You’d think that this was a core WooCommerce setting – it’s not.
In fact, from the WordPress “Customizer“, you can set the product category page display to “Show products” only, “Show subcategories” only, or “Show subcategories and products” (see screenshot below). But these 3 options, in my opinion, could and should do much better.
For example, if you assign a product “ABC” to a parent category “X“, and a product “DEF” to a child category “X->Y“, and if you choose “Show products“, the parent category page will show both “ABC” and “DEF” products, while there should only be 1.
If you select “Show subcategories“, the same page will only have the link to the subcategory, but the product belonging to the parent category, “ABC“, won’t be visible, which doesn’t make sense.
If, even worse, you pick “Show subcategories and products“, the parent category page will display the subcategory link, as well as both products “ABC” and “DEF“, which once again is a bit weird.
Let’s fix this with a simple snippet – enjoy!
PHP Snippet: Hide Subcategory Products @ WooCommerce Parent Category Page
/**
* @snippet Hide Subcat Products @ WooCommerce Category Page
* @how-to Get CustomizeWoo.com FREE
* @author Rodolfo Melogli
* @compatible WooCommerce 8
* @donate $9 https://businessbloomer.com/bloomer-armada/
*/
add_action( 'woocommerce_product_query', 'bbloomer_hide_products_subcategory', 9999 );
function bbloomer_hide_products_subcategory( $q ) {
if ( ! is_product_category() ) return;
$parent_id = get_queried_object_id();
$subcats = woocommerce_get_product_subcategories( $parent_id );
if ( empty( $subcats ) ) return;
$tax_query = (array) $q->get( 'tax_query' );
$tax_query[] = array(
'taxonomy' => 'product_cat',
'field' => 'slug',
'terms' => array_column( $subcats, 'slug' ),
'operator' => 'NOT IN'
);
$q->set( 'tax_query', $tax_query, true );
}
Once this snippet is active, the display in case of “Show products” option will go from:
to:
because the first two products in the first screenshot belong to a subcategory of “Newsletters” called “Sponsorships” in my test website.
The snippet also works to – finally – fix the “Show subcategories and products” option, because it hides the two subcategory products, which will be visible only when you click on the “Sponsorships” subcategory:
