Migrating carries your members across. Compatibility mode is what stops everything else breaking: the pages, plugins and outside tools that were built against the plugin you are replacing.
What it answers to:
With it on, this plugin serves the previous plugin's shortcode names, PHP functions, action hooks and REST endpoint. Pages you built years ago keep working, and a licence server or portal wired to the old API keeps getting answers.
It is on the Settings tab, off by default. Turn it on after your import has been verified.
It waits for the other plugin to go:
Nothing changes while the old plugin is still active. Compatibility mode stands by, and the badge says Waiting. Deactivate the old plugin and it switches over on the next page load.
Two plugins answering to the same shortcode names at once would be a mess, so it simply refuses to.
Rolling back is the same two steps in reverse: reactivate the old plugin, untick the box.
API keys:
The compatibility endpoint uses HTTP Digest authentication. The master key logs in with the username wishlist. The import carries your existing key across, so your licence server and portal keep the settings they already have. Only change it if you also change it there.
- Named keys, one per line as a name and a key, log in with their own name as the username. They have full access, same as the master key, so you can give one tool its own key and revoke just that one
- Keys are at least 16 characters with no spaces, and are never shown in Diagnostics or in exports
- Generating a new master key stops every tool using the old one until you paste the new key there too, which is why it asks you to confirm
Retiring the old plugin's tables:
The old plugin's tables stay in your database after you deactivate it, and they are your rollback path. Leave them alone until compatibility mode has run cleanly for a while.
After that, Retire The Old Tables renames them with a wlmretired_ prefix, so nothing on the site can read stale rows any more.
Nothing is deleted, and Restore reverses it in one click. The button stays disabled until compatibility mode is active and the old plugin is deactivated, so you cannot pull the rug out from under a live site.
If you ever want the old plugin back, restore the tables before reactivating it.