Our bestselling plugin, WooCommerce Product Table, has a new option to display product variations on their own row in a table. We've also added support for individual variation images.
This means that there are now 3 ways to display product variations in a table:
The original method of displaying variations as dropdown lists in the add to cart column.
The new method of listing each variation on its own row.
Or alternatively, customers can click through to select variations on the single product page.
Option 1 - List variations as dropdown lists before the add to cart button.
Option 2 - List each variation on its own row in the product table.
Option 3 - Customers select variations and add to cart from the single product page.
Lots of customers have asked for an option to separate variations and list them as individual rows in the table, as if they were unique products. So we're pleased to have added this feature, and hope you find it a useful way to display variable products.
Keep reading to learn all about this exciting new feature.
How does the new option to display product variations work?
WooCommerce Product Table has a new option which breaks out variable products into their individual variations. It lists each variation as a separate row in the product table. This is perfect for many use cases, for example:
Change variation dropdown to checkbox in WooCommerce - just list each variation on a separate row in the table, and use the add to cart checkboxes that come with the plugin.
Display variations as individual products - maybe you've added your options as variations, but want to list them as separate products. Just list them individually in the table, and you're sorted!
Either way, you can list variations as individual products even though they're actually variations of a single product. This means that you can list them alongside standard products in a single table, with a separate row for each product or variation.
Note: Since this article was published, we have also added support for Product Add-On Options. This lets you add even more product options in your Woo tables.
Example: separated variations in a WP table
Let's say that you have a product called 'Hoodie' with 2 attributes: Color and Toggles. Each attribute might have 2 options, giving you 4 product variations in total:
Red - Yes
Red - No
Blue - Yes
Blue - No
There are now 3 ways to display these variations in a product table:
With the default variations option in WooCommerce Product Table, the T-Shirt product will use a single row in the table. The variations will be listed as 2 dropdown lists before the add to cart button: 1 for size, and 1 for colour. Customers can use the dropdown lists to select any combination of attributes before adding their chosen variation to the cart.
The new separate variations option works differently. It displays product variations on individual rows in the table, each with their own add to cart button. By displaying variations as individual products, you would think they are separate rather than options for a single product. In this example, the T-Shirt product takes up 4 rows in the table - 1 for each variation. The product name column contains the full details for each variation so that customers can see the difference and choose which ones to buy. If you're using separate variation images then each variation will show its own unique image.
Instead of displaying product variations in a table, you can let customers click through to the single product page. Then, they can view and select variations, and add to the cart as usual.
Case studies: Real sites using a WooCommerce variations table
Mechanical Air Supplies used our code snippets to dynamically list product variations on separate rows in a table on individual product pages. It's a fantastic way of listing large numbers of variations in a user-friendly format:
Similarly, First Kitchens use the Woo Product Table plugin to list variations as separate products in a table. This is a fantastic way for them to sell different parts for their kitchen door ranges:
Does it work with lazy load?
WooCommerce Product Table comes with a lazy load option for stores with large product databases. This improves performance and page load times by loading the results 1 page at a time.
At the moment, the new option to display product variations separately only works with the default version of WooCommerce Product Table, and not lazy load.
Please let us know if you'd like to use it with lazy load. If enough people ask, then we will add it to the plugin.
Individual Woo product variation images
The new version of WooCommerce Product Table also includes support for individual variation images.
Previously, if you were displaying dropdown lists for variable products, the 'Image' column would always show the main product image.
Now, if you have separate images for each variation, then the image in the table will change according to which variation is selected.
How can I display variations as individual products in a table?
Existing WooCommerce Product Table customers can update to the new version of the plugin from Dashboard > Updates. If the update doesn't appear, check our article on update problems.
Or if you haven't bought the Woo Product Table WP plugin yet, you can get it here.
Once you've got the latest version of the plugin, there are full instructions for how to display product variations on their own row. Check out our Variable Products knowledge base article.
We're pleased to announce that our bestselling Product Table Plugin now supports all the WooCommerce product filter widgets. Keep reading to learn all about them.
What are the new product filter widgets?
WooCommerce Product Table now works with the filter widgets that are included with WooCommerce. You can use them in addition to - or instead of - the product table dropdowns that were already available to filter by category, tag, custom taxonomies, attributes or variations.
Here's the official overview video from WooCommerce. (Just bear in mind that to use the widgets with product tables, you need to follow the instructions below and not the ones in the video! I've provided a dedicated vide on how to use the WoCommerce Product Table filter widgets below, so this is just a general overview.)
WooCommerce Filter by Rating
This filter widget displays a graphic of 5 stars, which customers can click to refine the product table to view products based on the star rating. They can select 1 or more stars to find products with the exact ratings they want.
WooCommerce Filter by Attribute
This filter lets customers refine the products shown in the table by selecting one or more attributes. It offers a quick way to narrow down the product table's contents to find products with a specific feature or combination of attributes.
WooCommerce Product Table fully supports product attributes, so this feature will be really useful to our customers. You could already display attributes as filter dropdowns above the product table, but the dropdowns did not interact with one another. The attributes filter adds more sophisticated ways to refine the table.
WooCommerce Active Filters
This WooCommerce active filters widget works with the other filters. It displays the active filters so customers can see which filters are already in place. It's a quick way to revert the table to the full list of products.
