1. Documentation /
  2. Product Bundles /
  3. Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Basic Functionality

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Some items do not appear or cannot be purchased in bundles, although they appear to be saved correctly.

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Products that are part of a Product Bundle must have a price assigned, even when Priced Individually is unticked. WooCommerce does not allow products with a blank price to be purchased.

Note that some third-party plugins may interfere with the saving process of Variable products, making then appear as non-purchasable. While this may go unnoticed when purchasing a Variation, it is still a serious issue that prevents Product Bundles from working correctly. If you are experiencing this issue with Variable products only, it’s very likely that a third-party plugin is triggering this problem. Get in touch with us for assistance!

The add-to-cart button of a bundle cannot be clicked, or does not appear at all.

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If the bundle does not contain any items that are Priced Individually, make sure that a price has been entered in the Regular Price field, located in the Product Data > General tab.

If this is in order, the cause might be due to a conflict with a third-party theme or plugin. To diagnose script-related issues with third party themes or plugins, follow this guide to see if there are any script-related errors in your browser. The easiest way to find the cause of such issues is to: (a) revert to a default WordPress theme and (b) start disabling plugins one by one, until you find the one that’s responsible.

Note that products added to bundles must have a non-blank price, as well.

My mini-cart widget does not show the correct count of cart items.

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Bundle contents are not counted. A Bundle is counted as one item, no matter how many products it contains.

If your theme is counting cart items in a different way, ensure that it uses the WC()->cart->get_cart_contents_count() method to count cart items. If unsure how to verify this, share this information with your theme author(s).

The single-product details of my bundles appear squeezed.

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Many WooCommerce themes place single-product summaries next to the main product image, which is ideal for displaying a short product description, a price and some metadata. Add-to-cart form content is normally displayed inside the single-product summary as well, which works very well for displaying simple or variable products.

However, this layout is not ideal for complex product types, such as Product Bundles, which require more space for their add-to-cart form content.

If the form content of your Product Bundles appears narrow or squeezed, choose the Form Location > Before Tabs option and see if it works better for you. Alternatively, try this plugin to move the add-to-cart form under the product image and summary.

The availability status of specific bundles and/or bundled products is wrong.

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In some rare cases, the availability status of bundles and/or bundled products might be reported incorrectly: For example, sufficiently-stocked bundles or bundled items may appear with an “Insufficient stock” status.

This issue is typically caused by product data import/export tools and bulk product editing plugins that bypass the WooCommerce APIs and write directly to the database.

If you are experiencing this problem, a temporary workaround is to disable stock status syncing for bundled items. This can be done by downloading, installing and activating this plugin:

View on Github

Note that this is not recommended as a long-term solution. Disabling the caching mechanism has a negative impact on server load, depending on the complexity of your bundles. If you are using a third-party plugin to manage stock, contact the plugin authors and bring this issue to their attention.

Is there a way to make some products available only in bundles?

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In many cases, it is desirable to prevent customers from purchasing one or more bundled products individually. This is possible by changing the Visibility of these products to hide them from the catalog/search of your site.

To change the Visibility of a product:

  1. Edit the product.
  2. In the Publish panel, locate the Catalog Visibility option.
  3. Set the option to Hidden.
Setting a product’s visibility to Hidden.

Hidden products will still show up in the Bundles that contain them.

Some bundled items do not save when updating the product.

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This is a very common issue on WP sites with lots of plugins (lots of data to post, process and save).

In most cases the default value of the max_input_vars parameter is 1000 — this means that only the first 1000 form fields are allowed to be processed and saved. Due to the amount of configurable fields added by Product Bundles on the edit-product page, a higher value is required to allow processing and saving lots of bundled items without issues.

The only way to fix this reliably is to ask your host to change this in their php.ini configuration file. Once this is done, it’s recommended to double check that the value has been changed correctly by navigating to WooCommerce > Status.

Setting it to at least 5000 usually resolves the problem.

My website becomes slow/unresponsive when the extension is activated.

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Bundling multiple variable products with a large number of variations may lead to slowdowns on shared hosting environments with limited resources. Running an e-commerce website requires a fast hosting environment with sufficient resources dedicated to complex database queries. Choosing a cheap or low-quality host hurts the uptime and performance of your store, resulting in lost sales and costly upgrades.

Poorly-coded themes can also have a serious impact on page-load speeds, especially when using complex extensions such as Product Bundles. If you are experiencing slow page loads on the front-end: (a) switch to the default WordPress theme and (b) disable all third-party plugins one by one, remembering to re-test after each change.

For the best possible performance, ensure that you are running the latest versions of WooCommerce and Product Bundles.

Why parent order items should appear in orders viewed in the Dashboard.

