Complete guide to setting up search filters in WooCommerce

Product search filters are an important addition to WooCommerce and a common source of frustration for users and developers a like.

While there are many plugins that allow you to add or remove specific attributes from your products and orders, they are not quite as simple. In fact, there are various ways to do it using different plugins. We suggest you use the Woo Product Table plugin by Code astrology. It makes it easy to add and remove attribute filters from your products through the WooCommerce admin interface.

The Woo Product Table plugin comes with some nice features that let you quickly and easily filter any item in your products by attributes such as price, category, color, size, etc. It also offers you flexibility and customization options. For example, sort products using tags or custom taxonomies. You can do it by using a custom filter . In this guide we will show you how to set up search filters for your WooCommerce using the Woo Product Table plugin.

What is an Attribute Filter?

It’s one of the most powerful features that WooCommerce offers – the ability to filter a product by attribute.

Those of you who have used WooCommerce at some point are probably familiar with filtering by attribute. If you don't know, don't worry about it. In this post, we will explain everything to you so your customers can easily browse your products according to their needs.

If you are wondering what an attribute filter is all about, then let us tell you – it is a very powerful feature which allows you to specify filters for your products based on attributes such as "size" or "color". And if we didn’t mention it before, the reason why we love it so much is because it allows us to extend our product catalog with additional attributes that describe those attributes in finer detail than the default ones (like color).

There are several different types of attributes in WooCommerce:

• Features (these are the most common and are used to give basic information about the product, like the price)

• Product Attributes (these identify a product's characteristics)

• Custom Attributes (for those who need even more control over their products)

The list of attributes for WooCommerce is quite long and vast but we’ve tried to narrow it down to only the most common ones:

• Category name (example: iPhone)
• Attribute type (example: leather)
• Attribute value (example: white)
• Attribute description (example: vintage)
• Attribute price (example: $25)
• Attribute quantity (example: 1 pair)
• Attribute price per item (example: $5)

Why do Customers Love them?

WooCommerce’s product filters are designed with the purpose of making it easier for customers to filter products, categories, and tags.

There are many reasons why customers love filters. They allow you to tailor their cart to their shopping preferences. They save time, because they make the cart process less cluttered. And they can help you with SEO, because search engines have a better idea what search terms your product is associated with.

One solution is to use an attribute filter (which can be saved in bulk as a single field). This solution works well until you start needing more complex filtering scenarios, such as:

• The same product may be available in a variety of sizes.

• You need to filter some attributes on different pages;

• You want some characteristics (for example, color) but not others (for example, size or brand).

To solve these problems with one attribute filter means forcing customers who do not want those specific attributes out of your site, — which is not ideal. It also means that people will end up having a lot of duplicate filters in their cart.

Another problem with this approach is that it requires extra work so that you cannot use custom filters on different categories — which leads people to think they should set up one general category and then use a generic product filter when they are ready for customized products.

WooCommerce’s new attribute filters solve all these issues by letting you set any attribute from anywhere in your store — just select an element from WooCommerce’s list of elements and add it using "filters" – there are hundreds of them! This makes creating more complex filtering scenarios much easier and leads people into using custom filters where they otherwise would never have done so.

The resulting flexibility makes it really easy to create powerful custom filtering experiences for your WooCommerce store. Don’t worry about setting up all those separate product filters again after upgrading from the old ones; we will tell you how to make this whole process simpler in our next post! In this post, we will give an overview of how each type of product attribute works.

As an example

A customer looking for a dress might want to filter by color, size, or style.

It’s not always easy to get the best results from filters. It can be a bit of a back-and-forth with your site. They both need to be in sync, so it’s worth spending some time ensuring that everything is pointing in the right direction.

To do this, you need to create an attribute filter for each type of attribute on your product. What does this mean? To filter by “product type” you need the product name, and to filter by “attribute name” you need the attribute name (for example, “price”).

The attributes are specific to their actions and they should be easy to understand; we highly recommend that you keep them short but comprehensive (e.g., "created_at", "quantity".)

You can make your filter as generic as possible but avoid naming restrictions (i.e., do not allow "time" or "price").

