Filter out unwanted order item meta data from Woocommerce email notifications

Question

In the order email templates (for example email-order-items.php), WooCommerce uses the function wc_display_item_meta to display product details in

Answer 1

I hear, that you want to show the Order Item Meta Data in the admin backend only. That's actually a tricky one. I have played around for some hours but no solution I have found, guarentee that the Order Itema Meta Data doesn't show up in e-mails to the customer.

The thing is that there are several ways these e-mails are fired (eg. through the resend meta box (which @rtpHarry mentions) or by changing order status either at the order overview, the single order view or an automatic/programmatically order status change). That gives many cases where it's neccessary to unset the Order Item Meta Data - you need to find all cases except the admin backend.

Therefore, my suggestion is to first completely remove the Order Item Meta Data using the above mentioned woocommerce_order_item_get_formatted_meta_data filter and then add them again using an action like woocommerce_before_order_itemmeta which ONLY fires in the admin backend. Because the Order Item Meta Data is unset you cannot use the get_formatted_meta_data method to get the data. Instead you can use the function wc_get_order_item_meta.

Complete code (tested and works):

//Hide 'Qty Selector', 'Qty' and 'Total' completely
add_filter( 'woocommerce_order_item_get_formatted_meta_data', 'unset_specific_order_item_meta_data');
function unset_specific_order_item_meta_data($formatted_meta){
    foreach( $formatted_meta as $key => $meta ){
        if( in_array( $meta->key, array('Qty Selector', 'Qty', 'Total') ) )
            unset($formatted_meta[$key]);
    }
    
    return $formatted_meta;
}

//Add 'Qty Selector', 'Qty' and 'Total' in the admin backend only
add_action('woocommerce_before_order_itemmeta', 'add_specific_order_item_meta_data_in_backend', 10, 2);
function add_specific_order_item_meta_data_in_backend( $item_id, $item ) {
    //Only applies for line items
    if( $item->get_type() !== 'line_item' ) return;
    
    $qty_sel_lines = wc_get_order_item_meta($item_id, 'Qty Selector', false);
    $qty_lines = wc_get_order_item_meta($item_id, 'Qty', false);
    $total_lines = wc_get_order_item_meta($item_id, 'Total', false);
    
    foreach ($qty_sel_lines as $qty_sel_line){
        echo $qty_sel_line . '
';
    }
    
    foreach ($qty_lines as $qty_line){
        echo $qty_line . '
';
    }
    
    foreach ($total_lines as $total_line){
        echo $total_line. '
';
    }
}

Note: If you need to add the Order Item Meta Data to the admin e-mails, you need to do that seperately. I have not examined the options on that.