When a new order is placed, WooCommerce creates an order line item for:

  • the parent Bundle, and;
  • for each bundled item.

Every line item should be included in the admin orders screen to ensure correct accounting, as different line items may have different tax rates too. This is valid for Bundle parent/child items as well.

Moreover, including parent container items in WooCommerce orders is one of the extension’s core concepts, as you can read here.

Can I add a Product Bundle to the cart using a specially-constructed Add to Cart URL?

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To create a custom Bundle Add to Cart URL, please follow the steps below:

  1. Edit the Bundle.
  2. Navigate to Product Data > Bundled Products.
  3. Check the ‘Edit in cart‘ option.
  4. Click Update.
  5. Click to view the Bundle and add it to the cart.
  6. In the cart, click the edit option.
  7. Remove the `update-bundle` parameter.
  8. Copy the URL.
  9. Add an `add-to-cart=$ID` parameter, replacing ‘$ID’ with the ID of the Product Bundle you are working on.

Compatibility and Integrations

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Is there a way to automatically recommend bundles that contain the currently viewed product?

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Yes. This can be achieved by using Product Bundles in combination with Product Recommendations.

How does Product Bundles work with WooCommerce Subscriptions?

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Subscription-type products can be added to Product Bundles without issues, and it’s even possible to bundle Subscription-type products with different billing schedules.

Note that when you add Simple/Variable Subscriptions to a Product Bundle, Priced Individually is enabled by default.

This is essential as Bundles are not subscription-type products, which means they can’t have a billing schedule of their own: They can only act as “containers” of subscription-type products. Un-checking Priced Individually will make bundled subscription products “lose” their recurring billing schedule.

If you’d like to offer a discounted price for bundled Subscriptions, please use the Discount option, which is displayed when Priced Individually is enabled.

Note that when customers purchase a Product Bundle that contains Subscription-type products, the parent item is only used to keep the bundled Subscription products grouped until the initial order is placed. The created Subscription(s) will not contain a parent/container item! If you are looking for a way to offer entire Bundles on subscription, read on!

Why don’t I see express payment/quick pay buttons on my product pages with bundles? 

Product bundles do not support quick-pay buttons on the product pages. These buttons are not currently compatible with forms that have multiple fields on the product page.

Is there a way to create Subscription Bundles?

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The go-to solution for offering entire Product Bundles on a subscription is to use WooCommerce Subscriptions in combination with the All Products add-on.

Issues with auto-optimizer plugins.

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Auto-optimizer plugins prevent Product Bundles scripts from running, which causes issues with the extension’s basic functionality. More specifically, when auto-optimizer plugins are used, Product Bundles animations and price updates do not function properly.

Is the extension compatible with [insert plugin/extension name here]?

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The official WooCommerce extensions supported by Product Bundles are listed in the Compatibility and Integrations section. Third-party extensions/plugins are not supported.

I have an issue with WPML!

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For compatibility with WooCommerce, WPML relies on the WooCommerce Multilingual plugin.

Product Bundles does not support WPML directly. If you are experiencing any issues, please reach out to WPML support.

Customizations

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I need an advanced customization.

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Customizations are not covered under our Support Policy. However, we encourage you to have a look at the available mini-extensions and snippets. If the customization you are looking for is not included there, please seek assistance from a WordPress/WooCommerce developer. We highly recommend working with a Certified WooExpert. For general pointers, you can always get in touch with our Support Team.

Is there a way to edit a text string in the plugin?

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You can use a plugin such as Loco Translate to edit text strings. This is the best way to customize WooCommerce text strings, as the edits will not be overwritten when plugins are updated.

After activating Loco Translate:

  1. Go to Loco Translate > Plugins and click Product Bundles.
  2. Click on New Language.
  3. Choose the desired or your site’s default language in the dropdown menu.
  4. Select Custom in the Choose a location option.
  5. Press Start Translating.
  6. Search for the string you want to edit.
  7. Select it and add your modification.
  8. Press Save.

For more details visit Generating a New Translation.

How can I change the “Add for” string I see next to Optional bundled product checkboxes?

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“Add for” is a compound string that consists of two strings: Add%1$s%2$s%3$s and for %s.

Orders and Fulfillment

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Is it possible to manually add/modify bundles in editable orders?

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Yes!

If a bundle contains configurable items, a Configure button is appended to the title of the order item. Clicking the Configure button brings up a modal that allows Store Managers to:

  • choose configuration options; and
  • add the configured bundled items to the order.

If a bundle does not contain any configurable items, all bundled products are added to the order along with the parent/main order item — in this case, no action is required.

Questions & Support

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Have a question before you buy? Please fill out this pre-sales form.
Already purchased and need assistance? Get in touch with us via the Help Desk!