DecalDesk

WordPress/WooCommerce plugin for automatically creating products from design files (PNG, JPG/JPEG, WEBP, GIF).

Support: support@decaldesk.com · Website: decaldesk.com

Installation

1. Upload the decaldesk/ folder to wp-content/plugins/.
2. Activate the plugin from WP Admin → Plugins.
3. Go to DecalDesk → Settings and check/set the price per m², minimum price, and categories (the slug must match the "category" part of the filename).
4. (Optional) Enable AI-generated descriptions and enter your Anthropic API key — see the section below.
5. Go to DecalDesk → Categories — add categories and upload a mockup template for each one (directly through the browser, no FTP needed). Also set the design's position on the template by dragging the frame.

Store product type

DecalDesk isn't limited to decals/stickers — it works with any product priced by size (paintings, fabric panels, tiles, canvas prints...). From DecalDesk → Settings → Store product type, describe in a few words what your store actually sells (e.g. "framed canvas art prints"). This phrase feeds both the AI prompt and the static fallback template, so the generated copy talks about your real product instead of assuming decals. Leave it blank to keep the original decal/sticker wording (default, unchanged behavior).

By default the product title is exactly the design name from the filename — full manual control, but it means coming up with a good, SEO-friendly name for every file yourself. Check "Let AI (or the fallback rule) improve the product title" in the same Settings section to have it generated instead: AI writes a natural, appealing headline (design name + a relevant keyword) when it's on, or a simple Design Name – Category rule when AI is off/unavailable. Off by default so existing installs keep exact filename-based titles; the URL slug and SKU are unaffected either way.

AI descriptions (free Gemini or paid Claude)

From DecalDesk → Settings, choose one of three modes:

• Off — static template (no AI)
• Free (Google Gemini) — with a daily limit (50 products/day by default, configurable). Get a free API key from https://aistudio.google.com/app/apikey — no card required.
• Paid (Anthropic Claude) — no plugin-enforced limit; the real limit is whatever your Anthropic plan allows.

Both AI modes generate: a long description, a short description, an SEO meta description, an SEO title, and a focus keyphrase — saved to both Yoast SEO (_yoast_wpseo_metadesc, _yoast_wpseo_title, _yoast_wpseo_focuskw) and RankMath (rank_math_description, rank_math_title, rank_math_focus_keyword). The meta description is also embedded directly into the mockup's PNG file (Title/Description/Comment metadata via Imagick). If AI is off or unavailable, the static fallback template fills in a sensible rule-based SEO title and focus keyphrase too — these fields are never left empty.

Every product (Simple or Variable) also gets a SKU, generated by rule from the name, size, category, and material (e.g. koleda-50x70-kitchen-matte) — not by AI, so it's predictable, stable, and available even when AI is off. If the generated SKU collides with an existing product, a numeric suffix (-2, -3, ...) is appended automatically.

AI Vision (analyzing the design image itself)

From the same page you can enable "Look at the design itself" — the AI then actually looks at the PNG file (not just its filename) and writes the description based on what it sees (motif, colors, style), not just size/material/category. Works with both providers. The image is automatically downscaled to 1024px before sending, to save bandwidth and tokens.

The daily counter for the free mode is stored in a database option (decaldesk_ai_daily_usage) and resets automatically at midnight in the site's timezone. If the daily limit is reached, subsequent products automatically fall back to the static template — no errors, no interruption to the workflow.

About API keys: the safest option is to define them in wp-config.php instead of storing them in the database:

define( 'DECALDESK_GEMINI_API_KEY', 'AIza...' );
define( 'DECALDESK_AI_API_KEY', 'sk-ant-...' );

If AI is disabled or the request fails (network issue, quota exhausted, etc.), the plugin automatically falls back to the static template — an upload never fails because of AI.

Settings also has a "Test AI provider connection" button — it calls the API directly and shows the exact response or the exact error, without waiting for a real file upload.

Latin product slug

The product title stays exactly as given in the filename (often in Cyrillic), but the slug is always generated in Latin script via transliteration using the standard Bulgarian system (e.g. "Коледа" → koleda-50x70-kitchen). No extra transliteration plugin needed.

Filename format

name_widthxheight_material_category.extension
name_widthxheight_category.extension   (material is optional)

Examples: koleda_50x70_matte_kitchen.jpg, or koleda_50x70_kitchen.jpg (no material) — (or .png, .webp, .gif)

• name — the design's name (used as the product title)
• width x height — dimensions in centimeters
• material — material (matte, gloss, transparent...), optional — not every store has a meaningful material choice (e.g. fabric or canvas prints with a fixed finish). Omit this segment entirely rather than leaving it blank/empty.
• category — category, must match a slug configured in settings
• The extension doesn't matter for parsing — PNG, JPG/JPEG, WEBP, and GIF are all supported

How it works

1. Upload a file (PNG/JPG/WEBP/GIF) via drag & drop in DecalDesk → Upload.
2. The plugin parses the filename (includes/parser.php).
3. Calculates the price based on area (includes/pricing.php).
4. Generates descriptions via AI or the fallback template (includes/ai-content.php).
5. Generates the mockup (format configurable — WebP/JPEG/PNG, see settings below) via Imagick/GD and embeds the meta description into it (includes/mockup.php).
6. Creates a WooCommerce product — draft or published, with a Latin-script slug and SEO meta description (includes/product.php).

Storage and history cleanup

The original file you upload lives briefly in uploads/decaldesk/incoming/ and any generated mockup in uploads/decaldesk/mockups/ — both are only copied into the WordPress media library when the product is created, so once processing succeeds the plugin deletes its own working copies right away (the product's images are unaffected). A daily cleanup (DecalDesk → Settings → History retention, default 90 days) also removes old finished/failed rows from DecalDesk → History along with any leftover file from a job that errored out, so neither the database table nor the incoming/ folder grows forever. Set the retention to 0 to disable automatic cleanup entirely — nothing here ever touches products you've already created.