WooCommerce Price Filter Widget
The WooCommerce price filter widget adds a neat-looking price slider. Customers can drag it to set a budget and refine the product table to view products within their price range. You can set a lower price range, upper price range or both - all within a single price slider.
The price slider works nicely with the other features of WooCommerce Product Table. For example, if customers click on the 'Price' column header then they can sort by price in ascending or descending order. If they have an exact budget in mind then they can use the WooCommerce price widget instead.
Why have you added product filter widgets?
Adding support for the WooCommerce product filters is the most asked-for item on our feature request list. Dozens of you have asked for more flexible ways to filter the product table, in addition to the existing filter dropdowns above the table.
The process for using product tables with WooCommerce product filters is slightly different from how to add them to your main shop page and category pages. This is because the built-in WooCommerce widgets are only designed to work on the shop page and category archives. Product tables are normally added to standard pages (although you can add them to category archives if you prefer), so we've created a special WooCommerce Product Table version of each widget which works perfectly on pages:
Get WooCommerce Product Table and use the documentation to create your first table. Add the table to any page on your WordPress website. Make sure the page has a widgetized area such as a right or left sidebar. (Most WordPress themes come with a page layout that includes a sidebar. Ask your theme developer if you're not sure.)
Go to Appearance > Widgets.
On the list of available widgets on the left, look for the ones that start with 'Product Table'. Drag one or more widgets to your sidebar area on the right.
Choose the options to configure your product filter widget(s) as needed.
Click 'Save' for each widget.
Now view the page with your product table. Test the WooCommerce filter widgets and watch the list of products in the table update with the filters you choose.
Bonus: Add even more advanced filters to your product tables
Update: Since adding the above filters to the WooCommerce Product Table plugin, we have released a brand new plugin - WooCommerce Product Filters. This builds on the filters in WooCommerce Product Table and lets you add even more impressive filters to your store. It either works with the default store layout, or - you guessed it - with the product table view.
By using the two plugins together, you can filter by absolutely any type of product data. The filters can appear either above or alongside the list of products. And even better, you can choose from a wide range of styles for them. This includes filter checkboxes, radio buttons, images, color swatches, and more.
Here's an example:
A WooCommerce Product Table being used with the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin
Where to get the filters
If you're already using WooCommerce Product Table, you can update to the latest version via Dashboard → Updates in the WordPress admin. The new version comes complete with the new WooCommerce product filter widgets. Add them by following the instructions above.
If you haven't got WooCommerce Product Table, buy the plugin today and start creating your product tables with filter widgets.
And if you like the plugin, sign up as an affiliate! We offer a generous 30% commission for reselling it, so it's a good chance to earn some extra pocket money.
I'd love to hear about how you use WooCommerce Product Table with the new filters. Please try it out and add your comments below, ideally with a link to your site!
Our new password protect WordPress category plugin has been released today. Password Protected Categories lets you protect any type of category in WordPress or make them private.
Since the launch of our other plugin, WooCommerce Password Protected Categories, we've had lots of requests for a more general password protection WordPress plugin to cover other types of category.
You can use the new plugin to protect categories for blog posts and custom post types, which covers all the main types of WordPress category. It can even password protect WordPress categories created by specific plugins (e.g. events or e-commerce plugins).
What sorts of categories can I password protect?
You can use the password protect WordPress category plugin to protect any type of hierarchical taxonomy in WordPress. In layman's terms, these are commonly known as post categories. They're different from tags and custom taxonomies because they are hierarchical and you select a category using check boxes.
If you select categories by ticking boxes similar to this screenshot then you can protect them with the password protect WordPress category plugin.
You can use the plugin to protect categories that are attached to standard WordPress posts or custom post types. This means that it can be used for pretty much any type of categories in WordPress. Here are some use cases to help you think about how it can work for your own website.
Password protect WordPress categories for a blog
The most obvious usage for the plugin is to password protect standard post categories in WordPress. These might be used for a blog or news section on your website.
Lots of WordPress websites need a private blog while leaving the rest of the website (e.g. the pages) public. Others need to structure the blog posts into a series of public and private password protected categories.
The password protect WordPress category plugin lets you password protect entire categories within your WordPress blog, or mark them as private. It automatically protects all the posts within that category, hiding them from your main blog page.
Password protect categories in WP eCommerce
As the second most popular WordPress e-commerce plugin, many websites need to password protect WP eCommerce categories.
You can either create a private store in WP eCommerce by putting all your products within a password protected category, or marking all your categories as private. Or you can create a hidden area of your online store which runs alongside your public shop. A popular example of this is to password protect a WP eCommerce wholesale store which only authorised trade users can access.
(If you're wondering why we didn't include the first most popular e-commerce plugin in this list, it's because we have a dedicated plugin for WooCommerce. See WooCommerce Password Protected Categories.)
Password protect categories in Easy Digital Downloads (& other e-commerce plugins!)
Easy Digital Downloads is the third most popular WordPress e-commerce plugin. You can use the Password Protected Categories plugin to create a private Easy Digital Downloads store or password protect WordPress categories in Easy Digital Downloads. This lets you have a completely private store, or separate public and private areas of your online shop.
