fix: compatibility with WordPress 7.0 and PHP 8.4+

[joshuapregua]

Summary

Fixes four deprecations that cause fatal errors or silent failures on WordPress 7.0 and PHP 8.4. No logic, hooks, or user-facing behaviour is changed — deprecation fixes only.

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Changes

1. Remove deprecated load_plugin_textdomain() path arguments

File: genesis-connect-woocommerce.php

- load_plugin_textdomain( 'gencwooc', false, GCW_DIR . '/languages' );
+ load_plugin_textdomain( 'gencwooc' );

The $deprecated and $plugin_rel_path arguments were deprecated in WP 6.7 and removed in WP 7.0. WordPress now auto-discovers plugin translations from wp-content/languages/plugins/.

2. Remove pass-by-reference on $woocommerce object (fatal on PHP 8.4)

- remove_filter( 'template_include', array( &$woocommerce, 'template_loader' ) );
+ remove_filter( 'template_include', array( $woocommerce, 'template_loader' ) );

Using & on an object is meaningless since PHP 5 (objects are passed by handle). It was deprecated in PHP 8.0 and is fatal in PHP 8.4. Without this fix, WooCommerce's template_loader is never removed from template_include, causing double-rendered shop pages on the frontend (/shop/, /product/*, /product-category/*).

3. Replace is_plugin_active() with class/function existence checks

- if ( ! function_exists( 'is_plugin_active' ) ) {
-     require_once ABSPATH . '/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php';
- }
- if ( ! is_plugin_active( 'woocommerce/woocommerce.php' ) ) {
+ if ( ! class_exists( 'WooCommerce' ) ) {

- if ( is_plugin_active( 'genesis-simple-sidebars/plugin.php' ) ) {
+ if ( function_exists( 'ss_do_sidebar' ) ) {

- if ( is_plugin_active( 'genesis-simple-menus/simple-menu.php' ) ) {
+ if ( class_exists( 'Genesis_Simple_Menus' ) ) {

4. Replace removed woocommerce_get_template_part() with wc_get_template_part()

- woocommerce_get_template_part( 'loop', 'shop' );  // ×2 in legacy compat functions
+ wc_get_template_part( 'loop', 'shop' );

woocommerce_get_template_part() was removed in WooCommerce 2.1 (current minimum is 3.3). Also fixes gencwooc_get_template_part() which accessed $woocommerce->template_url — a property also removed in WC 2.1 — making it silently non-functional. Now delegates directly to wc_get_template_part().

Testing

Environment needed: WordPress 7.0, PHP 8.4, WooCommerce ≥ 3.3, any Genesis child theme.

Enable debug logging in wp-config.php

Test	Expected result
Visit /shop/	Products render inside Genesis layout — no double wrapper, no fatal
Visit /product/any-product/	Single product renders inside Genesis layout
Visit /product-category/any-category/	Archive renders inside Genesis layout
Deactivate WooCommerce, visit admin	"WooCommerce required" notice shown — no fatal
Deactivate Genesis Simple Sidebars	No error, integration silently skipped
Check wp-content/debug.log	Zero deprecation notices related to this plugin