Database Schema

Woo Sell Services creates two custom database tables for conversations and notifications. All other data is stored using standard WordPress and WooCommerce meta.

Custom Tables

wss_sell_messages

Stores conversation messages between vendors and customers.

Column	Type	Description
id	bigint(20) unsigned	Auto-increment primary key
author_id	bigint(20) unsigned	User ID of the message sender
user_id	bigint(20) unsigned	User ID of the message recipient
order_id	bigint(20) unsigned	WooCommerce order ID
item_id	bigint(20) unsigned	WooCommerce order item ID
product_id	bigint(20) unsigned	WooCommerce product ID
message	text	Message content
msg_time	datetime	Message timestamp
attachment	text	Serialized attachment file paths
msg_read	enum(‘0’,‘1’)	Read flag (default 0)
read_status	int(1)	Read status used by the live-conversation poller
created_at	timestamp	Record creation time
updated_at	timestamp	Last update time

Indexes: PRIMARY KEY (id), idx_author_id, idx_user_id, idx_order_id, idx_msg_time.

The full table name (with prefix) is stored in wp_options under woo_sell_message_table.

wss_service_notifications

Stores in-app notifications for service order events.

Column	Type	Description
notification_id	bigint(20) unsigned	Auto-increment primary key
vendor_id	bigint(20) unsigned	Vendor user ID
user_id	bigint(20) unsigned	Customer user ID
order_id	bigint(20) unsigned	WooCommerce order ID
item_id	bigint(20) unsigned	WooCommerce order item ID
product_id	bigint(20) unsigned	WooCommerce product ID
vendor_notifi	tinyint(1)	Flag: this row is a notification for the vendor
customer_notifi	tinyint(1)	Flag: this row is a notification for the customer
vendor_read	tinyint(1)	Vendor read status
customer_read	tinyint(1)	Customer read status
created	datetime	Notification creation time
action	varchar(100)	Event type identifier

Indexes: PRIMARY KEY (notification_id), idx_order_id, idx_product_id, idx_customer_notifi, idx_vendor_notifi, idx_created.

The vendor_notifi and customer_notifi columns are per-party flags, not the notification text. The displayed message is generated at render time from the action type and the notification message templates. The full table name is stored in wp_options under wss_service_notifications_table.

WordPress Meta Storage

Product Meta

Meta key	Purpose
wbcom_wss_req_ques	Serialized requirement field definitions

Order Item Meta

Meta key	Purpose
wbcom_wss_customer_requirement	Customer’s submitted requirement answers
woo_sell_final_delivery	Final delivery submission data
woo_sell_accept_delivery	Delivery acceptance status
woo_sell_user_rating	Star rating and review data
woo_sell_attachment	Requirement/message file attachments

wp_options Keys

Option key	Purpose
wbwss_general_settings	All general settings
wbwss_requirement_images_settings	Milestone images for the order flow
wbwss_live_notification_settings	Notification message templates
wbwss_webhooks_settings	Webhook URLs
woo_sell_message_table	Messages table name
wss_service_notifications_table	Notifications table name
wss_db_version	Schema-migration guard for the bigint/index upgrade
edd_wbcom_wss_license_key	EDD license key
edd_wbcom_wss_license_status	License status

Table Creation and Versioning

The wss_sell_messages table is created and versioned in Woo_Sell_Services_Activator using dbDelta(). The wss_service_notifications table is created during admin bootstrap in the admin class, also with dbDelta().

An idempotent upgrade (wss_maybe_upgrade_schema(), guarded by the wss_db_version option) widens the ID columns to bigint(20) and adds the notification indexes on both fresh install and upgrade.

Direct Database Queries

The plugin uses $wpdb for direct queries against the custom tables, with $wpdb->prepare() and parameterized placeholders.

// Fetch messages for an order.
global $wpdb;
$table    = get_option( 'woo_sell_message_table' );
$messages = $wpdb->get_results(
    $wpdb->prepare(
        "SELECT * FROM {$table} WHERE order_id = %d AND item_id = %d ORDER BY id ASC",
        $order_id,
        $item_id
    )
);

Since 5.8.7, Woo_Sell_Services_Conversation_Model provides a paginated model layer (get_messages(), count_messages(), ownership guard) over the messages table, used by the admin Order Conversations screen and the REST API.