There are lots of other WordPress e-commerce plugins such as WP eStore, MarketPress, JigoShop and Shopp. You can password protect categories in any e-commerce plugin that stores products as custom post types with hierarchical taxonomies.
All of these plugins store events as a WordPress custom post type with categories. Use the Password Protected Categories plugin to password protect events categories in your store or make them private. Only customers with the correct password can access your protected events.
How does the WordPress password protect plugin work?
The Password Protected Categories plugin works by adding a 'Visibility' section to the Add/Edit Category screen in WordPress. This lets you leave categories public (the default) or mark them as password protected or private. These work as follows:
Password protect categories
You can password protect categories in WordPress by adding one or more passwords. When a visitor tries to access that category, they are taken to a login page. Entering a valid password will redirect them to that category, unlocking the content within.
All content (e.g. posts) within a protected category is automatically protected by the password for that category. This means that if someone tries to access a password protected page directly, they will be taken to the category login page.
WordPress user and role protected categories
There's also an option to restrict categories based on user and role. These categories are only visible to logged in users with the correct privileges.
Can I password protect my entire WordPress blog or post type?
Yes. First, create a main 'Parent' category for your blog or custom post type, and password protect this. Then put all your posts or custom posts within this password protected category. This will protect all the content within your WordPress blog or custom post type.
It's possible to sub-divide your password protected blog or post type. You can create more complex category structures by adding child categories of your main parent category. Leave them set to 'Public' and they will automatically be protected with the same password as the main category.
Aren't password protected categories already part of WordPress?
Strangely, no. You can password protect WordPress pages and posts without needing any plugins. But being able to password protect categories has always been a gap - hence the need for a new plugin.
Get the password protect categories WordPress plugin
We hope the new plugin is useful for you. You can get it today:
We'd love to know what you think of Password Protected Categories. We'd especially like to hear how you decide to use it on your own website. Please add your comments below.
Today we've released a new WordPress plugin to create a private WooCommerce members only shop. The plugin, WooCommerce Private Store, locks down the whole of WooCommerce while keeping the rest of your website public. It's the perfect way to create a private online shop to sell products exclusively to your members.
We've developed the new WooCommerce members only plugin in response to demand from users of our Password Protected Categories WooCommerce plugin. The aim of that plugin was to let people protect specific areas within a WooCommerce shop. We were surprised at the number of customers using it to protect their WooCommerce whole store. While we supported customers in finding ways to achieve this, it wasn't really ideal. It was missing crucial features such as hiding protected products from search engines.
The new WooCommerce Private Store plugin offers a dedicated way to make WooCommerce private. It has all the features that you need to hide an entire WooCommerce shop so that only your members can see it.
The members only plugin transforms any WooCommerce website into a 100% private online shop.
It does this by hiding all elements of WooCommerce from public view. There are 2 ways to hide WooCommerce, which can work together or separately:
You can password protect WooCommerce. Customers must enter a correct password to unlock your private store. You can create 1 or more passwords, e.g. one for everyone to share, or a separate password for each customer.
Alternatively, you can set it up so that the private WooCommerce store is automatically unlocked for logged in user or specific user roles.
Either way, the plugin protects all the pages created by WooCommerce. This includes the main shop page which lists all your products, the individual product pages, product category pages and tag archives. It also protects other content added by WooCommerce such as shop-specific widgets and menu items.
Everything in your WooCommerce members only shop is only visible to customers who have unlocked the private store. For everyone else, it's as if the e-commerce part of your site doesn't even exist.
Your products, categories, tags etc. are hidden from search engines so they can't be indexed. They're hidden from your XML sitemap. The shop pages are also hidden from the WordPress search on your website. This means that if someone uses the search box on your site, your products and other WooCommerce content won't appear on the search results page.
How does the WooCommerce password protection work?
Whenever a customer tries to access part of the members only WooCommerce shop, they'll see a login page where they must enter the correct password to continue. (You can customise the text that appears above the password entry form and on the 'Submit' button.)
Once the customer enters the correct password, the entire members only WooCommerce store is unlocked for them. They can then navigate through the WooCommerce shop as usual - viewing the shop page, categories, products and buying online.
What sorts of website need a members only store?
It's useful for any e-commerce site that needs to sell products to a specific group of pre-approved people. This might include:
WooCommerce wholesale shops for approved trade distributors.
WordPress membership websites.
Clubs and organisations selling branded merchandise to members only
Company websites selling workwear to their employees via a private e-commerce area.
Will anyone know my members only WooCommerce shop exists?
It's up to you whether to include any links to your members shop on your public-facing website.
If you like, you can add a link called 'Trade Login' or 'Member Login' to your menu, sidebar, header or similar. That way, members can click the link to view the store login page and unlock the shop. Public users will be able to see the link, but they can't get past the password protection page.
To hide WooCommerce completely, you don't have to include any links to your shop. Give your members the link to your private shop page and no one else will know it exists!
Can people find my private members only products in search engines?
Nope - the plugin takes care of all that. Once you activate the plugin, your product pages, category archives, tag archives and other WooCommerce content is automatically noindexed and hidden from search engines.
How do I create a private members only shop?
The WooCommerce members only plugin is really simple to use. You can create a private WooCommerce shop in minutes.
