Mailhilfe Order Note Manager for WooCommerce

Mailhilfe Order Note Manager for WooCommerce lets you create reusable note templates for WooCommerce orders. Instead of typing the same internal notes or customer notes again and again, you can select a prepared template directly inside the order screen, preview it with real order data and add it to the order.

After activation, open the left admin menu item Mailhilfe Order Notes. There you can create, edit, delete, categorize, favorite and sort your templates. Import/export tools and the plugin help are available as submenu pages.

Open a WooCommerce order in the WordPress admin area. The plugin adds an Mailhilfe Order Note Manager box where you can choose a template, preview the replaced placeholders and add the note to the order.

An internal note is intended for shop staff only. A customer note is customer-visible in WooCommerce and may trigger a customer note email notification depending on your WooCommerce email settings. Review the editable preview and selected note type carefully before adding a customer note.

WooCommerce can send email notifications for customer notes. Whether an email is actually sent depends on your WooCommerce email configuration and any other email-related plugins in your shop. Always review the preview before adding a customer note.

Yes. Template content can be edited with the WordPress editor. You can use common formatting such as paragraphs, bold text, italic text, lists and links. The plugin sanitizes template content with WordPress-safe HTML handling before saving or importing it.

The plugin supports placeholders for order data, customer data, billing and shipping data, payment methods, totals, items and shop information. Examples include {order_number}, {customer}, {billing_email}, {shipping_method}, {payment_method}, {order_total}, {items}, {site_name} and {current_user}. A placeholder overview is shown in the template editor.

Yes. The order screen includes a preview that replaces placeholders with data from the current WooCommerce order. This helps you check names, totals, shipping method, payment method and customer-visible text before the note is added.

If order data is not available, the placeholder is replaced with an empty value or a suitable fallback. For example, a paid date can only be shown if the order has actually been paid.

Yes. Templates support categories. Categories are useful when you have many templates, for example shipping, payment, returns, customer service or internal processing.

Favorites help you keep frequently used templates easy to find. Favorite templates are highlighted in the admin list and can be shown more prominently in the order selection.

Yes. You can search or filter templates in the WooCommerce order screen so that staff can quickly find the right note template.

Yes. The template list supports drag-and-drop sorting. The order is saved by AJAX and protected with nonce and capability checks.

Yes. Open Mailhilfe Order Notes > Template Import/Export to export templates as JSON or import a JSON export file. This is useful for backups, staging sites and moving templates to another shop.

The JSON export contains published templates with title, content, note type, categories, favorite status, sort order and usage counter data.

Yes. The plugin includes practical demo templates. They are installed automatically when no templates exist yet and can also be installed manually from Mailhilfe Order Notes > Template Import/Export. Demo templates are created in the active admin language where supported.

Yes. Demo templates are available for all bundled plugin languages. If the site or user locale is a supported variant, the plugin uses the closest matching bundled language.

Administrators and shop managers receive the capabilities manage_mh_order_note_templates and use_mh_order_note_templates on activation. These capabilities control template management and template usage.

Yes. The plugin uses WordPress capabilities, so additional roles can be granted access with a role/capability management plugin or custom code. The relevant capabilities are manage_mh_order_note_templates and use_mh_order_note_templates.

Yes. The plugin declares compatibility with WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage and uses WooCommerce order APIs instead of direct order table queries.

The template admin area can exist in WordPress, but the main purpose of the plugin is WooCommerce order notes. WooCommerce is required to use templates inside orders and to add notes to orders.

Yes. The plugin uses the mailhilfe-order-note-manager text domain and includes a POT file plus bundled PO/MO files for standard German, formal German, Spanish, French, Italian, Hindi, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Polish, Turkish, Persian, Vietnamese and Czech. Other languages should be provided through reviewed WordPress.org language packs.

First check Settings > General > Site Language and your user profile language. If a WordPress.org language pack is installed, WordPress may prefer that language pack. For direct ZIP installations, the plugin includes bundled fallback translations for standard German, formal German, Spanish, French, Italian, Hindi, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Polish, Turkish, Persian, Vietnamese and Czech.

Yes. You can translate or adjust strings with common WordPress translation tools such as Poedit or Loco Translate. Use the text domain mailhilfe-order-note-manager.

The plugin stores note templates and template metadata such as favorite status, sort order and usage count. The notes added to orders are stored by WooCommerce as order notes. If your templates include customer-related placeholders, the resulting note may contain personal order data.

The plugin is built with WordPress.org-oriented security practices, including capability checks, nonces, sanitization, escaping and WooCommerce APIs for order handling.

