registered in WordPress's own admin by the module's PHP admin handler, with an airplane icon at menu position 58. It renders a plain rules table and a create form, saving through admin_post_aiowc_as_save_rule and deleting through admin_post_aiowc_as_delete_rule, both behind a nonce and a manage_woocommerce capability check.

Both read and write the same rules table, so a rule created in one appears in the other.

REST API endpoints

All routes are on aiowc/v1, answer with the { success, data, message } envelope, and require manage_woocommerce.

Method	Path	Purpose	Required args
GET	/shipping/rules	Every rule.	–
POST	/shipping/rules	Create a rule.	name
PATCH / PUT /POST	/shipping/rules/{id}	Update a rule. All three verbs are registered.	id
DELETE	/shipping/rules/{id}	Delete a rule.	id
GET	/shipping/zones	Every custom zone.	–
POST	/shipping/zones	Create a custom zone.	name
PATCH / PUT /POST	/shipping/zones/{id}	Update a custom zone.	id
DELETE	/shipping/zones/{id}	Delete a custom zone.	id
POST	/shipping/calculate	Evaluate the rules against a supplied cart context.	–

These sit under /shipping/, while the separate Advanced Shipping Rules module owns /shipping-rules/. The two prefixes are deliberately distinct so neither module shadows the other's routes.

WooCommerce integration

Hook	What the module does
woocommerce_package_rates	Applies the matching rules to the rates WooCommerce produced — the whole feature.
admin_menu	Registers the standalone WordPress admin page.
admin_post_aiowc_as_save_rule / _delete_rule	Handles that page's form submissions.

Database schema

Table	Holds
{prefix}aiowc_shipping_rules	The rule: name, action, target method id, cost, priority, active flag, and the zone it applies to.
{prefix}aiowc_shipping_conditions	One row per condition on a rule: type, operator, value, sort order.
{prefix}aiowc_shipping_zones_custom	The module's own zones: name, countries, states, postcodes, priority, active flag.

Background jobs

Hook	Interval	Work
aiowc_shipping_cache_refresh	hourly	Rebuilds the cached rule set the rate filter reads from.

This job runs on WP-Cron, scheduled an hour after the module is enabled.

Action hooks for integrators

Hook	Fired when
aiowc_track_event	The module is enabled or disabled.

The module exposes no filter for adding a condition type of your own.

Entitlement limits

shipping-rules is an on/off grant with no cap on the number of rules, conditions or zones.

Health check

The module reports a warning when its tables are missing or WooCommerce is inactive, and otherwise reports that it is functioning normally. A disabled module reports that it is disabled.

Known gaps

• Two admin surfaces exist for one module — the Empora tab and a separate top-level WordPress menu — with no cross-link between them, so an administrator can easily find one and never learn the other exists.
• The settings prefix is aiowc_as_, which reads as "advanced shipping" rather than as this module. Nothing collides today because the Advanced Shipping Rules module stores no settings at all, but the name is a poor fit and would collide if that module ever gained a settings row under the obvious prefix.
• free_shipping_threshold is stored as a setting rather than expressed as a rule, so it is configured in a different place from every other condition.
• There is no condition filter, so a store cannot add its own condition type without modifying the module.