WooCommerce to Stop Registering Customizer Options in Upcoming 6.9 Release

WooCommerce is making a strong push towards getting the Customizer menu out of the admin for those who are using a block theme. In an effort to clean up the admin and eliminate confusion, the plugin will stop registering Customizer options when a block theme is active beginning with version 6.9. This will go into effect with WooCommerce 6.9, which is expected to be released in September 2022.

The problem is that site owners can get confused by having both the “Edit site” and “Customize” menu links in the admin.

This change is an important one for WooCommerce developers to acknowledge if they are still registering settings within the WooCommerce panel in the Customizer. Developers can opt to use the customize_register action to include Customizer menu items, but continuing to offer Customizer options is not an ideal user experience.

“Subpanels or sections registered within the WooCommerce panel on the Customizer will no longer be accessible since the Customizer links will be removed,” WooCommerce engineer Alba Rincón said in the announcement. “If you’re the developer of a theme or extension that relies on the presence of these you will need to make changes to ensure a smooth transition.”

WooCommerce core developers recommend plugin authors update their products to relocate any Customizer settings to a block, pattern, or the Global Styles menu.

Community developers are also invited to weigh in on a change that may impact developers’ debugging workflows. It is a proposal designed to address the problem of the growing size of the WooCommerce zip archive, which is rapidly approaching a size where it is difficult for some users to update with out timing out. The core team is considering removing JavaScript and CSS source files from releases, but this major change requires community feedback. The discussion will be open on GitHub until August 26th, 2022.