If you want to take this further, then you also need to create each filter for all of your other attributes (such as "color", "weight" etc.).

What is the Woo Product Table?

The Woo Product Table plugin helps you to display your WooCommerce products in a searchable format, making it easy to find the products you are looking for. 

The plugin allows you to create custom tables, and  several pre-made tables that are designed to display your WooCommerce products in a table layout.

It offers you a rich column list, such as product Title, Attributes, thumbnails, quantity, short message.You can add images, product descriptions, and prices to the table. The table also includes columns for Name, Price, Rating, and Reviews. You can customize the look of the Woo Product Table by adjusting its colors and fonts.

You can choose to display a table on every archive page or some specific archive pages.

Displaying different versions of a product together.Table can be sorted by any column, and the plugin includes some powerful filters to make it easy to find what you're looking for.

This plugin has 3  types of search filters.

1. Advanced Search
2. Mini-Filter
3. CF filter (Custom Field)

In this complete guide, we'll walk you through setting up search filters on your WooCommerce store.

How to Install and Active this Plugin?

You can easily install the Woo Product Table plugin in two ways:

By WordPress Panel:

WordPress Dashboard >>Plugins >> Add New Plugin >> Search Plugin [ Woo Product Table plugin]

Then you need to be installed and activated.

By WordPress.org Plugin Sources:
Clicking on the link will take you to the plugin’s download page, and from there, you will have to download this plugin.

After downloading the plugin, you have to upload the plugin to your WordPress site.

Navigate to Plugins >> Add New Plugin >> Upload Plugin>> Choose File >> Select the woo-product-table.zip file from your computer.

Then press the Install Now button to upload this plugin. After that, activate this plugin, and it will work perfectly.

Let's See The Search Filter Setting Procedure…Keep Reading…..

1. Set an Advanced Search Box on My Product Table

If you want to use the advanced search box, then follow this procedure.

1. Go to your WordPress dashboard >> PRODUCT TABLE >> Add New

2. Click on the "Search & Filter" tab.

3. From the Advance Search Box section, choose Show Search Box from the dropdown menu.

4. After selecting the Show Search Box, you will get a search from a specific area. It's like this below screenshot:

5. Then go to the Configure page and you will get the Advanced Search option. Turn it on.

6.If you want to search from a specific area. As an example, suppose you want to search only from the post title and SKU then select post_title and _sku from "Search From". Also, you can search from other sections. like this below screenshot:

7. Also, you can search by taxonomy as well. Set the taxonomy in which you want to search.

8. Finally, click on the SAVE CHANGE button to save the advanced search box on your product table.

Table Demo with Advanced Search

If you want to change the placeholder text for Taxonomy Keywords ( Advance Search Box ) ,you can do that with our plugin filter hook.
First take a look at the screenshot below:

GetHub Link

After applying this code, the filter placeholder text looks like this:

Set a Mini-Filter to your Product Table to Sort Products (Tags or Taxonomy)

In our Woo Product Table, there is a feature called Mini-Filter which can help you sort products on the table. This mini-filter works based on categories, tags, and custom taxonomies.

Basically, it only works on the current product table page. This means it will only search for products on the current page.

Let's see how you can do it:

1. To begin, log into your WordPress admin and navigate to the PRODUCT TABLE >> Add New.
2. Click on Search & Filter tab

3. You'll see a mini filter section as you scroll down.Here, choose Show Filter from the drop-down menu. like in the screenshot below:

4. After choosing the Show Filter from the drop-down menu, a Taxonomy Keywords for Filter section will be displayed.

5. From the Taxonomy Keywords for Filter section, you can choose Taxonomy on the menu bar.

This image will help you to understand how to do it.

6. Here you can select what you want to display on your mini filter, such as product size/color/type.

7. Finally click on the SAVE CHANGE button..

Table Demo with Mini-Filter

3.Create a Table where Customers can Filter Products by Custom Field.