Set up WooCommerce and add your products, categories in the normal way - just as you would for a public online shop.
Install and activate the WooCommerce Private Shop plugin.
Go to the settings page, add your license key and choose a password for your members only store.
Either add a 'Member login' link to your website or give the URL to your members along with the password.
And that's it! The WooCommerce members only plugin will take care of the rest.
Use the Documentation in the knowledge base to learn how to configure the hide WooCommerce plugin in more depth. For example you can change the text on the private WooCommerce login page.
Can I hide specific areas of my WooCommerce store?
The new WooCommerce members only plugin is just designed to protect your entire online shop. If you just want to hide parts of your WooCommerce shop then you need our Password Protected Categories for WooCommerce plugin instead. This lets you protect specific areas within WooCommerce while also having a public e-commerce store.
I love the plugin! Can I earn commission for reselling it?
Absolutely! Check out our WordPress Plugins Affiliate scheme and sign up to get 30% commission for reselling our members-only plugin, and our other premium plugins too.
Where can I get the plugin?
The WooCommerce Private Store plugin is available on our website. Get it today and set up your WooCommerce members only shop in minutes!
Our bestselling WooCommerce table plugin has yet another new feature! The new version of WooCommerce Product Table lets your customers select multiple products in the table and add them to the cart. All in a single click!
Didn't the WooCommerce table plugin already have Add to Cart buttons?
Yes. Previously, your WooCommerce tables could include an 'Add to Cart' column. Each row of the table had a separate Add to Cart button for each product.
This was very popular, but could be time-consuming for customers wanting to buy lots of products. Quite a few of our WooCommerce Product Table customers have requested a multiple add to cart feature. They wanted to select multiple products and add them to the cart at the same time.
Now you can do this too.
How do the multiple add to cart boxes work?
If you activate the new multiple add to cart boxes in your WooCommerce table then a check box will appear alongside each product. It will be added to the 'Add to Cart' column for each product.
Customers can tick as many products as they like. Once they've ticked them all, they can click 'Add Selected to Cart' to add them all to their WooCommerce shopping basket.
Depending on your WooCommerce settings, a success message will appear at the top of the page. Customers can click to view their cart and check out as usual. (All this is handled by WooCommerce - all the WooCommerce table does is control how products are displayed and added to the cart.)
You might be using plugin to change your Add to Cart behaviour such as Ajax Add to Cart. If so, it will work for your multiple add to cart button as well as the other buttons in your WooCommerce store.
Can customers select variations from the WooCommerce table?
Absolutely - we added support for variable products in a previous release of the WooCommerce table plugin. Customers can use the multiple add to cart option to buy simple or variable WooCommerce products.
If you activate the variations option in the product table then each variation appears as a dropdown in the Add to Cart column. Customers can choose their variations, view the correct price, tick the check box and use the 'Add Selected to Cart' button above the table.
Does my product table have to use the new multiple add to cart?
No. Your WooCommerce table can work in any of these ways:
You can have a check box alongside each product with an 'Add Selected to Cart' button above the WooCommerce table.
If you prefer, you can have an 'Add to Cart' button next to each product (as it was before).
Alternatively the table can have both the check box, multi add to cart AND individual Add to Cart button for each product!
Instead of an add to cart column, you can display a custom field in the WooCommerce table. You can add a link or button to the custom field for each column, instead of the default add to cart button. (e.g. you could use this to add a 'Request Quote' button linking to a page with contact form.)
You don't have to have an add to cart column at all.
The WooCommerce table plugin really is that flexible!
How can I add multiple add to cart boxes to my WooCommerce table?
You can see the new multiple add to cart feature in action on the WooCommerce Product List Demo Site. The main demo features a product table with both Add to Cart options active.
Browse around this site to see the different combinations. This will show you the flexibility of the WooCommerce table plugin before you buy.
Where can I get the WooCommerce Product Table plugin?
Our bestselling WooCommerce table plugin is available on the Barn2 Media website. Get it today - your product tables can be up and running in minutes.
We've added a new WooCommerce customer login feature to our popular plugin 'WooCommerce Password Protected Categories'. It lets you create a hidden or private product category for each customer.
WooCommerce Password Protected Categories - Perfect for protecting specific areas of your WooCommerce, which will run alongside your public shop. With this plugin, different customers can access different product categories. Or you can give multiple customers access to a single password protected category - the choice is yours.
WooCommerce Private Store - Make WooCommerce private by hiding your entire online store from public view. With this plugin, all your customers will have access to the same products within your private WooCommerce shop.
This post is about how to use WooCommerce Password Protected Categories to create individual customer logins, with different products categories for each customer.
What sort of websites need a WooCommerce customer login plugin?
A WooCommerce customer login plugin is suitable for any online store that has different products for different customers. Here are 2 case studies to illustrate how customer-specific products might be used.
Client login for a photographer's website
Professional photographers can use WooCommerce Password Protected Categories to sell the images from their photoshoots. It works like this:
The photographer undertakes a photoshoot for a specific client. This might be wedding photography, a family photoshoot or corporate photography.
After the photoshoot, the photographer creates a password protected WooCommerce category for that client. They add each photo as a product in this category (depending on their pricing structure etc.).
