Customizing the Thank You Page

To effectively communicate the password, you can customize the Thank You page that customers see after completing their order. Tyches Software provides thorough guidance on how to customize the Thank You page, including using redirects and adding custom functions to WooCommerce hooks. We can even using third-party plugins such as NextMove Lite – Thank You Page for WooCommerce. Using hooks is our favorite, since it allows for the most customization and is less-resistant to breakage.

Using Hooks

You can override the WooCommerce template for the Thank You page by modifying the thankyou.php file located in the plugins/woocommerce/templates/checkout/ folder. Or like we said, you can just use a hook.

Here’s a simple code snippet using the woocommerce_thankyou_order_received_text hook to add a message about the password:

function order_received_text_with_password( $text, $order ) {
    $text = esc_html__( 'Thank you. Your order has been received.', 'woocommerce' );
    $text .= '<br><strong>' . esc_html__( 'Please note!', 'your-text-domain' );
    $text .= '</strong> <em>' . esc_html__( 'Your file download password has been set to your email address.', 'your-text-domain' ) . '</em>';
    return $text;
}
add_filter( 'woocommerce_thankyou_order_received_text', 'order_received_text_with_password', 11, 2 );

This is a very simple example. By adding this code to your (child) theme’s functions.php file, you can ensure that customers see a clear message about their password right on the Thank You page. If you don’t know how to create a child theme or edit your functions.php file using FTP or SSH or even cPanel File Manager, then maybe use the handy Code Snippets plugin to add the PHP code.)

Since the woocommerce_thankyou_order_received_text filter hook — and indeed most hooks included in the checkout and email templates — includes the WooCommerce $order object as a parameter, you can always use the object to fetch information from the order and print it dynamically in your text. For example, this parameter would come in handy if you were using a customer’s phone number or order number as their PDF password. Then you could actually print a password right on the screen with your message. How do you do this? Here’s a leg up at Stack Overflow about how to get order details from an $order object or order ID. If you are still unsure, please ask your developer. It might also benefit you to read through the PHP code below.

function order_received_text_with_phone_password( $text, $order ) {
    // Default Woo text message:
    $text = esc_html__( 'Thank you. Your order has been received.', 'woocommerce' );
    // OK, now get the data from the $order object!
    $order_data = $order->get_data();
    $phone = $order_data['billing']['phone'] ?? '';
    if ( ! empty( $phone ) ) {
        $text .= '<br><em>' . esc_html__( 'WE THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW', 'your-text-domain' );
        $text .= '</em> <strong>' . esc_html__( 'Your PDF password has been set to your phone number:', 'your-text-domain' ) . ' ' . $phone . '</strong>';
    } else {
        error_log( 'Error: No phone number found for order #' . $order_data['id'] );
    }
    return $text;
}
add_filter( 'woocommerce_thankyou_order_received_text', 'order_received_text_with_phone_password', 11, 2 );

Using WooCommerce Order Confirmation Emails

You can customize the order confirmation emails to include the password information. An order confirmation email is usually the first email a customer gets after their purchase. Take advantage of this oft-opened email to let them know their password. Maybe even use bright colors and big letters to draw attention to the password! The easiest way to do this would be with a plugin like Kadence WooCommerce email designer; otherwise try using the built-in WooCommerce settings, or write some custom code if you are inclined for something even more customized.

In the general WooCommerce settings there is an “Emails” tab, where the “Completed order” email template can be adjusted. If you want to send the same message with every purchase, use this settings panel/template. If you understand PHP, you can write the template with more granular control over what is said in what situation. But for many people, this settings field is handy for sharing the news that files are passworded.

Using WooCommerce Purchase Notes

Purchase notes are in order confirmations, nested under each line item in the receipt. To edit these, WooCommerce use the setting for each product under the product “Advanced” tab called “Purchase Note.” You can include details for the customer here, and it will show on the order confirmation page and in order confirmation emails.

Reasons using these settings might not be best is if you:

• have many products needing different notes
• want your message to appear elsewhere
• need to include dynamic data in the note
• need the note to be translatable

Adding to Woo Email Templates Using Hooks

Inside the plugins/woocommerce/templates/emails/ folder, you’ll find the email-order-details.php file. You can either override and edit the template, or just use action hooks included in the template to add custom text above or below the order details table in the email. Here’s an example:

function password_before_order_table( $order, $sent_to_admin, $plain_text, $email ) {
    $order_data = $order->get_data();
    $phone = $order_data['billing']['phone'];
    echo '<strong>Please note!</strong> Your file download password <em>is your phone number</em>: ' . $phone;
}
add_action( 'woocommerce_email_before_order_table', 'password_before_order_table', 10, 4 );

This code snippet adds a message about the password above the order details in the confirmation email, ensuring that customers are informed. If you wanted the message to be below the order details, you could use the hook woocommerce_email_after_order_table, with the same parameters.