WooCommerce Steem Payment Method Updates - 09 March 2019
I am sharing the most recent updates to the WooCommerce Steem Payment Method plugin.
This is the same plugin that is powering STEEM/SBD transactions on the Homesteaders Co-op website, a venue used by 28 vendors in 11 countries to accept STEEM/SBD. Additionally this plugin is used by at least 7 other websites to my knowledge to accept STEEM/SBD for payments.
Repository
Github: https://github.com/sagescrub/woocommerce-steem-payment-method
Wordpress / WooCommerce Plugin
Use this link to download/install this plugin in your WooCommerce store: https://wordpress.org/plugins/woo-steem-payment-method/
Introduction
This post is meant to serve as a recap of the highlights and updates that were made to the WooCommerce Steem Payment Method plugin since the initial Utopian announcement for this plugin.
Latest Updates
Following are the changes to this plugin that have been made since the previous Utopian update on 15 Sept 2018.
Faster Transaction Matching
Some folks had mentioned it was taking a long time to match the steem transaction to the order payment. The CRON job was running every 5 minutes so it could take up to 10 minutes to match a transaction. Reduced the time of checking for matching transaction history from 5 minutes to 2 minutes, so it will now take up to 4 minutes for a valid payment to be matched to an order.
More Detailed Order Notes
Order Notes are more detailed including exchange rate between FIAT and STEEM/SBD, as well as payee, memo, transaction time. Additionally, detailed order notes are added when matching transaction is discovered on blockchain.
Customizable Transaction Memo
Added a filter to allow customizing the transaction memo. Requested by @thecryptodrive
Customizable Transaction Payee
Added a filter to allow customizing the transaction payee (steem account)
Admin Option to Show/Hide Discounted Prices
Added admin option to show discounted price in STEEM/SBD. If enabled products that are on sale will display the original price in STEEM/SBD with strike through. Discounted STEEM/SBD prices are now hidden by default.
Better API Error Handling
Added error handling for querying steem transfer history.
More Efficient Usage of Steemyy API
Adjusted querying steem transfer history via Steemyy to prevent unneeded/excessive usage of @justyy's excellent API.
Updated Readme files
The Readme files / Wordpress Plugin description were updated with more details to give users a better understanding of the requirements of this plugin as well as better understanding about how it is working under the hood.
Revived International Currency Rate Conversion
Revived international currency rates conversion using Exchange Rates API (exchangeratesapi.io). Previous version of this plugin (before I forked it) was using a fixer.io API that was no longer freely available. I transitioned this plugin to exchangeratesapi.io in order to revive currency rate conversion for international (non USD) websites.
Various Adjustments for Stability of Plugin
Various updates were made to fix bugs, error handling and migrate away from using deprecated functions.
Websites Using this Plugin
To my knowledge there are now at least 8 websites using this plugin to accept steem/sbd payments:
Homesteaders Co-op
Free community marketplace for sustainable goods and ethical services. A venue used by 28+ vendors in 11+ countries to accept STEEM/SBD. - @homesteaderscoop
https://homesteaderscoop.com
BuildTeam.io
Purchase SteemVoter premium subscriptions - @thecryptodrive
https://shop.buildteam.io/shop/
OneLoveDTube
Decentralized dTube video hosting - @graylan, @techcoderx
https://oneloveipfs.com/
Nicky Havey
Music, Liquid Drum & Bass - @nickyhavey
https://nickyhavey.co.uk/product-category/music/
Cana-Curate
HashKings / Cannabis related merchandise - @qwoyn
https://qwoyn.io/dispensary/
SimplyElated
Steem Graphics Pack for steem posts - @kenanqhd
https://simplyelated.com/index.php/product/graphics-pack/
Davood Faramarzi
Music - @davidfar
http://davoodfaramarzi.com/shop/
MarcoSdk
3DK Render Studio artwork renderings - @marcosdk
https://www.3dkrender.com/shop/
Future Plans
There are a few plans for improving this plugin in the future:
Multiple Exchanges
Currently we are using Poloniex for steem exchange rate conversions. In the future I would like to see this plugin have the ability to query multiple exchanges. Both for better price averages and also for redundancy in case connection to one exchange API is lost.
KeyChain
Currently Steem Payments are made via SteemConnect. I would like to explore the possibility of integrating KeyChain as an alternative payment method within this plugin. This would give the users more choice as to how to transact.
Subscriptions
@graylan and @techcoderx are exploring the possibility of updating this plugin to support WooCommerce subscription based products. This would allow the possibility of purchasing products with recurring payments.
Collaboration
I am open to collaboration on this plugin regarding the above enhancements or other improvements I have not listed here. Feel free to reach out to me if you are interested in the comments or via discord.
Series Backlinks
Website | @homesteaderscoop | Discord Community
#naturalmedicine | Introducing @naturalmedicine | Discord Community
#ghsc | Introducing @ghscollective | Discord Community
#tribesteemup | @tribesteemup | The 8 Pillars of TribeSteemUp
Thank you for your contribution.
Have you thought about getting the real-time transaction records via the official steemit apis? The WP crontab may be distabled on purposes by users i.e. users may have set the crontab in system see this post for more details.
You could also cache the data using WP-transient stuffs, which could reduce the API usages.
PS: Your version 0.0.18 is outside 14-day window.
Your contribution has been evaluated according to Utopian policies and guidelines, as well as a predefined set of questions pertaining to the category.
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[utopian-moderator]
Hi Justyy, thanks for the reply. Actually the 1.0.19 version of the plugin was updated 2 days ago. I hope it can still qualify for the utopian reward!
Thanks for the tip regarding the real-time transaction records. This is what I originally hoped to do, but could not find an API that I could call via PHP. Essentially I would love an API that I could call from PHP to match a transaction by payee, memo, amount and currency. The best I could find was your transaction history API! Is there an API you have in mind that you can point me to?
Good suggestion about caching data. Yes the data is cached, but not with transients - it is held in memory. I will look into that for a future update.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for your review, @justyy! Keep up the good work!
This really is a great plugin for any one that wants to introduce steem as a payment method on their WordPress website.
Thank you @sagescrub for putting this all together 😀
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Thank you @nickyhavey :) I am glad it is serving you well.
Congrats you have been selected by the Steemvoter (SV) Guild, keep up the good work and helping make Steem great!
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Thank you!
Very awesome updates, thank you! Glad to see this plugin still in active development. Thanks @sagescrub for being so helpful as well.
You're very welcome. I am glad you are able to make use of the plugin!
Good job on this!
Hey, @sagescrub!
Thanks for contributing on Utopian.
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@utopian-io, thank you so much for the support! I really appreciate it, it is great incentive and encouragement to continue contributing to FOSS for the steem community.
Thank you for the tip about beneficiary payout, I will use that next time :)
Great work. Imo include Steem Keychain is a great idea
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Thanks for the feedback :)
Amazing work and updates, thank you!
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