How To Use Gutenberg Blocks With Woocommerce

How to Supercharge Your WooCommerce Store with Gutenberg Blocks

Introduction:

WooCommerce is a powerful and flexible e-commerce platform built on WordPress. While its default functionality is robust, leveraging the Gutenberg block editor can elevate your store’s design and user experience to the next level. Gutenberg, WordPress’s native block editor, offers a visual, drag-and-drop interface for creating engaging and dynamic pages. This article will guide you on how to effectively use Gutenberg blocks with WooCommerce, empowering you to build stunning product pages, landing pages, and more, without touching a single line of code (in most cases)! We’ll explore the WooCommerce-specific blocks, design tips, and potential limitations to help you make the most of this powerful combination.

Main Part: Unleashing Gutenberg Power for Your WooCommerce Store

Understanding WooCommerce Blocks

WooCommerce provides a collection of dedicated Gutenberg blocks designed specifically for displaying product information and enhancing the shopping experience. Here are some of the most essential:

• All Products: Displays a grid of your products, allowing you to customize the number of columns, rows, and ordering.
• Single Product: Shows a single product based on its ID or name.
• Featured Product: Highlights a specific product you want to promote.
• Products by Category: Displays products from a chosen category.
• Products by Attribute: Filters products based on specific attributes like size or color.
• Hand-picked Products: Allows you to manually select and display specific products.
• Product Search: Adds a search bar that filters through your WooCommerce product catalog.
• Product Categories List: Displays a list of your product categories.
• Add to Cart: Provides a direct “Add to Cart” button for a specific product.
• Mini Cart: Shows a small cart summary that updates as users add items.
• Checkout Block: This replaces the classic checkout shortcode and provides a modernized experience.
• My Account Block: This replaces the classic my account shortcode and provides a modernized experience.

These blocks provide a foundation for building custom product listings, category pages, and even landing pages designed to convert visitors into customers.

Building a Custom Product Listing Page with Gutenberg Blocks

Let’s say you want to create a custom page to showcase your latest products. Here’s how you can do it using Gutenberg blocks:

1. Create a New Page: In your WordPress dashboard, go to Pages > Add New.

2. Add the “All Products” Block: Click the “+” icon to add a block and search for “All Products.”

3. Customize the Block: On the right-hand sidebar, you’ll find settings to customize the block. You can:

• Control the number of products displayed per page.
• Choose the number of columns to arrange your products.
• Order products by date, price, popularity, or rating.
• Filter products by category or tag.
• Enable or disable sale badge.
• Change the alignment of the content.

4. Enhance the Page: Add other Gutenberg blocks to complement the product listing. For example:

• A Heading block to introduce the page.
• A Paragraph block to provide a brief overview of your latest collection.
• An Image block to add a visually appealing banner.

5. Publish Your Page: Once you’re happy with the design, click the “Publish” button.

Customizing Single Product Pages

While you cannot directly edit the *default* WooCommerce single product page template with Gutenberg, you can use plugins like Block Theme Builders (e.g., Kadence Blocks, Spectra) to create custom single product page templates. These plugins allow you to design a template using Gutenberg blocks and assign it to all or specific product categories.

Here’s a general outline of how that would work:

1. Install and Activate a Block Theme Builder Plugin: Choose a reputable plugin like Kadence Blocks, Spectra, or similar.

2. Create a New Template: Most block theme builders provide an option to create a new template specifically for WooCommerce single products.

3. Design Your Template: Use the WooCommerce blocks (and other Gutenberg blocks) to structure your single product page. Include blocks like “Product Title,” “Product Price,” “Product Short Description,” “Add to Cart,” “Product Image,” and “Product Tabs.”

4. Assign the Template: In the template settings, assign it to be used for WooCommerce single product pages. Some plugins allow you to specify categories to which the template applies.

This process will typically override the default WooCommerce template and use your Gutenberg-designed template instead.

