Fluid Checkout PRO 5.0 release notes

Fluid Checkout PRO 5.0 is now available. We encourage you to update your site as soon as possible to take advantage of the latest features, improvements, and fixes.

🎉 New – Everything in one plugin

Until now, Fluid Checkout PRO needed Fluid Checkout Lite installed beside it, and the Address Book, Google Address Autocomplete and EU-VAT Assistant were separate add-ons. Keeping those plugins in sync was extra work, and each one had its own update path.

PRO 5.0 is the first version where Fluid Checkout PRO is one single plugin with everything for your checkout:

• Fluid Checkout Lite is now included in the PRO plugin. You no longer need Lite installed for PRO to work.
• The Address Book add-on is now part of PRO.
• The Google Address Autocomplete add-on is now part of PRO.
• The EU-VAT Assistant is now part of PRO.

When PRO 5.0 is activated, it turns off Fluid Checkout Lite and the old add-on plugins if they are still active. You can delete them afterwards. The add-ons are no longer sold separately. Existing subscriptions keep their price.

All settings from the Address Book, Google Address Autocomplete and EU-VAT Assistant add-ons are kept when you use PRO 5.0 or later. Addresses your customers saved in their address books are kept too, and the features stay turned on, so there is nothing to set up again. Address Book and Google Address Autocomplete live under WP Admin > Fluid Checkout settings (Address Book and Address Autocomplete tabs). Google Address Autocomplete still needs a Google API key.

⬆️ Upgrading to 5.0

1. Back up your site

   As with any update, back up your site first. If you can, try the update on a staging site first.

2. Update Fluid Checkout PRO to 5.0.0

   PRO 5.0 comes as a normal update. Update it from your site's dashboard, or download it from your account on fluidcheckout.com.

3. Lite is turned off for you

   PRO 5.0 includes Lite and turns off the separate Fluid Checkout Lite plugin. Your Lite settings and data carry over to PRO, so nothing needs to be set up again. You can delete Lite afterwards.

4. The old add-on plugins are turned off

   Address Book, Google Address Autocomplete and EU-VAT Assistant standalone plugins are deactivated if still active. Their settings and data carry over to PRO, so nothing needs to be set up again. You can delete the old add-on plugins afterwards.

5. Check the Address Book and Google Address Autocomplete

   Both features are now part of PRO. If you haven't used them yet, give them a try: let returning customers pick a saved address, and help new customers fill in their address faster with Google suggestions. Find them in WP Admin > Fluid Checkout settings, on the Address Book and Address Autocomplete tabs.

6. Check your checkout

   Test your checkout by placing a test order, and adjust the settings if needed.

Worth checking after the update

The shipping method section now shows before the shipping address by default. The option to turn off the coupon code section and the option to prevent automatic selection of the first shipping method were removed. Local Pickup works in a new way and supports pickup locations outside shipping zones.

🔑 New license system

PRO 5.0 moves licenses to our own license system. In most cases there is nothing you need to do.

• Your account on fluidcheckout.com shows activations as 0 out of your site limit until your sites update. That is expected.
• Sites that already have an active license key saved are activated automatically after they update to PRO 5.0 or later.
• You can manage your activations from your account on fluidcheckout.com.
• Staging and development sites are detected automatically. If a site is marked as the wrong type (staging or live), contact support and we will fix it.

🎉 New – Design customization without custom CSS

Changing checkout colors, buttons and form fields used to mean writing custom CSS or theme code.

PRO 5.0 adds design customization settings. Change colors of checkout elements, and the styles of buttons and form fields from the settings page, with a live preview. No custom CSS needed.

Find it at WP Admin > Fluid Checkout > Design.

Also new with the design templates: the Split design template now works with the 1 column layout on the checkout, cart and order received pages, and there is a specific setting to choose a background color for the secondary column of the Split design.

🎉 New – Settings with guided setup and live preview

Configuring Fluid Checkout used to mean hunting through settings without a clear starting path, and guessing the changes to checkout while you changed options.

Lite 5.0 (included in PRO) ships new settings pages, with a guided setup and a live preview of the checkout pages. The guided setup is optional: it starts automatically on new installation, and you can skip it entirely. You can also find it in WP Admin > Fluid Checkout > Dashboard, in the Getting started section. Change settings at WP Admin > Fluid Checkout > Settings.

