Configuration

Registry has a deliberately small admin screen: two toggles at WooCommerce → Gift Registries, both stored in the registry_settings option. The rest of the experience lives with customers under My Account and on the public registry pages, so there is little to configure store-side.

Store settings

Enable gift registries

The master switch, on by default. Option key enabled. When on, registries work the moment the plugin is active, no setup required. Turn it off to hide everything at once: the Add to gift registry button on products, the My Account → Gift Registries area, and every shared public registry page stop rendering. Existing registries are kept and reappear when you switch this back on; nothing is deleted.

Allow direct purchase

On by default. Option key allow_purchase. Controls what Buy this gift does on a shared registry page:

• On (recommended), the item drops into the guest’s cart in one step.
• Off, the button reads View product and sends the guest to the product page, where they pick a size or colour before adding to cart. Useful for variable products.

This setting has no effect unless gift registries are enabled above. The buy button also falls back to View product automatically when a product is not purchasable or is out of stock, regardless of this toggle.

What a customer controls

Everything about an individual registry is set by its owner under My Account → Gift Registries, not by the store admin:

• Registry name, the title (defaults to My gift registry if left blank).
• Event type, wedding, baby shower, birthday, housewarming or other.
• Event date, optional; shown on the public page in your site’s date format.
• Items, products added from product pages, each with a desired quantity the owner can edit or remove in the manage view.

Ownership is checked before every create, edit, quantity change, item removal and delete, so one customer can never see or change another’s registry.

The public registry page

Each registry has its own permalink under /gift-registry/ (for example /gift-registry/annas-wedding/). The post type is publicly readable but excluded from search and archives, a registry is only reachable by its direct link. The page renders below the title via the_content and shows the name, event badge and date, each item’s image, price and N of M purchased progress, and a buy or Fully purchased state per item.

Purchase tracking (no configuration)

When a guest buys through a registry, the registry ID is carried on the cart item and saved to the order line item. When the order reaches processing, completed, or fires payment_complete, the bought quantities are added to that registry’s purchased count. An order is only counted once. There is no cron job, queue or external service.

Storage and cleanup

• Settings: the registry_settings option.
• Schema version: the registry_db_version option.
• Each registry: a gift_registry post owned by the customer (post_author), with event type, event date and the item map (product_id => desired quantity) in post meta.
• Purchased counts: per-registry post meta keyed by product ID.

Deleting the plugin removes the two options. Customer registries and their purchased meta are left in place on purpose, they are user content that should survive a reinstall, and can be removed manually if you want them gone.

Related

• Getting started, install and create the first registry.
• Using registries, create, share, buy and track.
• FAQ, common questions.