Troubleshooting shortcodes

On this page, you’ll find a few common reasons why WooCommerce shortcodes may not work as expected.

Shortcodes cannot be embedded between <pre> tags

If your shortcodes are correctly pasted but display incorrectly, ensure they are not enclosed between <pre> tags.

To remove these tags, edit the page, and click the Text tab:

A common problem is when straight quotation marks (") are used instead of curly quotation marks (“). For shortcodes to function correctly, you must use straight quotation marks.

When using an SKU shortcode (such as [products skus="sku-name"]), do not use the variation name SKU from Product data > Variable product > Variations > Variation name > SKU should not be used.

The solution is to instead use an SKU from the parent variable product‘s Product data meta box — Product data > Variable product > Inventory > SKU.

The Product Categories List block displays a list of all product categories, both top-level and sub-categories alike. It cannot display only top-level categories.

The snippet below adds a new shortcode — [top_level_product_categories_list] — which outputs a bulleted list of top-level product categories only. Add it to a child theme’s functions.php file or via a code snippets extension/plugin.

wc-shortcode-top-level-product-category-list.php content:
<?php
/*
 * The shortcode is [top_level_product_categories_list] 
 */
add_shortcode('top_level_product_categories_list', 'wc_shortcode_top_level_product_categories_list');

function wc_shortcode_top_level_product_categories_list() {
    
   ob_start();
   
   $args = array(
        'taxonomy' => 'product_cat',
        'parent' => 0
    );
    
    $product_categories = get_categories($args);
	
    echo '<ul>';
    
    foreach ($product_categories as $category) {
        echo '<li><a href="' . get_term_link($category->slug, 'product_cat') . '">' . $category->name . '</a></li>';
    }
	
    echo '</ul>';
    
    return ob_get_clean();
}

Do you still have questions and need assistance? 

• If you’re looking to extend the core functionality shown here, we recommend reviewing available extensions in the WooCommerce Marketplace.
• Need ongoing advanced support or a customization built for WooCommerce? Hire a Woo Agency Partner.
• Are you a developer building your own WooCommerce integration or extension? Check our Developer Resources.

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