Example instance based shipping method

gistfile1.txt

<?php
if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) {
	exit;
}

/**
 * Sample instance based method.
 */
class WC_Shipping_Test_Method extends WC_Shipping_Method {

	/**
	 * Constructor. The instance ID is passed to this.
	 */
	public function __construct( $instance_id = 0 ) {
		$this->id                    = 'test_method';
		$this->instance_id 			     = absint( $instance_id );
		$this->method_title          = __( 'Test Method' );
		$this->method_description    = __( 'Some shipping method.' );
		$this->supports              = array(
			'shipping-zones',
			'instance-settings',
		);
	    	$this->instance_form_fields = array(
        		'enabled' => array(
        			'title' 		=> __( 'Enable/Disable' ),
        			'type' 			=> 'checkbox',
        			'label' 		=> __( 'Enable this shipping method' ),
        			'default' 		=> 'yes',
        		),
        		'title' => array(
        			'title' 		=> __( 'Method Title' ),
        			'type' 			=> 'text',
        			'description' 	=> __( 'This controls the title which the user sees during checkout.' ),
        			'default'		=> __( 'Test Method' ),
        			'desc_tip'		=> true
        		)
		);
		$this->enabled		    = $this->get_option( 'enabled' );
		$this->title                = $this->get_option( 'title' );

		add_action( 'woocommerce_update_options_shipping_' . $this->id, array( $this, 'process_admin_options' ) );
	}

	/**
	 * calculate_shipping function.
	 * @param array $package (default: array())
	 */
	public function calculate_shipping( $package = array() ) {
		$this->add_rate( array(
			'id'    => $this->id . $this->instance_id,
			'label' => $this->title,
			'cost'  => 100,
		) );
	}
}

Is there a way to get rid of the backward compatibility so a custom shipping method plugin doesn't have a settings page?
I'm trying to only show instances of a given shipping method based on the zones they are in? i.e. if a method isn't in a zone don't show the default instance from a settings page.

This is my setting in the constructor yet it still shows UK Flat rate in the menu and in the checkout page it is showing UK FLAT RATE as well as the ones defined in my UK zone whereas I would have expected there to be no UK FLAT RATE radio button.

$this->supports = array( 'shipping-zones', 'instance-settings', 'instance-settings-modal', );

Is there a way to get rid of the backward compatibility so a custom shipping method plugin doesn't have a settings page?
I'm trying to only show instances of a given shipping method based on the zones they are in? i.e. if a method isn't in a zone don't show the default instance from a settings page.

This is my setting in the constructor yet it still shows UK Flat rate in the menu and in the checkout page it is showing UK FLAT RATE as well as the ones defined in my UK zone whereas I would have expected there to be no UK FLAT RATE radio button.

$this->supports = array( 'shipping-zones', 'instance-settings', 'instance-settings-modal', );

stumbled upon this old post, and faced this issue ...

(think for backward compatibility reasons) WC_Shipping_Method addes 'settings' to the 'supports' property by default.
You can reset this to empty array (or with other features that your custom shiping method supports) in your extended class to overwrite 'settings' (and removed as tab from Woo > Settings > Shipping ).

...
    class Your_Shipping_Method extends WC_Shipping_Method {
    ...
        public function __construct() {
        ...
        $this->supports = []; // overwrites the default support for 'settings' feature
        ...
        }
    ...
    }
...

tested with WC4.0 & WP5.3

@mikejolley Can you update this gist with example how to restrict this shipping method only to certain country. In non-instance based is easy, just set the countries and availability, but how its done in instance based?

@mikejolley this snippet is incredibly useful as a reference, thanks! 🙌

I think there's value adding the cost field as an example here too?

'cost' => array(
	'title' => __( 'Cost' ),
	'type' => 'text',
	'placeholder' => '',
	'description' => __( 'This controls the cost that is applied for this shipping method at checkout.' ),
	'default' => '0',
	'desc_tip' => true,
	'sanitize_callback' => '',
),

One final suggestion is to add instance-settings-modal to the supports array, as this is a much nicer way to edit the method settings:

$this->supports = array(
    'shipping-zones',
    'instance-settings',
    'instance-settings-modal'
);