Settings locked by a compatible plugin or theme now show as disabled, with a note explaining why. The Fluid Checkout plugin icon shows on admin notices.

🎉 New – Boxed design template in Lite

The Boxed design template was a PRO-only look. Lite stores that wanted that layout had to upgrade or stick with Classic.

The Boxed design template is now available in Lite and is the default on new installs. Existing sites that update keep their current design template, so Classic or your current template from PRO stays in place unless you change it.

🎉 New – Delayed account creation

Account fields on the checkout can distract guests and push some buyers away from finishing the order. Forced account creation has the same problem.

Delayed account creation removes account fields at checkout. Customers check out as guests and can create an account after the order is placed. The option to create an account shows on the order confirmation (thank you) page. It needs guest checkout and account matching turned on, and the delayed account creation option enabled.

Find it at WP Admin > Fluid Checkout > Settings > Customer accounts > Delayed account creation.

When the feature is on, signup from checkout is forced off so guests are not offered an account mid-checkout. A short notice can tell them they can create an account later.

🎉 New – Local Pickup with pickup locations

Local pickup used to follow shipping-zone limits more closely, which made it harder to offer pickup points that are not tied to those zones.

PRO 5.0 adds support for pickup locations that are not tied to shipping zones. Customers can now choose between "Shipping to address" and "Local pickup" at checkout, and the shipping methods shown are filtered to the chosen type only. As before, the shipping address fields stay hidden when local pickup is chosen.

Find the related settings under WP Admin > Fluid Checkout > Local Pickup.

Developers: several pickup-point hooks are deprecated in favor of delivery-named ones (see Changes for developers under PRO below). The option fc_local_pickup_display_clear_shipping_methods_button was removed; it is not needed with the new Local Pickup feature.

🎉 New – Saved address layouts: cards, list or dropdown

Saved addresses always showed as cards. For customers with several addresses, that takes a lot of space on the checkout.

The Address Book now has three layouts for saved addresses at checkout and on the cart page: cards, list or dropdown. Cards is the default, so nothing changes unless you pick another layout. Saved addresses on the My Account pages always use cards.

Find it at WP Admin > Fluid Checkout > Settings > Address book.

🎉 New – Search saved addresses at checkout

Customers with many saved addresses had to scroll through all of them to find the one they wanted.

A search field now shows above the saved addresses at checkout once a customer has a minimum number of saved addresses, which you can set in the settings (5 by default). Customers can search by name, address or any part of the address, and the list filters as they type. With the cards and list layouts, the search field shows above the addresses. The dropdown layout has search built in.

You can choose the layout and change the minimum number of saved addresses for search at WP Admin > Fluid Checkout > Settings > Address book.

New – Optional usage tracking

Improving compatibility and support is harder without knowing which themes, plugins and settings stores actually use. We do not and will not collect customer data from your shop.

Optional usage tracking helps improve compatibility and support. It is off by default. You can preview what would be sent, choose which groups of data to share, and turn it off at any time. When enabled, it only sends non-sensitive site information (environment, optional plugin settings, optional store totals with no customer or order details).

Agencies and developers can turn usage tracking off and hide it for a site by adding FC_DISABLE_TELEMETRY set to true in that site's wp-config.php. It has to be added on each site. While the constant is set, nothing is sent, the usage tracking settings stay hidden in the admin, and the saved choice is kept.

Other enhancements and fixes (PRO)

New:

• Compatibility with theme Purple.

Improved:

• Licenses now run on our own license system, Fluid Licenses.
• License key expiration dates now show in the site timezone.
• Google Address Autocomplete: WooCommerce address autocomplete is turned off while Google Address Autocomplete is on, so customers don't see two competing suggestion lists.
• Compatibility with plugin Order Delivery for WooCommerce by Kestrel. The delivery date template supports version 4.0.0 of that plugin.
• Compatibility with plugin Wawp (OTP Verification, Order Notifications, and Country Code Selector for WooCommerce). The international phone number setting is turned off while that plugin is active, with a note explaining why.
• Compatibility with plugin WooCommerce Stripe Gateway. The express checkout banner matches the plugin's loading behavior while keeping the Fluid Checkout layout.
• Compatibility with the WooCommerce Order Fulfillments feature. Styles for the fulfillments templates and table on order details.
• Updated the replaced templates cart.php, thankyou.php and email-order-details.php for WooCommerce 11.2.0.

Fixed:

• Shipping methods on the cart page staying blocked with a loading overlay after pressing the shipping calculator update button without changing the address.
• Order summary background color missing for guest customers on desktop with the Split design template.
• International phone country names now follow the site language, including with WPML.
• The Order Delivery estimated time and the Points and Rewards redeem message position settings now show a field label.
• WooCommerce Subscriptions keeps the default for the one shipping methods section until that option is turned on.
• Checkout reload when Force billing and shipping addresses to the same must switch between the merged address section and a separate billing step after cart items change whether shipping is needed.
• Substep corner styles on the order pay page before JavaScript runs.
• PHP deprecation notice across the plugin.
• Compatibility with theme TheGem. The theme page title shows on the cart page after the header.
• Compatibility with plugin ActiveCampaign for WooCommerce. Cart quantity updates no longer fail for guests without an email address.
• Compatibility with plugin Checkout Field Editor PRO by Themehigh. Contact review text and checkout fragments are kept when the editor is unavailable, one invalid section no longer stops the rest, and substeps are no longer marked incomplete when required fields or sections are hidden by conditional rules.
• Compatibility with plugin Order Delivery for WooCommerce by Kestrel. Delivery date and time frame are no longer cleared when switching shipping methods, the time frame resets after changing the date, and the delivery date section is hidden when no dates are available or dates are set for pickups only.
• Compatibility with plugin Order Delivery Date Pro for WooCommerce by Tyche Softwares. Delivery date fields now show and their labels are applied correctly.
• Compatibility with plugin Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce. No more duplicate express checkout banner or endless loading on checkout with Stripe 4.0+.
• Compatibility with plugin WooCommerce Stripe Gateway. The distraction free checkout template works again when Stripe express checkout is turned on.

Changes for developers:

• Improved: Filter fc_pro_pickup_point_address_data keeps its argument order and adds the shipping method object as a fourth argument.
• Deprecated: Filter fc_pro_is_substep_pickup_location_visible, use fc_pro_is_substep_delivery_visible.
• Deprecated: Filter fc_substep_pickup_point_attributes, use fc_substep_delivery_attributes.
• Deprecated: Filter fc_pro_pickup_point_label_text, use fc_substep_title_delivery.
• Deprecated: Action fc_pro_pickup_point_fields, use fc_pro_delivery_fields.
• Deprecated: Filter fc_substep_pickup_point_text_lines, use fc_substep_delivery_text_lines.
• Deprecated: Filter fc_pro_order_pay_substep_pickup_point_text_lines, use fc_pro_order_pay_substep_shipping_method_text_lines.
• Deprecated: Filter fc_substep_gift_cards_section_title, use fc_substep_title_gift_cards.
• Removed: Filter fc_pro_override_template_with_theme_file, use fc_override_template_with_theme_file from Lite.
• Removed: An unused filter registration in the Amazon Pay compatibility.

Address Book changes (PRO)

New:

• Saved address layouts: cards, list or dropdown.
• Search field for saved addresses at checkout.

Improved:

• Updated template files and other replaced files from WooCommerce.

Fixed:

• The first available address source is selected when the one saved in the session is no longer offered.
• Pickup locations are no longer saved into the address book when Local Pickup is selected.
• Local pickup is detected from the selected shipping method when the delivery type is still the default ship value.
• 'Same as billing address' behavior on the cart shipping calculator.

Changes for developers:

• New: REST API endpoints for address book entries under fluid-checkout/v1: GET /address-book, GET /address-book/{address_id}, POST /address-book (create), POST /address-book/{address_id} (replace the full entry) and DELETE /address-book/{address_id}. They work even when the Address Book feature is turned off on the storefront.
• New: Filters fc_adb_is_entry_add_enabled, fc_adb_is_entry_edit_enabled, fc_adb_is_entry_delete_enabled and fc_adb_is_new_address_source_enabled to restrict what customers can do with their saved addresses.
• New: Filters fc_pro_address_book_display_layout and fc_pro_address_book_saved_addresses_filter_min_count.

