GSA-02 - GT Support Advisory > GlobalTill WooCommerce Integration

Severity Level

MEDIUM

Versions Affected

  • All

Status

  • Resolved

Date Issued

August 14, 2020

Summary

What is the problem?

  • Network traffic restrictions at the ISP level and variable Word Press server performance are leading to delays in syncing product data to some WooCommerce installations hosted outside of the AWS Canada region

Background

  • GT updates product and inventory levels through the WooCommerce REST API.

  • Due to recent reports from clients we implemented additional logging to measure data points including request timeouts and average time to completion.

  • We found significant variances in request/response times across our user base that are not attributable to the GT Cloud platform.

Users/Groups Affected

  • Some WooCommerce integrated GT sites are experiencing this problem when hosted outside of AWS Canada.

  • WooCommerce users on shared/limited hosting plans or with non optimized Word Press configurations are predominantly affected.

  • WooCommerce dedicated instances hosted by GT directly are not affected by this problem.

Identification

  • This problem manifests primarily in out of date inventory quantities. While product data can also be out of date, it often goes unnoticed as the syncing only undergoes intermittent failure and data is updated in future syncs.

Solution Details

Solution details

  • We have evaluated several options and based on consultation with senior Word Press developers, we have determined that the best course of action is to switch from a push mechanism to a pull mechanism for product and inventory data.

  • GT has licensed and tested the WP All Import Pro plugin and has crafted special URL endpoints to allow for the importer to pull GT inventory and product data. This is provided at no additional cost to all GT WooCommerce users.

  • Full instructions on installation and configuring scheduled imports are linked below.

Other Information

  • Customer orders will continue to be pushed from WooCommerce to GT via webhooks.

  • Last synced time for WooCommerce will not be reflective of the actual last sync time, instead, the logs produced by WP All Import Pro should be referenced.

GT Endpoints

Plugin Downloads

Solution Support Articles

  1. Installing WP All Import Pro Plugin

  2. Setting Up a Scheduled Product Sync

  3. Setting Up a Scheduled Inventory Sync

Required WooCommerce Configuration

FCGID Timeouts (Apache)

Maximum Execution Time (PHP)

  • max_execution_time → 120 seconds or greater

Word Press Memory Limit

  • WP_MEMORY_LIMIT in wp-config.php (See https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-edit-wp-config-php-file-in-wordpress/)

  • The minimum WP_MEMORY_LIMIT should be 256 MB for plugin importation. During normal operations a lower limit could be used.

PHP Version(s)

  • The latest point release of the “Current Stable”

  • PHP 7.4 or newer

PHP Memory Limit

  • The WP_MEMORY_LIMIT cannot exceed the PHP memory limit.

  • The minimum PHP memory limit should be 256 MB.

Operating System

  • Linux based OS

    • e.g. Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat Enterprise, CentOS or Amazon Linux 2