The photographer notifies the client that their photos are available on the website and gives them the password for their WooCommerce category.
The client visits the website and clicks a 'Client Login' link. This shows them the WooCommerce customer login form added by the plugin.
The client enters the password into the login form and are automatically redirected to the category containing their photos. They can browse the photos and order online. If they give the password to others, such as their wedding guests, then they can order photos from the protected category too. The photos will remain private and hidden from public view. Only people with the password will ever know the hidden products exist.
Company branded workwear for an industrial clothing seller
Another popular use case is company-branded workwear. An industrial clothing manufacturer may have a public WooCommerce store selling specialist clothing such as fire retardant workwear. Most of their customers probably use the public categories, but they may have deals with certain companies to provide branded versions of their products. For example, a company might order personalised versions of their workwear with its logo and brand colours, for an agreed price.
You can use WooCommerce Password Protected Categories to add the personalised clothing as products in a password protected category which is only available to the relevant company. They can click a 'Trade Login' link on the website, enter their password and be directed to the WooCommerce category with their branded workwear. The company can then order the customised items - and products from the public site at the same time, if they wish - without anyone else knowing they exist.
Go to the plugin settings page at WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Password Protected Categories. (find this at: /wp-admin/admin.php?page=wc-settings&tab=products§ion=protected-cats)
Click on the dropdown list next to 'Category Login Page'. Select the page where you want your WooCommerce customer login form to appear.
Scroll down and click 'Save changes'.
This will automatically add a shortcode to the page you have selected and the customer login form will appear.
Method 2 - Add the category login shortcode
For an even more flexible option, simply add the following shortcode to any page, post or text widget:
[category_login]
This will add a login form where customers can enter the password for their protected WooCommerce category.
A lot of sites will want to use the shortcode to create a WooCommerce sidebar login widget. This lets people log into their private category wherever they are on your website:
You can even customise the login form wording...
You can add other content above or below the shortcode as needed. Just go to the page, post or widget where you added the login form and add your other content.
You can also customise the message that appears within the customer login form as follows:
[category_login message="Add your custom message here."]
...And add private sub-categories for each customer
The above instructions tell you how to create a single WooCommerce product category for each customer. The plugin also lets you divide the private shop for each customer into sub-categories. For example:
A photographer might create a main category for each customer, with a sub-category for each of their photoshoots.
An industrial clothing seller might have a main category for each company they provide branded workwear for. This might be sub-divided into categories for office wear, heavy duty wear etc.
To create customer-specific sub-categories:
Create a main top level category for each customer. Do this in Products > Product Categories in the WordPress admin. Select 'Password protected' and choose a password.
Next, add all the sub-categories for that customer. Select the main category for that customer as the 'Parent'. Leave the sub-categories set to Public.
Add the customer's unique products to the relevant category and sub-categories.
You also need to set up your WooCommerce category pages to display sub-categories so that customers can navigate to their other categories. Do this in WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Display (find it here: /wp-admin/admin.php?page=wc-settings&tab=products§ion=display). Under 'Default Category Display', choose 'Show subcategories & products' if you want the customer's main page to show both products and sub-categories. Or choose 'Show subcategories' if you just want their sub-categories to appear so that they have to click on one to view the products within.
Click 'Save changes'.
How did people create customer-specific products before?
Most WooCommerce stores have various products which are available to the public. We developed the WooCommerce Password Protected Categories plugin nearly a year ago to let people protect or hide some or all of their product categories.
The plugin has proved very popular. It's used for various types of website ranging from WooCommerce wholesale stores to shops with customer-specific products.
Until now, the only way to create customer-specific products was to give each client a secret link to their password protected category. This worked fine, but a lot of plugin users have asked us for a central WooCommerce customer login page. This is now available and I hope this article helps you to create your own login page for customers to access hidden categories.
Where can I test the WooCommerce customer login plugin?
We've added a WooCommerce Login page to the Password Protected Categories plugin demo. If you enter the password 'letmein' then you'll be directed to the Clothes category. The password 'teatime' will direct you to the Food category.
Since its launch in October 2016, our WooCommerce product display plugin has quickly become our bestselling WordPress plugin. It displays products in a sortable table view. Today we've launched a new version of the product display plugin which supports product attributes and variable products.
More customers have requested support for attributes and variations than any other feature, so we've made this a priority. It comes hot on the heels of other improvements to our WooCommerce table plugin.
As well as displaying WooCommerce products in a searchable table view, you can now:
Display product attributes as separate columns in the table
Previously, you could display most product data such as title, description, price and featured image in the table, but not attributes. You can now include each attribute as a separate column in the product table.
We understand that all WooCommerce websites use product attributes in different ways. To make it applicable to everyone, you can list exactly which attributes are displayed in each product table. This means that you can display some attributes but not others.
If you have multiple product tables on your WooCommerce website then each one can list different attributes. For example, you might have an e-commerce clothes website with one product table for men's shirts and another for women's dresses. The table for men's clothes can include a 'Collar Size' column and the women's product table can have a column for 'Dress Size'.
View and select variations directly from the product table
We've thought long and hard about the best way to present variable products in the table. Very few WordPress product display plugins support variations, and we don't think any of them get it right. For example, we saw one plugin that displays each variation as a separate row in the table. This would have been easier for us to develop (!) but I think it's the lazy option. It takes up a huge amount of space and isn't a neat solution. Some WooCommerce stores have dozens of variations, so it's important to display each product within a single row of the table.
