Easy Digital Downloads Conditional Gateways

You write the rule on one product and it applies to the whole cart

You sell ebooks and other digital products, and you want the ebooks paid only through Stripe. You open the ebook, check Stripe and save. It looks like a change to a single product. Then a customer puts that ebook and an unrestricted template in the same cart, and PayPal disappears for the template too.

Conditional Gateways, the Easy Digital Downloads extension for limiting gateways per download, works like this: a gateway appears at checkout only if every restricted product in the cart allows it. Unrestricted products do not add gateways; they follow whatever the restricted ones allow.

The consequence goes beyond the screen where you check the box. Each restriction changes the payment options of every cart that product enters. If your catalog has two groups whose restrictions do not overlap, a customer can bring them together and end up with no way to pay. That is why these rules are better planned as combinations than as separate boxes.

One box per gateway on each download

The extension adds a sidebar box with your active gateways to each download's edit screen:

• Restriction per product: you check the allowed gateways and save.
• Nothing checked, no limit: by default nothing is checked and all are allowed.
• Filtering at checkout: gateways are worked out from the contents of the cart.
• Your own message: configurable text for when no valid gateway remains, instead of a generic error.

One detail is easy to misread: unchecking every gateway removes the restriction. It does not block sales of a product.

The combination that leaves a cart with no way to pay

With PayPal and Stripe active, you restrict ebooks to Stripe and leave everything else open. A cart with an ebook and an open product shows Stripe and can be paid. Now you also restrict those other products to PayPal. No gateway works for both and, instead of checkout, your error message appears asking the customer to remove a product.

That message is all that stands between the customer and the purchase, so it deserves more care than filler text. Explain why they cannot be bought together and what to do, for example paying for each group in a separate order.

Wallet and the express button behave differently

Two payment options do not behave like an ordinary gateway:

• EDD Wallet with enough balance: it appears as a normal option, subject to the same filtering.
• Wallet as the only option with a short balance: checkout shows an error with a link to the deposit page to add funds.
• Wallet with other options and a short balance: it is quietly removed from the options.
• Stripe button for Apple Pay and Google Pay: allowing Stripe on a product also allows this button, even if you do not check it separately.

That last one has a clear limit: on the same product you cannot allow Stripe and block express checkout.

Turning it on and getting the message ready

You need an Easy Digital Downloads store and at least two active gateways for a restriction to have any effect. To start:

1. Install and activate the extension.
2. Write the text under Downloads, Settings, Payments, Conditional Gateways, in the Checkout Error Message field.
3. Open a download, check the allowed gateways in its sidebar box and save.
4. Test real carts: a restricted product alone, one with an open product, and two restricted to different gateways.

Your checkout will need more than this rule

The extension decides from the products in the cart. Its features do not include rules by country, order amount or customer type. It does not add gateways either: it distributes the ones you already have.

To widen those options, Stripe Pro Gateway works with cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and other methods, plus payment preapproval. PayPal Express and Pro adds two ways to collect: one where the customer approves in PayPal and another with a card on your site.

Cart cases worth having settled

Can I sell one product only through Stripe and the rest through any gateway?

Yes. But in a cart containing that product, the others will also be paid through Stripe.

Can I allow Stripe without Apple Pay or Google Pay?

Not on the same product, because allowing Stripe includes its express payment button.