Hi @howdy_mcgee,
Great question and you’re thinking in the right direction.
ShipStation.com initiates the order import by making an API call to your WooCommerce store’s ShipStation extension endpoint. From there:
- The ShipStation extension on your site receives that call.
- It processes the request based on its configuration and generates an XML response containing all relevant order data: items, customer info, gift messages, etc.
- ShipStation then parses that XML and imports the orders into its system.
So yes, the ShipStation extension is responsible for interpreting and formatting the order data before ShipStation ever sees it. ShipStation doesn’t query WooCommerce directly, but relies on the extension to do the heavy lifting. For your use case:
If you’re trying to modify how orders appear in ShipStation (e.g. adjusting metadata, adding flags, tweaking item descriptions), you’ll want to hook into the extension’s logic where it builds that XML output. That’s the sweet spot for customizing what ShipStation receives.
Since this involves customization, I’m afraid we can’t provide the specific implementation details as it’s outside our Support Policy. But you can definitely explore our Codeable partners.
I hope that helps. Let us know if you need anything else.
We haven’t heard back from you in a while, so I’m going to mark this as resolved – we’ll be here if and/or when you are ready to continue.
If you have time, we’d be grateful for a review: https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/woocommerce-shipstation-integration/reviews/