The new version of our WooCommerce product display plugin can list each variation as a dropdown list alongside the 'Add to 'Cart' button. Customers can select their variations, select the quantity and add to cart cart straight from the product table.
When you select a variation, the actual price for that variation appear under the Add to Cart button. If you're managing stock for each variation then the stock status or stock level will appear too.
If you have more variations than can fit in a table then you don't have to enable the variations option. By leaving it disabled, the 'Add to Cart' button for variable products will change to 'Select options'. Customers can click through to choose their variations and buy from the single product page.
You can see this in action on the variations page on the demo site for the WooCommerce product display plugin.
Note: Since this article was published, we have also added support for Product Add-Ons. This lets you add even more product options in your WooCommerce tables.
Display attributes and variations as filter dropdowns above the table
If your WooCommerce store has many products then you can help customers find what they want by letting them filter by attribute or variation. The new version of WooCommerce Product Table lets you display filters above the table with dropdowns for attributes, variations, categories or tags.
Adding filters="true" to the product table shortcode will display all possible filter dropdowns above the table. Alternatively, you can choose which filters appear. For example you may want the product table to include filters for the size attribute but not color.
You can see this in action on the new product attributes page on the product display plugin demo.
Perfect for WooCommerce order forms, restaurant ordering systems & more
Whatever you need WooCommerce product tables for, these new features will help the plugin to display products in whichever way you need. If you like it, join our WordPress plugins affiliate scheme and each 30% commission for recommending our WooCommerce product display plugin!
We'll be contacting everyone individually who has requested support for product attributes and variations.
To get WooCommerce Product Table for your own website, simply buy the plugin and start setting it up. Your new way of displaying products could be ready within a few minutes! You can also sign up as affiliate and get 30% commission for recommending the table plugin!
We've been busy improving all our WordPress plugins. Here's a roundup of the new features now available in Posts Table Pro, our popular tables in WordPress plugin.
These new developments are very exciting and let you create tables in WordPress in new ways that weren't possible before. The amazing thing about Posts Table Pro is that it has so many possible uses. Previously, it was popular for various types of tables in WordPress such as website indexes and tables of contents, publications lists or document libraries and WordPress member directories (or other types of directory). The new features make it ideal for many more types of tables such as table-based WordPress video galleries, event listings, audio libraries and playlists.
Play audio tracks directly from a WordPress table
We've added support for audio files embedded using the built-in WordPress audio embed shortcode. This means that your tables in WordPress can include actual audio players which can be listened to directly in the table. People can listen to your audio tracks directly from the WordPress table, without having to click through to the single post/page. This lets you create a table of audio listings, for example for a musician or band website.
To add an audio file to display to a table in WordPress, upload your file to the page or post using the Add Media button. You can add it to the main content or the excerpt. WordPress will automatically create a shortcode to embed the audio player into your page or post. You can then tell the table plugin to render the shortcode in the table by adding shortcodes="true" (see knowledge base).
You can see a table in WordPress with audio embeds in action on our new Audio and Video Gallery demo page.
Watch video directly from the tables in WordPress
As with audio tracks, the Posts Table Pro plugin now supports embedded WordPress video. Your visitors can watch videos directly from your tables in WordPress, without having to click to a separate page or third party site.
There are 2 ways to add videos which can be displayed in the WordPress table:
Type the URL of the video from YouTube, Vimeo or similar and WordPress will automatically embed it into your page/post and display in your table
Either way, you can set up Posts Table Pro to display videos in your tables in WordPress by adding shortcodes="true" (see knowledge base).
You can see a WordPress table with embedded video in action on our new Audio and Video Gallery demo page.
Watch & listen to playlists in a WordPress table
As well as individual audio and video files, you can use WordPress' embedded audio and video playlists to display whole playlists in the table. This is perfect for video websites and featuring CD's with track listings. Your visitors can listen to entire playlists or a specific track directly from your tables in WordPress.
New filters above the table
We've had many requests for this feature so we're pleased to announce that you can now add search filters (dropdown lists) above your tables in WordPress. These let you filter by category, tag, author name or custom taxonomy (depending on which columns you have included).
Simply add filters=true to your shortcode to enable the filters above the table. You can see these WordPress table filters in action on the main plugin demo.
We've also added a reset button next to the search box which clears the current search and resets the drop-down filters for the table.
More control over your WordPress table elements
There are also new options that let you control the elements that appear above the below the table in WordPress. This lets you change the positioning of the 'Show X entries' section, the search box, the 'Showing X of X entries' text and the pagination buttons.
You can choose whether to show or hide these, or to display them above or below the table.
Display shortcodes in your tables in WordPress
There's now an option to display content generated by shortcodes in your WordPress table, in either the content or the excerpt column.
We've also fixed more bugs and made other minor improvements. As always, if you have any feedback or suggestions on how the Posts Table Pro plugin could help you create even better tables in WordPress, please get in touch.
That's all for now! We hope you like the new version of Posts Table Pro. If you haven't bought the plugin yet, it's available here. And if you like it enough to recommend, earn 30% commission for doing so as a Barn2 Media affiliate!
