MerchManager

A free, open-source WordPress plugin for bands and music artists to manage merchandise sales during tours and events.

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Why this exists

Richard (Theuws Consulting) spent more than 20 years at the helm of a European merchandise company and has always helped bands with their merchandise management. With MerchManager he hopes to help many more bands run their merch in a simple, professional way—without paying for yet another tool.

This is not a commercial project. There is no paid version and there will not be one. In a world where everyone wants to make money from bands, this plugin is built with the help of AI and given away. Everyone is welcome to use it, fork it, improve it, or contribute—code, ideas, and feedback are all appreciated.

It exists as a WordPress plugin because Richard has been working with WordPress since 2006 and has the most experience there; making it a plugin was the most practical way to get it into the hands of bands and their teams.

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What it does

MerchManager helps bands, musicians, tour managers, and merchandising staff manage inventory and sales across multiple tours and venues. It runs inside WordPress and covers tracking stock, recording sales, managing tours and shows, and generating reports.

Key Features

• Multi-band support: Manage merchandise for multiple bands
• Tour and show management: Create and manage tours and shows
• Merchandise inventory management: Track stock levels and manage inventory
• Sales recording and tracking: Record sales and associate them with specific tours and locations
• Dynamic sales page generation: Generate temporary sales pages for events
• Detailed reporting: Generate sales and inventory reports
• CSV import/export functionality: Import and export tour schedules and merchandise data
• Stock level monitoring and alerts: Get notified when stock levels are low

Installation

1. Download the plugin ZIP file
2. Log in to your WordPress admin panel
3. Go to Plugins > Add New
4. Click "Upload Plugin"
5. Choose the ZIP file and click "Install Now"
6. After installation, click "Activate Plugin"

Requirements

• WordPress 6.2 or higher
• PHP 7.4 or higher
• MySQL 5.6 or higher
• Modern web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge)

Documentation

Comprehensive documentation is available in the docs folder:

• Product Requirements Document
• Technical Specification
• Development Roadmap
• Database Schema
• API Documentation
• Testing Plan
• User Guide
• Project Architecture

Development

Getting Started

1. Clone the repository
2. Install dependencies with Composer: composer install
3. Set up a local WordPress development environment
4. Activate the plugin in WordPress

Directory Structure

merchmanager/
├── admin/                  # Admin-specific functionality
│   ├── css/                # Admin stylesheets
│   ├── js/                 # Admin JavaScript
│   ├── partials/           # Admin view templates
│   └── class-admin.php     # Admin class
├── includes/               # Core plugin functionality
│   ├── class-activator.php # Plugin activation
│   ├── class-deactivator.php # Plugin deactivation
│   ├── class-i18n.php      # Internationalization
│   ├── class-loader.php    # Hook and filter loader
│   ├── class-merchmanager.php # Main plugin class
│   ├── post-types/         # Custom post type definitions
│   │   ├── models/             # Data models
│   └── services/           # Business logic services
├── public/                 # Public-facing functionality
│   ├── css/                # Public stylesheets
│   ├── js/                 # Public JavaScript
│   ├── partials/           # Public view templates
│   └── class-public.php    # Public class
├── languages/              # Translation files
├── assets/                 # Static assets (icon, logo)
├── docs/                   # Documentation
├── merchmanager.php        # Plugin bootstrap file
├── uninstall.php           # Cleanup on uninstall
└── README.md               # This file

Coding Standards

This project follows the WordPress Coding Standards.

Testing

The plugin includes a comprehensive testing suite:

• Unit tests with PHPUnit
• Integration tests with WP-Browser
• End-to-end tests with Cypress

To run the tests:

# Run unit tests
phpunit

# Run integration tests
vendor/bin/codecept run wpunit

# Run end-to-end tests
npx cypress run

Contributing

You are welcome to contribute in any way that helps: code, documentation, translations, bug reports, or feature ideas. There is no paid version or company behind this—just a tool built to help bands, and improved by anyone who cares to join in.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch: git checkout -b feature/my-new-feature
3. Commit your changes: git commit -am 'Add some feature'
4. Push to the branch: git push origin feature/my-new-feature
5. Open a pull request

License

This project is licensed under the GPL v2 or later - see the LICENSE file for details.

WordPress.org & GitHub

• WordPress.org: readme.txt for the plugin directory listing
• GitHub: https://github.com/RichardTheuws/merchmanager

Support

1. Check the User Guide
2. Open an issue or discussion on GitHub
3. For WordPress.org installs: use the plugin’s support forum on WordPress.org

Changelog

1.0.1

• Improved user interface for Sales Management
• Bug fixes for sales page generation
• Improved error handling and logging
• Addition of 'sales_page_id' column to the sales database table
• Implementation of reset functionality for generated sales pages

1.0.0

• Initial release