Welcome to "What the Wix??" where we bring you the latest and greatest news, updates, tips and tricks for the Wix Ecosystem.
How it works -
There are 5 sections in each edition covering gradually more complex topics.
No Code
Testing checkout on free sites
This isn't necessarily 'new' but I stumbled across it while working on a checkout plugin the other week. I'm not sure exactly when it came about but I know that it was thrown around as 'were working on it' feature when I visited Wix headquarters about a year ago and I haven't heard of it since - until now.
The checkout page in Wix is one of the least 'Wix-like' pages. It doesn't exist in the Editor and can't be customized except a few things through the dashboard settings. The biggest issue (in my opinion) was the lack of testing tools. Checkout was something that was only available for premium sites which meant that you needed to upgrade to experience the checkout. This is a problem both for no-code users who want to make sure their site is fully functional and see how orders look after they're placed etc. and for developers who need to test customizations related to the checkout flow - such as onOrderCreated events etc.
Well - good news! Turns out you can now test checkout from your live site without upgrading! You can find the full instructions here, or check out this demo on the channel -
Other honorable mentions:
New Wix Automation Builder - looks cool but can't vouch for it yet as it is just rolling out now.
Adjusting padding in Wix Studio from the element itself (instead of having to open the side panel).
Low Code
Member auth gets a little more customizable
The Wix Members area has always been somewhat limited when it comes to customization. You can create your own login and signup forms (with or without Velo) but some parts of the auth process were still limited to Wix's prebuilt system such as resetting password.
Two relatively new API's in Wix Members Backend now allow a little more flexibility:
sendSetPasswordEmail( ) - allows you to trigger password reset via email (without needing to go through a "forgot my password" flow. This is still shy of the optimal API which would give full control to allow password change with custom UI and without an email but still a step in the right direction.
changeLoginEmail( ) - pretty much what it sounds like. Allows you to change the email a member uses to log into the site.
I'm guessing these new API's were made possible by the recent overhaul of the out of the box members area.
Code Mode
Ecomm API is getting some boosters
Over the past month or so I have been noticing a bunch of new unnanounced additions to the wix-ecom APIs. Here are two worth mentioning:
wix-ecom-frontend
This entire section is new and plugs a bunch of holes in the e-com experiance. For example the refreshCart() API level's up cart validations using the Validations Service Plugin (SPI). Using this API you can now "rerun" a validation on the cart at any point - say after picking a date in a date picker like we did in this tutorial:
Originally since our date picker was on the cart page, we could only run validations on the checkout page. Now with this new API we could run the validation on the cart page and update it after a datepicker selection using refreshCart().
customLineItems
This popped up in the addToCurrentCart() API and after a back and forth with the Wix team, my understanding is that it is meant for creating line items on the fly that aren't part of a catalog. This could be especially useful for products that require unique calaculations but you don't want to create a whole custom catalog setup for (among other things).
A small word of caution as in my initial experimentation with this I encountered some issues. Within a few weeks I imagine they will iron it out.
My main takeaway in this section is that you should always double check the docs, especially the e-com ones as something that wasn't possible a week ago may now be!
Soo Code
Wix CLI is growing
A new addition has been made to the Wix CLI - building Site Widgets.
Wix CLI is another framework for building apps for Wix Websites. You can think of it as a streamlined middle ground between Wix Blocks and self-hosting. While Wix Blocks handles both hosting and development through a Wix ecosystem editor, the Wix CLI streamlines the setup of the app and handles the hosting but then leaves you free to develop the UX and UI with the framework of your choice.
Each kind of extension made with the CLI works a little differently. This new Site Widget extention is built on custom elements.
Can't say I have much experience with the CLI but it looks interesting and is definitely on my to do list of things to play around with.
Wow Code
Codux game plan revealed?
Codux, the visual React editor by Wix, has been around for almost two years. Until now it wasn't so clear what the play was as besides resembling the Wix Editor UI and vibe, there wasn't a clear connection to Wix's primary offerings.
This month we got the first glimpse into the game plan (or at least part of it) as Wix announced a starter project for creating an eCommerce project with Codux and Wix headless. This is a 'worlds colliding' moment where headless meets the intensive focus Wix has been putting on the new e-com API's meets Codux.
To be honest this is kind of the opposite of what I thought their move would be. I had my money on Codux becoming a streamlined way to create custom elements and experiences within the Wix ecosystem.
I use React sometimes for hobby projects and peeked at Codux exactly once so it's not 100% up my alley at this point. I'd be curious to hear a full time React developers perspective on this move to bring more developers into the Wix ecosystem by creating bridge technologies. Anyways, if you are deep into React these days and curious about Codux, you can take a look at the starter project here.
It's a wrap!
Thanks for reading! If you are thirsty for more, you can join us for the What the Wix?? Livestream next week where we will be chatting about these updates and taking questions from the community.
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