Prevent Tracking Scripts From Running Multiple Times on WooCommerce's Thank You Page
🗓If you've ever installed a custom script on the thank you or order confirmation page of WooCommerce one of the issues you've likely ran into is that the script can be fired multiple times if a user refreshes the page. Personally, I don't see how this happens as often as it does - but - I'll be damned, it seems to be a thing if you don't address it. Perhaps it's those people who never close tabs? 🤔
A lot of plugins that handle integrations for Google Analytics or Facebook Pixels solve for this already, so you likely don't need to worry about it - however - if you're building a custom integration or using some sort of system that doesn't offer a sophistacted integration plugin you'll no doubt run into this problem on a live store.
When I first ran into this problem I was wayyyyy overthinking it, but with a little help from the WooCommerce Slack channel (credit to @pmgarman for clueing me in on the idea!) I found out this is pretty simple to sort with custom meta on the order object.
Here's the snippet that helped me sort this on my end:
// Run Scripts on Order Confirmation Endpoint in WooCommerce Exactly Once.
function zf_woocommerce_thankyou_scripts($order_id) {
// Check for meta key on order, only run if not found.
if( ! get_post_meta( $order_id , '_tracking_scripts_ran', true ) ) {
// Add meta key to order so scripts don't run a second time.
add_post_meta( $order_id, '_tracking_scripts_ran', 'yes', true ); ?>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!-- Your Tracking Script(s) here -->
</script>
<?php }
}
add_action( 'woocommerce_thankyou', 'zf_woocommerce_thankyou_scripts' );
All you should need to do is replace the <script></script> above with whatever tracking scripts you need to integrate.
The way this snippet works is simple, it checks for a custom meta key _tracking_scripts_ran on the order when the thank you page loads, if it doesn't exist it'll add it and display the scripts.
The second time around (ie after a refresh, etc.) it'll see that the meta exists and won't render the script to run again.
That outta do it, much easier than I was originally thinking it would be.
As always you can install that snippet in your functions.php - or - use something like the Code Snippets plugin.
PS: If you're trying to pull in some data from the $order object for a custom event I'd recommend taking a peek at the cheat sheet over at BusinessBloomer.com, those are always super helpful for me!
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