Tips for Designing with WooCommerce Blocks

• Maintain Brand Consistency: Use consistent fonts, colors, and styles that align with your brand identity.
• Optimize for Mobile: Ensure your pages look great on all devices by using responsive design principles. Gutenberg blocks are inherently responsive, but always preview your work.
• Use High-Quality Images: Visually appealing product images are crucial for attracting customers.
• Write Compelling Product Descriptions: Highlight the key features and benefits of your products.
• A/B Test Your Designs: Experiment with different layouts and designs to see what performs best.

Example: Displaying Featured Products with PHP

While Gutenberg is primarily visual, sometimes you might need a bit of code to achieve advanced customizations. For instance, let’s say you want to display featured products programmatically within a Gutenberg block. You can create a custom Gutenberg block using PHP and JavaScript. This example demonstrates how to fetch and display featured products:

 <?php /** 
Registers a custom Gutenberg block.
 */ function my_custom_featured_products_block() { 

register_block_type( ‘my-plugin/featured-products’, array(

‘attributes’ => array(

Explore this article on How To Change Product List Page Layout In Woocommerce

‘numberOfProducts’ => array(

‘type’ => ‘number’,

‘default’ => 3,

),

),

‘render_callback’ => ‘my_featured_products_render_callback’,

‘editor_script’ => ‘my-plugin-block’, // Enqueue your JavaScript for the editor

) );

wp_register_script(

‘my-plugin-block’,

plugin_dir_url(__FILE__) . ‘js/block.js’,

array( ‘wp-blocks’, ‘wp-element’, ‘wp-editor’, ‘wp-components’ )

);

}

add_action( ‘init’, ‘my_custom_featured_products_block’ );

/

* Render callback for the featured products block.

*/

function my_featured_products_render_callback( $attributes ) {

$number_of_products = $attributes[‘numberOfProducts’];

$args = array(

‘post_type’ => ‘product’,

‘posts_per_page’ => $number_of_products,

‘tax_query’ => array(

array(

‘taxonomy’ => ‘product_visibility’,

‘field’ => ‘term_id’,

‘terms’ => ‘featured’,

‘operator’ => ‘IN’,

),

),

);

$products = new WP_Query( $args );

if ( $products->have_posts() ) {

$output = ‘

‘;

while ( $products->have_posts() ) {

$products->the_post();

global $product;

$output .= ‘

‘;

$output .= ‘‘ . get_the_post_thumbnail() . ‘‘;

$output .= ‘

‘ . get_the_title() . ‘

‘;

$output .= ‘‘ . $product->get_price_html() . ‘‘;

$output .= ‘

‘;

}

$output .= ‘

‘;

wp_reset_postdata();

return $output;

} else {

return ‘

No featured products found.

‘;

}

}

Important Considerations about this code:

1. Complexity: This example requires PHP coding, JavaScript enqueueing for the editor interface (for adding attribute controls), and an understanding of WordPress block registration.

2. Security: Always sanitize data and escape output when working with dynamic content.

3. Plugin Development: The above snippet needs to be placed within a custom WordPress plugin file.

4. JavaScript Block Configuration: The `block.js` file referenced in the `register_block_type` function will handle displaying and configuring attributes in the Gutenberg editor.

This is just a basic illustration. A fully functional block would require more complete development, including JavaScript components for the editor to set number of products and design features.

Limitations of Gutenberg with WooCommerce

While Gutenberg provides numerous advantages, it also has some limitations:

• Direct Template Editing (Without Plugins): You can’t directly edit the *core* WooCommerce templates (like the single product page) with Gutenberg alone. You’ll typically need to use a Block Theme Builder or a custom theme with template overrides.
• Overriding Default WooCommerce Pages: When you use a Gutenberg-designed page for, say, the shop page, you will be replacing the default WooCommerce shop page. This might require you to re-implement certain features you expect to be present in the original WooCommerce shop page (like product sorting).
• Theme Compatibility: Some themes may not be fully compatible with Gutenberg, which can lead to layout issues or styling conflicts. Always test your designs thoroughly.
• Custom Block Development: More advanced customizations might require creating custom Gutenberg blocks, which demands coding skills.