Yes. Import actions are protected with capability and nonce checks. Imported content is sanitized before it is saved. You should still only import JSON files from trusted sources.

Yes, but only safe HTML is kept. The plugin uses WordPress-safe sanitization so unsafe scripts or unsupported markup are not stored as template content.

Yes. Each time a template is used to add an order note, the usage counter is increased. The admin list shows the usage count so you can identify frequently used templates.

There is currently no separate reset button. The counter is stored as template metadata and can be changed by administrators with suitable database or custom admin tools if needed.

Check the preview carefully, make sure no internal information is included, and verify your WooCommerce customer note email settings. Customer notes may be visible to customers.

WooCommerce order notes and email templates may render HTML differently depending on your theme, WooCommerce settings and email plugins. The plugin keeps safe formatting, but final display can vary.

The plugin follows normal WordPress plugin behavior. On multisite, activate and configure it per site where WooCommerce is used. Templates are stored per site.

Deactivate and delete the plugin from the WordPress plugin screen. The included uninstall file removes plugin-specific templates, categories and stored plugin options when the plugin is deleted.

Yes. After selecting a template, the preview contains the replaced order data and can be edited before the note is saved. The edited preview is the final note that will be added to the order.

When a template is added as a customer note, the plugin also adds an internal log note with date, time, current user and template name. This helps the shop team see when a customer-visible message was created.

Each template can be assigned to all languages or to a specific supported locale. In multilingual shops the plugin tries to prefer templates matching the order language, user language or site language.

Yes. Advanced placeholders such as {order_meta:meta_key} and {customer_meta:meta_key} can read custom fields. Sensitive keys containing words such as password, token, secret, session, auth or hash are blocked.

The plugin cannot know the business meaning of every placeholder. Always review customer notes before saving them, especially when using meta placeholders or customer-specific data.

If the setting for HTML formatting is disabled, formatted template content is converted to safe plain text before the note is stored. This is useful for shops that want very simple notes only.

The import preview shows how many templates will be created, updated or skipped before the final import is executed. This helps avoid unwanted overwrites.

Yes. Use the Duplicate action in the template list. The copy is created as a draft and keeps the content, categories, favorite status and note type, while the usage counter starts at zero.

Yes. The settings page can disable JSON imports. Even when enabled, imports require the proper capability, nonce verification and a valid JSON file.

Use the permissions page to grant or remove the plugin capabilities for roles. Administrators keep access so the plugin cannot accidentally lock out the site owner.

Yes. Template content is mirrored into the WordPress post content so WordPress revisions can track changes when revisions are available.

Create the template, select a test order, check the preview, verify all placeholders and confirm the selected note type before adding the note. For critical messages, use an internal note first as a test.

WooCommerce can send an email when a customer note is added. Check the WooCommerce customer-note email configuration and use the History and Diagnostics pages to review processing information.

Yes. JSON export and import are useful for moving templates between staging and production. Check customer note settings after moving templates because WooCommerce email settings may differ.

The uninstall routine removes the plugin's own templates and plugin options. WooCommerce order notes already added to orders belong to WooCommerce order history and are not removed by uninstalling the plugin.

Document the WordPress version, WooCommerce version, whether HPOS is enabled, the active language, the selected template and the exact steps that caused the problem.

Conditions can restrict a template by order status, payment method ID, shipping method ID, billing country and minimum or maximum order total. Empty condition fields do not restrict the template. All configured conditions must match, and the plugin validates them again on the server before creating a note.

For customer notes, the plugin records when WooCommerce reports the customer-note email as processed and records technical wp_mail() failures. A processed event means WordPress/WooCommerce handed the message to the mail system; it is not proof of final delivery, inbox placement or that the customer read it.

Open Mailhilfe Order Notes > History. The page shows recent note creation, template use, email processing and email failures with order, template, user, recipient, event type and time when available. The latest 250 entries are displayed.

Enter a WooCommerce order ID in the test preview area of the template editor. The plugin renders the current editor content, including unsaved changes, with real order data without creating an order note or sending an email. The current user must be allowed to edit that order.

Global favorites are shared by all users. Personal favorites belong only to the current WordPress user. The plugin also stores the ten most recently used templates per user and prefers them in the order selector after a note has been added successfully.

The Diagnostics page shows technical values such as WordPress, PHP and WooCommerce versions, HPOS status, customer-note email status, current locale, published-template count, object-cache status and WP_DEBUG. It does not display customer addresses or order-note content.

The plugin provides extension points for placeholders, placeholder values, allowed meta keys, template results, conditions, preview content, final note content, actions before and after adding a note, history records and diagnostics. The currently documented hook names are listed in the Developer hooks and filters section of this readme.