How to Filter WooCommerce Products Based on User Roles
As an e-commerce store owner using WordPress and WooCommerce, you may want to customize the product listings displayed to your customers based on their user roles. This could be useful for a variety of reasons, such as:
- Showing specific products to certain user groups (e.g. wholesale customers vs retail customers)
- Hiding certain products from specific user roles (e.g. blocking access to adult products for minors)
- Offering personalized product recommendations based on user roles
Fortunately, WooCommerce provides several powerful hooks that allow you to modify the product queries and filter the products that are displayed on your archive and shop pages. In this blog post, we'll explore three key hooks you can use to achieve this:
woocommerce_product_query
(action hook)
woocommerce_product_query_tax_query
(filter hook)
woocommerce_product_query_meta_query
(filter hook)
We'll walk through examples of how to use each of these hooks to filter products based on user roles, and provide some real-world use cases to inspire your own WooCommerce customizations.
1. The woocommerce_product_query
Action Hook
The woocommerce_product_query
action hook allows you to directly modify the main product query that WooCommerce uses to fetch products for your archive and shop pages. This gives you full control over the query, including the ability to filter products based on user roles.
Here's an example of how you can use this hook to show certain products only to users with the "wholesale" role:
add_action( 'woocommerce_product_query', 'filter_products_by_user_role', 10, 1 );
function filter_products_by_user_role( $query ) {
// Check if the current user has the "wholesale" role
if ( current_user_can( 'wholesale' ) ) {
// Add a meta query to only show products with the "wholesale" tag
$query->set( 'meta_query', array(
array(
'key' => 'product_tag',
'value' => 'wholesale',
'compare' => 'LIKE',
),
));
}
}
In this example, we use the current_user_can()
function to check if the current user has the "wholesale" role. If they do, we add a meta query to the main product query to only show products that have the "wholesale" tag.
You can easily adapt this example to target different user roles or apply different filtering criteria based on your specific use case.
2. The woocommerce_product_query_tax_query
Filter Hook
The woocommerce_product_query_tax_query
filter hook allows you to modify the tax query portion of the main product query. This can be useful if you want to filter products based on their product categories, tags, or other taxonomies, while taking the user's role into account.
Here's an example of how you can use this hook to show certain product categories only to users with the "editor" role:
add_filter( 'woocommerce_product_query_tax_query', 'filter_products_by_user_role_and_category', 10, 1 );
function filter_products_by_user_role_and_category( $tax_query ) {
// Check if the current user has the "editor" role
if ( current_user_can( 'editor' ) ) {
$tax_query[] = array(
'taxonomy' => 'product_cat',
'field' => 'slug',
'terms' => array( 'featured', 'new-arrivals' ),
'operator' => 'IN',
);
}
return $tax_query;
}
In this example, we use the woocommerce_product_query_tax_query
filter to add an additional tax query to the main product query. If the current user has the "editor" role, we include products that belong to the "featured" and "new-arrivals" categories.
You can further customize this example to target different user roles, product categories, or other taxonomy-based filtering criteria.
3. The woocommerce_product_query_meta_query
Filter Hook
The woocommerce_product_query_meta_query
filter hook allows you to modify the meta query portion of the main product query. This can be useful if you want to filter products based on their custom meta fields, such as product attributes or custom product tags, while taking the user's role into account.
Here's an example of how you can use this hook to show certain products only to users with the "manager" role:
add_filter( 'woocommerce_product_query_meta_query', 'filter_products_by_user_role_and_meta', 10, 1 );
function filter_products_by_user_role_and_meta( $meta_query ) {
// Check if the current user has the "manager" role
if ( current_user_can( 'manager' ) ) {
$meta_query[] = array(
'key' => 'product_visibility',
'value' => 'manager-only',
'compare' => 'LIKE',
);
}
return $meta_query;
}
In this example, we use the woocommerce_product_query_meta_query
filter to add an additional meta query to the main product query. If the current user has the "manager" role, we include products that have the "manager-only" value in their "product_visibility" custom meta field.
You can further customize this example to target different user roles, custom meta fields, or other meta-based filtering criteria.
Real-World Use Cases
Here are a few real-world use cases where filtering WooCommerce products based on user roles can be useful:
-
Wholesale vs. Retail Customers: You can show different product catalogs to wholesale customers and retail customers. Wholesale customers might see products with bulk pricing, while retail customers see the standard pricing.
-
Employee-Only Products: You can hide certain products from the general public and only make them visible to employees or other specific user roles within your organization.
-
Regional Product Availability: If you sell products in multiple regions or countries, you can filter the product catalog based on the user's location (determined by their billing or shipping address) or their user role (e.g., "US Customer" vs. "EU Customer").
-
Personalized Recommendations: You can use user roles to provide personalized product recommendations or upsells. For example, you might show "Recommended for Managers" or "Frequently Bought by Designers" sections on your product pages.
-
Age-Restricted Products: You can hide adult or age-restricted products from users who don't have the appropriate user role (e.g., "adult" or "over-18").
By leveraging the WooCommerce product query hooks, you can create a more personalized and tailored shopping experience for your customers, while also maintaining the appropriate access controls and visibility for your product catalog.
Remember, the examples provided in this article are just a starting point. You can further expand on these techniques and combine them with other WooCommerce customization methods to create a unique and powerful e-commerce solution for your business.
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