InPlate dishes are items that appear in the menu for a set time: a daily dish, a soup of the day, a lunch, a burger of the week, a holiday menu. You set the price and the date range, and the dish appears in the menu by itself on the first day and disappears after the last one.
Under the hood every InPlate dish is a WooCommerce product that WP InPlate creates and updates automatically. The cart, payment, KDS and emails work the same as for regular products.
Dish types
A dish type is a kind of offer, e.g. “Daily dish”, “Soup of the day”, “Lunch”, “Burger of the month”. Every type has its own tab in dish management.
You manage types in InPlate → Dish types:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Display name | The type's name, e.g. “Burger of the month” |
| WooCommerce category slug | The category the dishes of this type go to, e.g. burgers-of-the-month |
| Key | The type's identifier used in the daily dish block and shortcode |
In the list of types, every type shows a ready-made shortcode to put on a page. Changing the key requires updating the shortcodes that use it. Changing the category slug doesn't require changes in the type – the type switches to the new slug by itself.
A type can't be deleted while there are dishes of that type.
You can also manage dish types in the KDS: Manager → InPlate dishes → Dish types (shop manager and administrator).
Adding a dish
Go to InPlate → Dishes, choose the type's tab and click Add set.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | e.g. “Tomato soup, pork cutlet, salad” |
| Description | A short description of the dish, e.g. what it is served with |
| Price | The dish's price |
| Photo | An optional photo of the dish |
| Active from / Active to | The date range when the dish is in the menu: one day, a week, a weekend or a whole season |
| Badges | Product tags (optionally with an icon), e.g. “Vegan” |
| Allergens | The dish's allergens and its ingredients with the allergens highlighted – see Allergens. A daily dish changes often, so fill them in for every new dish |
| Disable mode | What happens when you turn the dish off – see below |
| Add-on templates | Add-ons for the dish, e.g. a choice of salad |
| Cross-sell template | Suggestions in the cart, e.g. a fruit compote with lunch |
| Additional categories | Other menu categories where the dish should show |
You can assign add-ons and cross-sell after saving the dish for the first time.
The list shows the dishes for Today and Tomorrow, so you can prepare tomorrow's offer in advance.
How the dates work
- Before the “Active from” date the dish is a draft and doesn't show in the menu. For example, you can add a holiday menu in November – it appears by itself on the offer's first day.
- Between the dates the dish is in the menu and can be ordered.
- After the “Active to” date the dish goes to the archive and can't be bought, even if a customer still has it in the cart.
Dates follow the time zone set in WordPress (Settings → General).
Turning a dish off for today
When a dish runs out, turn it off with the switch in the list of dishes or in the manager panel in the KDS. The Disable mode decides when it comes back:
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Today only (resets at midnight) | The dish comes back to the menu at midnight, e.g. tomorrow there is soup again |
| Until manually re-enabled | The dish stays off until you turn it on |
Archive
Finished dishes are in the Archive tab. The Reuse button brings a dish back with new active dates – you don't have to type its name, description and price again. Useful for offers that come back regularly.
Managing from a tablet
The manager also manages InPlate dishes from the kitchen, in the InPlate dishes tab of the manager panel in the KDS – without signing in to the WordPress dashboard. See Manager panel in the KDS.
The daily dish on your website
InPlate dishes show in the menu in their type's category. To highlight the daily dish, e.g. on your home page, use the InPlate – Daily dish block or the [wp-inplate-dish] shortcode. The block shows a message when there are no dishes for today and, after ordering closes, when you will accept orders again. Its options are described in Blocks and shortcodes.
Portion limit
InPlate dishes have no separate portion limit. If you want to sell e.g. only 30 sets, turn the dish off manually when they run out.