Yesterday I was interviewed by John Overall for the WordPress Plugins A to Z Podcast.
We discussed Barn2 Media's work, our WordPress plugins and our online course and e-book.
John was a lovely interviewer and was very interested in our work.
Interview Transcript
John: Good morning, good afternoon or good evening - wherever you happen to be hiding out there on the globe today - and welcome to the interview show. I'm John Overall and with me is Katie Keith from Barn2 Media barn2.com. She's here to talk about the plugins they've released for the WordPress community - some of their premium plugins, it looks like they've got a couple of free plugins, and a whole bunch of other stuff. So we're gonna jump right into it. Welcome to the show Katie.
Katie: Hi John, thanks for having me!
[general conversion not included in transcript]
About Barn2 Media
John: So, tell us a little about Barn2 Media. What are you guys?
Katie: We're a WordPress agency. We started at the end of 2009 and we've been specialising in WordPress pretty much ever since. Until this year, our work focussed around developing websites for clients, so direct client work. This year we've branched out into selling WordPress-related products. In 2016 we've launched 2 free WordPress plugins and 3 premium ones. Also an online course and Kindle e-book to do with WordPress. It's another strand to the business, all tailored around WordPress.
Katie: We've done so many projects for clients, developing all different sorts of WordPress websites, we've got loads of ideas of different products we can produce that meet people's needs that aren't being met at the moment. So the client work gives us the ideas and then we develop them.
Discussion on Posts Table Pro WordPress plugin
John: Excellent! Well, let's talk about the first one. You've submitted one plugin for review which I haven't had a chance to review yet but it will be reviewed in an upcoming show. It's called Posts Table Pro. Can you tell me a little bit about what this plugin is for and how it helps people out?
Katie: That's right. Posts Table Pro is an interesting plugin because it creates a new way to display pretty much any content that you might be storing on a WordPress website. It's an off-shoot of our free plugin Posts Table with Search + Sort, which lets people display a table of their blog posts. A lot of blogs have 100's or even 1000's of posts. The free plugin lets you display your posts in a table to create a much easier way for people to find your posts - a bit like an index or table of contents. People don't have to scroll through pages and pages of posts. It keeps it all in one places and helps people find your posts more easily.
Katie: With the free plugin, we received a lot of demand from people wanting to display other types of content from their WordPress website - custom post types, products, events, all different sorts of data. Posts Table Pro is a more sophisticated version which lets you display a greater variety of information, all within a searchable, sortable, interactive table.
John: One of the things I noticed when I was briefly reviewing the plugin on your website is it's got a search option at the top. Is that search function stick with the whole site search or just with the specific posts that you've indexed?
Katie: The search is just for the table. It's separate from the default WordPress search which you might have added elsewhere. It's a way of filtering the table. So if you have the word 'Blue' mentioned lots of times in the table - whether's in the description, a tag or whatever, typing 'Blue' into the search box above the table will filter for that term. So it's a nice easy way for people to find what they're looking for within the table. There are also other ways to do similar things. They can click on columns to sort them. They can also click on categories or tags to filter by that category or tag. So there are a few different ways for people to quickly find information in the table which isn't normally easy to do on a WordPress website.
John: I kind of like that idea. I'm thinking about the number of podcasts I've done. I think 283 is our next show. We've covered lots of plugins in that time and sometimes even I have trouble going back and searching through. I'm like "I know I reviewed that, why can't I find it?" All I can remember is a keyword, so this sort of thing would probably help them dramatically to find a specific post with a specific keyword that was only used in that post. Is that the sort of thing it helps people do?
Katie: If you were displaying the content of the post within the table - because it just sorts what's in the table. But that's a good example because if each of your podcasts was added as a separate post with text and so on, you could create a table displaying that. You could divide your posts into categories, as per any WordPress blog, and then display the categories in the table. People might just want to listen to the ones that covered e-commerce, for example, so you could categorise or tag the e-commerce ones and they could search. But if they wanted to search the full content of the post, they'd probably use the standard WordPress search which covers everything, not just what's in the table.
John: Right, ok. So the table doesn't capture all the content that's in the post.
Katie: No, it's the information from the table that it filters, rather than being a global search which already exists.
John: Are there any different ways of setting it up, or does it always have the same columns?
Katie: There are lots of different options. There are various column options - anything from featured image, title, content, excerpt, tags - all the standard stuff that you store about WordPress posts. You can choose which columns to display in which order, rename them. There are tons of other options as well, like how it behaves on mobile and how the posts are sorted by default. It's all done by adding a shortcode, so you can have lots of tables on your website. For each one, you add a shortcode and use our documentation to configure the shortcode so that it works in whichever way you want. So for example you might want a table for each of your categories on different parts of your website - you can do that by telling the shortcode which category to display.
Discussion on WooCommerce Product Table Plugin
John: I'm looking forward to giving this plugin a good run for its money to see what it has! So tell us a little bit about the other plugins that you guys offer.