Follow this path:

Go to your WordPress dashboard >> PRODUCT TABLE >> Add New

2. Click on the  "Search & Filter" tab.

3. From there, choose Show CF filter from the drop-down menu of the Custom Field Filter option.

4. When you choose the Show CF filter, you will see custom field options like the below image:

5. Add New Field:

Give a label text in the 'Change Label' input box. This text will show as a placeholder with custom field label text. Here my text is 'Filter By'.

In the 'Add Custom Field' section, we have two input fields.

1. key: As a key value, you must enter the exact custom field name (mine genres).Otherwise, it's not going to work.

2. Label-Give a label text that will show inside the placeholder and above the dropdown menu as well.

Finally, click the ``ADD NEW FIELD" button to add that custom field.

6. Add Custom field values:

Now from the 'Add Value For Filter' section, add that filter value. You can add as many as you want.

7. Save or update:Finally, click on the SAVE CHANGE or UPDATE button.

Table Demo of Filter By Custom Field

Show Product Attributes with different Columns in Your Product Table.

First you have to know how can you  find out the column keyword for attributes,

So, follow my paths:

• Products >> Attributes
• Then, create any attribute slug or use an existing attribute slug.
•  Click on this to configure terms of your desired attributes.

• Here we can see the taxonomy value is pa_brand and we have to copy this value and paste it into the column keyword field at Step 1.
• In your case, the taxonomy value could be different from the one below.

Now you have the Taxonomy Value (Attributes), so I am going to show you how to set product attributes with different columns in our Woo Product Table.

1. Go to your WordPress dashboard >> PRODUCT TABLE >> Add New

2. At the bottom, you will get to add a new custom column.

3. Fill the new custom column from:

Example:

Column Keyword: Attribute name(pa_brand)

Column Label: Give the column a title.(Brand)

Column Type: Select the column type (Taxonomy)

***This is very important because we are going to show taxonomies in this table column.
Click on the SAVE CHANGE button.

4. Show Advance Search Box with Attribute Filter:

First you have to,

Click on the  "Search & Filter" tab.

From the Advance Search Box section, choose Show Search Box from the dropdown menu.

And,

Add Taxonomy Keywords on the Taxonomy Keywords for Advance Search Box option.

5.Show Mini Filter with Product Attributes:

To enable mini-filter with product attributes add taxonomy keywords for desired filter option.

From the "Search & Filter" tab , in the "Advanced Search Box" section, choose "Show Search Box" from the dropdown menu.

Then at the Mini Filter dropdown, choose Show Filter.

And,

Taxonomy Keywords can be added via the Taxonomy Keywords for Advance Search Box option.

Table Demo of Product Attributes in a different Column and Search Box

Tips for Using Filters

There is an ongoing debate over whether search filters are a good idea or not. Some people think they can be useful, but others don’t. In the end, if you use them you will either like them or not.

While I do believe that attribute filters do add value for some stores, it is important to remember that not everyone uses these tools. If you have a store with lots of products with different attributes (or attributes in different categories) then the filter function may become annoyingly difficult to use. And if you have products with minimal or no attributes (or attributes in subcategories) then they could make your store look very cluttered or confusing.

Try to use popular and practical search filters. A widget gets better when it has more filter types, yet this could result in filter overload rather than increased product diversity. In e-commerce stores, popular sorts of filters, including product category, price range, review and rating, tag, color, size, brand type, stock status, etc., are frequently employed.

Related article

How to Set Advance Search Box to Your Product Table in WooCommerce

How to Center WooCommerce Products

Conclusion

Setting up search filters in WooCommerce is a relatively easy task that can help you improve your store’s performance. The Woo Product table plugin provides a comprehensive guide on how to set up search filters, so be sure to check it out if you want to get started.

Remember to keep your search engine optimization (SEO) strategies in mind to ensure that your store appears first when users search for related products.

By taking advantage of the Woo Product table plugin, you can easily create and use search filters to help you find the products you’re looking for quickly and easily. 

If you decide that search filters are a worthwhile tool for your shop, this is a great place to start learning more about them:

If you have any questions or suggestions about how to use this plugin, don’t hesitate to contact the plugin developers at contact@codeastrology.com