How to create a working custom product query in WooCommerce?

Question

I am having difficulty creating my own custom WooCommerce product loop.

Along the way I have encountered a few questions that would be really helpful if they could be answered.

I am currently working with this block of code:

ARCHIVE-PRODUCT.PHP (Moved into child theme -> woocommerce/archive-product.php):

<?php
/**
 * @see https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/template-structure/
 * @package WooCommerce/Templates
 * @version 3.4.0
 */

defined( 'ABSPATH' ) || exit;

get_header();

$display_count = $atts['per_page'];
echo $display_count; // NO value - How do I access this?
$page = get_query_var( 'paged' ) ? get_query_var( 'paged' ) : 1;
echo $page; // returns 1 - CORRECT;
$offset = ( $page - 1 ) * $display_count;
echo $offset; // returns 0 - CORRECT;
$args = array(
    'post_type'             => 'product',
    'post_status'           => 'publish',
    'posts_per_page'        => $atts['per_page'],
    'page'                  => $page,
    'offset'                => $offset,
    'orderby'               => $atts['orderby'],
    'order'                 => $atts['order']
); ?>

<?php
$loop = new WC_Product_Query( $args );
if ( $loop->have_posts() ) :

    // do_action( 'woocommerce_before_shop_loop' );

    woocommerce_product_loop_start();
?>

    <div id="product-list">

        <?php
        while ( $loop->have_posts() ) :

            $loop->the_post();

            wc_get_template_part( 'content', 'product' );

        endwhile;
        ?>

    </div>

    <?php
    woocommerce_product_loop_end();

    do_action( 'woocommerce_after_shop_loop' );

else :

    do_action( 'woocommerce_no_products_found' );

endif;

wp_reset_postdata();

do_action( 'woocommerce_after_main_content' );

do_action( 'woocommerce_sidebar' );

get_footer(); ?>

Perhaps my error is immediately obvious.

As I walk through my code I will highlight the questions I have ran into that I cannot find answers to.

Starting with the line:

$display_count = $atts['per_page'];
echo $display_count; // NO value - How do I access this?

It was my understanding that these variables ($atts['per_page'], $atts['order_by'], $atts['order']) were included here: /includes/class-wc-shortcodes.php.

However, I can only see this attribute set up for individual product pages unless I am mistaken?

Am I allowed to use the variables set up within $atts[]? This also goes for the uses of these variables further down the page in the $args array

How do I set these up so I can use them?

Where are these values stored and changed?

When writing a custom AJAX pagination script into the functions.php file, are these variables readily available here also? If not, how can I set these up?

$page = get_query_var( 'paged' ) ? get_query_var( 'paged' ) : 1;
echo $page; // returns 1 - CORRECT;

Setting up a page variable to help me keep track of the page I am on.

$offset = ( $page - 1 ) * $display_count;
echo $offset; // returns 0 - CORRECT;

Creating the offset variable to put into the args so it can be told how many products will be offset, will come in super handy in the pagination.

$loop = new WC_Product_Query( $args );

Building the loop of products associated with the $args provided.

Is this the best query handler to use? I have seen a host of others such as:

$loop = new WP_Query( $args );
$loop = wc_get_products( $args );

The tail end of the code I am just trying to output the products found using as much of the WooCommerce base template structuring as possible.

EDIT: Ideally it would also show me how to make use of the WooCommerce loop as I have used a plug-in add on to the WooCommerce plug-in that helps me re-order the products into a custom order. It is this custom ordered product list I wish to pull through.

Answer 1

Basic query to loop through WooCommerce products

<ul class="products">
<?php
$args = array(
    'post_type'   => 'product',
    'post_status' => 'publish',
    'posts_per_page' => -1,  // -1 will get all the product. Specify positive integer value to get the number given number of product
    );
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
    while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();

        // Get default product template
        wc_get_template_part( 'content', 'product' );

    endwhile;
} else {
    echo __( 'No products found' );
}
wp_reset_postdata();
?>
</ul>