Katie: Ok. The first one that follows on from Posts Table Pro is WooCommerce Product Table. This was released just a few weeks ago in response to demand from Posts Table Pro customers. A lot of people were using Posts Table Pro to display WooCommerce products in a table. This is because WooCommerce products are a custom post type if you know how WordPress works behind the scenes. So lots of people were using Posts Table Pro for WooCommerce, but they were asking us for dedicated WooCommerce features such as Add to Cart buttons, select quantity and reviews.
So instead of bloating out Posts Table Pro, which is never a good idea, we've created a dedicated WooCommerce plugin called WooCommerce Product Table. This is basically Posts Table Pro but specific to WooCommerce, so it has much more specific WooCommerce support and integrates with all the different WooCommerce fields. A lot of people are already using that to display WooCommerce tables for things like product catalogues, trade areas, directories or thousands of products. There's lots of reasons why an e-commerce store might want a more table-based format for their products rather than the standard layouts you usually get with WooCommerce sites.
John: That's very nice. That looks like it works quite well. So tell us about the other plugins you guys have got.
Discussion on WooCommerce Password Protected Categories Plugin
Katie: The other paid one is WooCommerce Password Protected Categories. We also released that in response to demand from client who were looking for easy ways to create private areas within a WooCommerce online shop. Previously, you could do it using something like a membership plugin - which is quite a big deal to set up with individual user accounts, membership levels etc.
We identified that a lot of people just want to password protect a WooCommerce category. You'd think that would be built in but it's actually not. You can password protect products in WooCommerce, but you cannot protect a category. This is a nice, simple plugin that meets an important need - to password protect categories and create private areas of a shop. That might be a photographer with a different category for each of their clients and gives them a password for their own category after doing a photoshoot. This would let them buy their products without seeing other people's products. A lot of online shops have a public shop and a private trade or wholesale area.
Lots of people have a password protected category for their trade distributors while keeping the rest of their shop public. WooCommerce Password Protected Categories provides an easy way to do that. You simply password protect a category and that's it. You just give your password out.
John: That's a very nice plugin, I would like that. That's got lots of potential for expanding a WooCommerce store to be able to do multiple things.
Katie: It's funny because you'd think that if you've got an online shop, you want everyone to buy your products. But in the real world, a lot of shops have restricted areas and don't want the whole world to be able to see their products. It's got some clever features such as if you password protect a category then you can create sub-categories and they will automatically be protected with the same password. So you can create quite complex category structures within the navigation. All the customer has to do is enter the password anywhere within that structure once, and then the whole area is unlocked for them. They don't have to enter a password for each page or category. It's easy to use but it makes it nice and simple for the customer to.
Discussion on WordPress Events Website Online Course & E-Book
John: Well that's very nice, I like that one. You've also mentioned that you guys have an online course and an e-book. What are those?
Katie: Those are based around the same topic, so it's good to talk about those together. They both teach you how to create an events website using the Events Calendar suite of plugins. They're by Modern Tribe, an American WordPress company. The reason we created those is because a huge proportion of our clients want to display events in a website and want to know how to do it.
John: Yeah, I'm facing that problem now.
Katie: Oh, ok! It's more than anything else really. More than membership, more than just a standard WooCommerce shop! We just get tons of enquiries about people wanting to do an events website. Some of them pay us to develop their website. Others are on a budget and want to learn how to do it themselves. When I looked, there weren't any online courses or dedicated e-books about how to do that. We chose our favourite events plugins which are very flexible and modular and let you create all sorts of events websites. We developed an online course and the accompanying e-book to show people how to do that - with lots of tips about how to monetise your events, increase bookings and that kind of thing.
John: Very nice! That is something of major value to people. I'm facing that problem right now with developing a couple of clients' sites. I used to use a different events system which finally I've just given up hope that they'll ever get it right. I've just started switching to Modern Tribe. I noticed that one of the things that's happened several episodes back in the podcast. We've suddenly had Modern Tribe plugins that have been created showing up. This shows me that Modern Tribe has managed to capture the major market for plugins. Which tells me they've hit the nail quite squarely on the head. So that's a great thing to be offering up to people.
Katie: I think they've got a good setup. They've got the free Events Calendar plugin and various extra extensions. The basic events plugin is quite comprehensive but you can add on various extensions to achieve different functionality. You can buy the booking plugin or whatever. It seems to be very popular.
John: Well, much appreciated Katie and we appreciate you coming to the show. This is the point where you get to tell listeners how they can contact you.
Katie: Everything is on our website barn2.com. That describes all our direct services that we provide for clients, and also our different plugins, online course and everything. Check it out and get in touch if you're interested in anything.
John: I hope people will. I'm definitely going to encourage it. Your plugins will definitely appear in upcoming shows of the WP A-Z Plugins podcast. Thank you very much for talking with me here today Katie, I much appreciate it.
Katie: Thanks for having me, it was good to speak to you John!
The new version of WooCommerce Product Table also includes support for individual variation images.
This filter lets customers refine the products shown in the table by selecting one or more attributes. It offers a quick way to narrow down the product table's contents to find products with a specific feature or combination of attributes.
The 
You can use the password protect WordPress category plugin to protect any type of hierarchical taxonomy in WordPress. In layman's terms, these are commonly known as post categories. They're different from tags and custom taxonomies because they are hierarchical and you select a category using check boxes.
Yesterday I was interviewed by John Overall for the WordPress Plugins A to Z Podcast.