Easy Digital Downloads Upload File

A custom order does not end when the customer pays

Selling a file is convenient: the customer pays and receives what they bought. Then you add a service to your store, or a product you must prepare for each person, and a new question appears: where does the customer send you their logo, their text or their document? If the answer is "by email", every sale starts with a message you have to request, wait for and match to an order.

At that point your business changes shape. With a custom order, payment opens the work instead of closing it, and the first thing you need is the customer's material. Upload File, an extension for Easy Digital Downloads, brings that request into the purchase process: customers upload their files before or after completing the order, and those files stay linked to their purchase.

It suits services, t-shirts or any item that needs specifications or documents from the customer before it can be completed. Your regular products stay the same, because uploading is switched on only where it is needed.

Global settings and per-product exceptions

• Per-product activation: the File Uploads box appears in the right column when you edit each download.
• Maximum number of files: global, with a limit of its own per product if you need one.
• Allowed types: a list of extensions, global or per product.
• Form texts: title, description and a line above the button, with the {limit}, {files} and {product} tags.
• Customer download: an option that lets them get their files again from the receipt.
• History: files stay attached to their product and accessible from Purchase History.

On a product, leaving the fields blank or at zero applies the global values. If you leave the global extensions list empty, there is no file type restriction. Write in it what you accept.

For heavy files, it supports chunked and resumable uploads, which allows working with virtually unlimited sizes depending on what you need.

Asking for files at checkout or on the receipt

The File Upload Location option decides where the form appears, and the decision affects your workflow.

On the checkout page, the material arrives along with the order. When you open the sale you already have what you need to start. In exchange, you add a step right before charging, and the customer must have the file at hand at that moment.

On the receipt page, the purchase is completed first and the upload comes afterward. Checkout stays free of that extra step, but a closed sale may be left waiting for its material.

It collects the material and leaves the return trip to another extension

Upload File covers half of the route: the customer's path to you. You download what you received from the Uploaded Files section of the payment. Returning the finished work is another piece.

For that, it combines with Custom Deliverables: you upload your version in the section of the same name inside the payment and use Notify Customer to send an email saying it is ready. If your deliveries are heavy, such as a video, the Amazon S3 extension lets you store them off your hosting.

First setting and test order

You need Easy Digital Downloads installed and active. From there:

1. Install and activate the extension.
2. Go to Downloads, Extensions, Upload File.
3. Choose the upload location, the allowed extensions and the maximum number of files.
4. Edit the product, tick Enable Uploads and adjust the limit if it differs from the global one.
5. Buy your own product and locate the files in the payment.

If your store does not run on Easy Digital Downloads

This extension is for Easy Digital Downloads. With WooCommerce, Customer Upload Files handles orders that need a file from the customer, and the catalog also includes YITH WooCommerce Uploads and Checkout Files Upload.

How uploads behave in your store

Is it enabled on all my products?

Not necessarily. Uploading is enabled product by product, so customers only see the request when it applies.

Can customers get back what they uploaded?

Yes, if you enable Allow User Download: they will see the file on the purchase confirmation and can download it.

Where do I see the customer's files?

Open the payment from the history and look for the Uploaded Files section.