Easy Digital Downloads 3.1 Adds 10 New Core Blocks, Introduces Email Summaries

Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) put out a big release today, following several maintenance releases and the last major release in July. Version 3.1 introduces 10 new core blocks available to users who are running WordPress 5.8 or newer:

• Buy Button
• Order History
• Products
• Registration Form
• Login Form
• Download Terms
• Receipt
• Confirmation
• Cart
• Checkout (Beta)

These blocks enable store owners to do more than their shortcode predecessors. Although the shortcodes still work, the block versions allow for much easier customization with a better UI. One example in the announcement is the Order History block. The previous Purchase History shortcode output a simple table of orders, but the new Order History block has a card style view and allows users to easily modify the number of columns and how many orders are displayed per page.

The other blocks have been updated in a similar fashion, with extended functionality and greatly expanded customization options.

It’s important to note that the new Checkout block was released in beta. It is not turned on by default for new stores yet. Users who want to test the block will notice that EDD has reordered some of the fields to improve conversions, improved the user context detection (only showing necessary fields to users), and redesigned the payment method picker.

Email Summaries is a new feature for store owners in 3.1. It sends a weekly or monthly email to the admin or other custom recipients with a store update that includes metrics like gross and net revenue, new customers, and average order amount. It can also be disabled in the admin.

A few other notable changes in version 3.1 include the following:

• New setting to require users to login to download files
• Success Page has been renamed to Confirmation Page to differentiate it from the receipt
• More detailed views and filtering options for Reports
• reCAPTCHA keys added to Downloads » Settings » Misc so users can automatically enable reCAPTCHA for the lost password and the registration forms
• New color options for purchase buttons
• New “View Receipt” link in the orders table

Easy Digital Downloads is installed on more than 50,000 WordPress sites. The ten-year-old plugin is continuing to evolve and become a more block-friendly tool for selling digital products. Check out the announcement post for a full tour of all the new blocks and their capabilities.