nolimit-discounts/docs/SETUP.md

Setting it up

Installing

Updates come from the plugin's own release feed, not wordpress.org.

1. Download woocommerce-email-discount-manager.zip from the latest release at https://gitea.nolimit.dk/kw/nolimit-discounts-dist/releases.
2. Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
3. Activate. WooCommerce must already be active — activation stops with an error message if it is not, rather than activating into a broken state.

After the first install, the plugin offers its own updates in Dashboard → Updates like any other. Nothing else needs configuring for that to work.

If the update fails with "could not copy file"

The plugin directory is not writable by the user PHP runs as. This is a file ownership problem on the server, not a fault in the release — WordPress cannot overwrite files it does not own. Check it as the web server's user rather than as root, because root can write everything and the check will pass for the wrong reason:

docker exec <container> sh -c 'find /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/woocommerce-email-discount-manager -type f | wc -l'
docker exec -u 33 <container> sh -c 'find /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/woocommerce-email-discount-manager -type f -writable | wc -l'

The two numbers must be equal. 33 is www-data on the Debian-based images; confirm with ps -o user,args -e | grep apache before trusting it.

The three screens

WooCommerce → Nolimit Discounts (also reachable under the shared Nolimit menu) has three tabs.

Groups

A group is a name, a discount percent, and a list of WooCommerce product categories. The percent applies to products in those categories and nothing else. Categories are ordered by drag and drop; the order is cosmetic.

Emails

One row per email pattern. Each row picks one of Group, Coupon or Custom — they are exclusive, and the form will not let a row carry two.

This is the screen where a decision is actually required: how specific should the pattern be? A domain pattern (@company.com) gives the discount to every current and future address at that company, including ones nobody has seen yet. A fragment pattern (john) matches john@anywhere.com and also johnson@example.org. If a discount is worth real money, use the full address.

Shipping

Per group, per shipping method, one of show, only or hide.

Show offers the method to the group (and, once any method is shown, the group is offered only the methods marked show or only). Nobody else is affected. Only does the same and also reserves the method: customers outside the group stop seeing it everywhere on the shop. That is how "free delivery for approved addresses" stays unavailable to everybody else — set the free methods to only and the ordinary ones (parcel shops, pickup) to show. Adding one only rule changes what strangers see.

How to tell it is working

Not "no errors". A specific number on a specific screen:

1. WooCommerce → Nolimit Discounts → Emails. The row you added is listed with its type and its value. If the tab is empty after saving, the write failed and nothing else below will work.

2. The Nolimit dashboard card. Nolimit in the admin menu shows a card for this plugin with two counts — groups and email assignments. They should equal what the Groups and Emails tabs show. The card is cached for five minutes, so wait that long before reading it as disagreement.

3. The real test, in a cart. Log in as (or check out with) an address that matches a pattern and put a product from a covered category in the cart. The cart totals show a negative fee line carrying the group's name. No line means no match — check the pattern, not the percent.

4. Shipping, if you set any rules. With rules in place, compare the checkout as a matching customer and in a private window as a stranger. The method marked only must be absent for the stranger. Both should show at least one method; if the stranger sees everything, the rules emptied the list and the never-leave-them-stranded fallback returned all of them.

5. Updates. Dashboard → Updates names this plugin with a version and draws its icon. A broken image there means the release is missing its assets/ — report it rather than pressing update.

Settings that need no decision

There is no settings page beyond the three tabs. Rate limiting on the REST API and the audit log's retention are on by default and adjustable only by filter — see CONTRACT.md. A shop that does not want to write code never touches them.