Using Client Zones from the front end
Client Zones are accessed from the My Account area provided by WooCommerce to registered customers/users. The menu link Communications (unless the default name has been changed in the back end) provides access to any user-linked Client Zone, while order-linked Client Zones (see Zone Types for more information on these two types of Client Zones) are accessible from any eligible order from the My Account > My Orders link.
Once within a Client Zone, the customer may (depending on the access permission in place for that Client Zone) submit a new rich-text message (using the WordPress TinyMCE editor) and/or upload a new file of the allowed type and size simply by dropping it in the drag & drop zone, or by selecting it after clicking on the same zone.
Should a customer have more than one Client Zone available (for example a user-linked zone and one or more order-linked ones), it is always possible to switch view from one to another Client Zone directly from the current zone, by selecting the appropriate zone from the dropdown menu located at the top right side of the Client Zone area.
Using Client Zones from the back end
Client Zones are accessed by the merchant from several areas of the back end admin site. From version 1.0.3 the back end user must have a WP role of Administrator or a WooCommerce-defined capability of ‘edit_shop_orders’ to be able to operate on Client Zones;
User-linked Client Zones are viewable from the the WordPress standard Users menu, or from the WooCommerce > Reports > Customers > Customer List page, where they are available by clicking on the custom Client Zone action icon at the right of the default WooCommerce actions. User-linked zones are also accessible from the standard WordPress user edit page.
Order-linked Client Zones are viewable from the WooCommerce > Orders page, where they are available by clicking on the custom Client Zone action icon at the right of the default WooCommerce actions. Order-linked zones are also accessible from the WooCommerce order edit page.
Same as per the front side, the merchant can submit a new rich-text message (using the WordPress TinyMCE editor) and/or upload a new file of the allowed type and size simply by dropping it in the drag & drop zone, or by selecting it after clicking on the same zone.
Merchant actions on Client Zones
When viewing a Client Zone, the merchant may perform actions related to that zone. In the area to the right (or the top for smaller devices) of the communications area, there are expandable sections to perform the following actions:
Notify Client – Send an email to the client, to alert about an unseen message or uploaded file. The email text and subjects may be changed just before sending it, and the default values are specified in the back end configuration;
Client Permissions – Specify custom permissions for the Client Zone, overriding those defined globally in the back end configuration;
Switch View – Navigate through Client Zones of the same customer. This action is only available if more than one Client Zone is present for the same customer.
Move this Client Zone – Manually move the communications within the current Client Zone to another Client Zone of the same customer. This action is only available if more than one Client Zone is present for the same customer (e.g. a personal user-linked Zone and one or more order-linked Zones). It is possible to specify whether any custom client permissions possibly enabled on the zone should also be moved, thus replacing the ones on the target Client Zone. Notice that this action is only available if the current Client Zone contains some communications (files and/or messages).
Notifications dashboard widget for merchants
WooClientZone includes a dashboard widget that provides immediate visibility and access to Client Zones within the entire system where communications are present that have not been yet seen by either party.
This is very useful for merchant to know which customers have sent new communications, which might require the merchant’s input. It is also useful to let the merchant know which Client Zones have communications still unseen by customers, which might for example require email notification.