Structure

decaldesk/
├── decaldesk.php
├── admin/
│   ├── admin-menu.php
│   ├── admin-page-upload.php
│   ├── admin-page-history.php     (WP_List_Table with all processed designs)
│   └── admin-page-categories.php  (categories + mockup templates + zone editor)
├── includes/
│   ├── parser.php
│   ├── pricing.php
│   ├── ai-content.php   (AI descriptions + Cyrillic transliteration)
│   ├── mockup.php        (zone-based design placement on the template)
│   ├── product.php
│   ├── database.php      (DB table for background jobs + query helpers)
│   ├── background.php    (Action Scheduler queue)
│   ├── notices.php       (admin notices for AI fallback/errors)
│   └── settings.php
└── assets/
    ├── js/uploader.js
    ├── js/categories.js  (drag-box editor for positioning)
    ├── css/style.css
    └── templates/ (built-in default mockup backgrounds; custom templates are uploaded through the UI into uploads/decaldesk/templates/)

Categories and mockup templates

From DecalDesk → Categories:

• Add a category (name + slug — the slug must match the "category" part of the filename)
• Each category can have up to 4 different templates ("Add another template") — useful, for example, for a "cars" category where you want the design shown on several different models for a more convincing presentation
• Upload a mockup template for each slot directly through the browser (PNG/JPG/WEBP)
• Set the design's position for each template individually — choose between "Rectangle" (drag a frame, contain-fit — the whole design fits inside) or "Freeform" (a pen-tool-like editor, cover-fit — fills the entire outlined shape, with a realistic "bleed" at the edges, just like actual cutting/application)
• In "Freeform" mode: click on the template to add points, drag them to move them — outline any shape you like (useful for irregular surfaces, e.g. a car door at an angle)
• Optionally upload a temporary test design (browser-only, never saved to the server) to preview the result more precisely before saving

When uploading a design, the "Generate mockups from all templates in the category" checkbox (off by default, since it's slower) determines whether the product gets just 1 mockup (from the first template), or one mockup per configured template — the first becomes the featured image, the rest go into the gallery alongside the original design.

The setting is per category, not per upload — configure it once, and all future uploads to that category automatically use the configured templates/positions. If a category has no custom zone set, a sensible default is used (a centered rectangular zone, 70% of the template's width and height).

Size variants (Variable Products)

Instead of renaming/duplicating the same design for every size, you can configure a list of widths (+ optional material/color) once, directly in DecalDesk → Upload, in a collapsible section under the "Create with selectable variants" checkbox ("Configure widths / materials / colors"):

• Widths (required for the feature to work) — one number per line, in cm (e.g. 30, 50, 90). Enter only the width — never a full widthxheight pair. The height for each variant is calculated automatically to match that specific design's own proportions (from its filename), so a variant never ends up looking stretched or mismatched against the shared mockup image.
• Materials (optional) — comma-separated, e.g. matte, gloss, transparent
• Colors (optional) — comma-separated, e.g. white, black, clear film

Checking "Create with selectable variants" automatically expands this panel, and clicking "Upload files" automatically saves whatever is currently in these fields first — you no longer need a separate manual "Save" click before uploading.

When uploading, check "Create with selectable variants" instead of the draft/publish status applying to a single product per size. The plugin creates one WooCommerce Variable Product with a dropdown for size (and material/color, if configured) — the customer picks the combination directly on the product page. Each variation gets:

• Its own width and a proportionally-calculated height, based on that design's real aspect ratio — e.g. a design uploaded as 60x40 (3:2) with configured widths 30, 50, 90 produces variants 30x20, 50x33, 90x60
• Its own automatically calculated price using the €/m² formula for that specific size
• A unique SKU (transliterated to Latin script, regardless of Cyrillic in material/color) — e.g. koleda-50x33-matte-white

If no width is configured, the checkbox is disabled and the plugin falls back to a regular Simple Product (one file = one product), exactly as before.

Mockup image optimization

From DecalDesk → Settings → Mockup image optimization:

• Format: WebP (recommended, ~75% smaller than PNG at comparable quality), JPEG (widest compatibility), or PNG (lossless, but heaviest)
• Compression quality (1-100, applies only to WebP/JPEG) — 80-85 is a sensible balance

If the server has no WebP support (neither Imagick nor GD with imagewebp), the plugin automatically falls back to PNG instead of failing.

Interface language (i18n)

As of version 1.2.0, the plugin's source code is in English (standard WordPress convention — source is always the "universal" language, and every other language comes in as a translation). A ready-made Bulgarian translation is included:

languages/
├── decaldesk.pot        (template for new translations)
├── decaldesk-bg_BG.po   (human-readable Bulgarian translation)
└── decaldesk-bg_BG.mo   (compiled, actually loaded by WordPress)

If the WordPress site's Language is set to Bulgarian in Settings → General, DecalDesk's interface automatically shows in Bulgarian — nothing to configure. In any other language (including English by default), it shows in English.

To add a translation for another language: open languages/decaldesk.pot with Poedit (free) or a similar tool, translate all the strings, save as decaldesk-{locale}.po (e.g. decaldesk-de_DE.po for German), compile the .mo file, and upload it to the languages/ folder.

Note: AI-generated product descriptions (the ones store customers see) are controlled separately from the admin interface language, via DecalDesk → Settings → AI content language — they follow the language your store's customers read, not the admin's locale. This defaults to English and can be changed to Bulgarian or any other language.