So I have a super simple Woocommerce shortcode [product_categories], It's supposed to show product categories from the shop.

It does this job perfectly if I put it inside the contents of a page as such: [product_categories].

However, if I put the same thing into the template directly it suddenly returns the first post of current category? What?!

So in my template I have only these two rows:

<?php echo do_shortcode('[product categories]'); // this returns a single product which is wrong and totally weird ?>
<?php the_content(); // this returns the categories as intended ?>

I never knew these two methods have some kind of difference. How can I make the shortcode work with the echo way?

So I have a super simple Woocommerce shortcode [product_categories], It's supposed to show product categories from the shop.

It does this job perfectly if I put it inside the contents of a page as such: [product_categories].

However, if I put the same thing into the template directly it suddenly returns the first post of current category? What?!

So in my template I have only these two rows:

<?php echo do_shortcode('[product categories]'); // this returns a single product which is wrong and totally weird ?>
<?php the_content(); // this returns the categories as intended ?>

I never knew these two methods have some kind of difference. How can I make the shortcode work with the echo way?

• categories
• woocommerce-offtopic
• shortcode

Share Improve this question asked Oct 28, 2019 at 13:16 JussiJussi 2344 bronze badges 5

• 1 You are missing the "_" in your shortcode. It should be [product_category] or [product_categories]. Please check if this is the problem here. Example from the official WooCommerce shortcode documentation: [product_categories number="0" parent="0"] – LWS-Mo Commented Oct 28, 2019 at 13:22
• @LWS-Mo If [product_categories] is working, it should work here as well, the other stuff are filter / limit parameters. but good point here : "_" jussi if you've copied the code directly from the template file, please recheck if that's the case as you've mentioned that it works but shows only one product. – Arsalan Mithani Commented Oct 28, 2019 at 13:33
• 1 Yes [product_categories] is working. But if the shortcode [product categories] is used, this will show a single product. Because [product] is just a shortcode to show products. To show the product categories itself [product_categories] should be used. It seems that @Jussi has just forgot the underscore in his shortcode. – LWS-Mo Commented Oct 28, 2019 at 13:38
• Omg... feeling stupid after the answer is so humiliatingly easy is never getting old for me. Yes, the problem was the lack of underscore for christs sake. To think I have the balls to consider myself a WP developer. – Jussi Commented Oct 28, 2019 at 13:45
• it was like missing a ; while coding, i recommend you should always copy the shortcode from the available shortcode list to avoid these minor mistakes... – Arsalan Mithani Commented Oct 28, 2019 at 13:53

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I was lacking the underscore in [product categories].

<?php echo do_shortcode('[product_categories]'); ?>

Above code with "_" returns the correct answer.