EU-VAT Assistant changes (PRO)

Improved:

• EU-VAT validation status now shows in the review text of custom sections from Checkout Field Editor Pro.

Fixed:

• Fatal errors when admin notice styles loaded before the plugin features were ready.
• VAT Assistant settings are unlocked and the promo card is removed when the feature is active.

Changes for developers:

• Removed: Filter fc_vat_reverse_charge_countries_skip_list_options, which was for internal use only.

Other enhancements and fixes (Lite)

These changes come from Fluid Checkout Lite. They apply to Lite sites and to PRO sites, since PRO 5.0 includes Lite.

New:

• Support for the Split design template with the 1 column layout (PRO feature).
• Compatibility with theme Purple.
• Filter fc_local_pickup_shipping_zone_fields_options for the local pickup shipping zone fields setting (PRO feature).
• Filter fc_available_shipping_methods to change the shipping methods shown for a package.
• Filter fc_prevent_shipping_method_autoselect. Return true to prevent automatic selection of the first shipping method.

Improved:

• The shipping method section now shows before the shipping address by default.
• Layout of the WooCommerce address autocomplete suggestions and search icon on checkout and on the account edit address form.
• Updated the replaced files for WooCommerce address-i18n.js and for EU/UK VAT for WooCommerce.
• Updated the replaced checkout templates form-shipping.php and review-order.php for WooCommerce 11.2.0.
• Filter fc_shipping_method_display_package_destination_substep_text_lines also receives the shipping method and the package index.
• Upgraded the Sass build tooling.

Fixed:

• Checkout step names partly visible inside the progress bar with some themes.
• Shipping step and substep visibility when the cart starts or stops needing shipping during checkout AJAX updates.
• Progress bar not showing the right step when a hidden, incomplete step becomes visible again.
• Proceed button showing instead of the edit and save buttons for an incomplete step the customer already passed.
• 'Same as billing address' behavior on the cart shipping calculator.
• JavaScript error in collapsible blocks, for example on the view order account page.
• JavaScript error when focusing a shipping method that is no longer available after a checkout update.
• Settings page header missing when other plugins' admin notices are removed on Fluid Checkout settings screens.
• PHP deprecation notice across the plugin.
• Compatibility with plugin Brevo for WooCommerce (formerly Sendinblue). No more duplicate newsletter checkbox when it is moved to the contact step.
• Compatibility with plugin Colissimo. Dependent international phone settings are hidden when that feature is off.
• Compatibility with plugin Hungarian Pickup Points & Shipping Labels for WooCommerce. No more required shipping address errors with its pickup point method, and the map lists points for the shipping country.
• Compatibility with plugin Wawp (Automation Web Platform). The phone country code is no longer applied twice after a reload, and the country dropdown works on checkout.
• Compatibility with plugin WooCommerce Subscriptions. Recurring shipping methods no longer hidden when the only package index is 0.
• Compatibility with plugin Astra Pro. Modern input animation works when country or state fields update during checkout.
• Compatibility with plugin Svea Checkout for WooCommerce. No more endless checkout reloads, style issues or missing shipping options with versions 3.0.0+, and fields are no longer cleared when switching payment methods.

Changes for developers:

• Fixed: Plugin deactivation only syncs non-Fluid Checkout settings from the active profile to wp_options. Managed fc_* values stay in the profile.
• Deprecated: Filter fc_next_step_button_label now shows a notice, use fc_proceed_to_next_step_button_label.
• Deprecated: Filter fc_shipping_methods_disable_auto_select, use fc_prevent_shipping_method_autoselect. The new filter has inverted logic.
• Deprecated: Filter fc_skip_add_pickup_point_info_as_review_text_lines, use fc_add_pickup_point_info_as_review_text_lines.
• Removed: Option to turn off the integrated coupon code section. It is always on when WooCommerce coupons are available.
• Removed: Option fc_local_pickup_display_clear_shipping_methods_button, not needed with the new Local Pickup feature.
• Removed: Option to prevent automatic selection of the first shipping method. Use the filter fc_prevent_shipping_method_autoselect instead.

Changelog

The full list of changes for every version is on the changelog pages.

• PRO changelog
• Lite changelog