Quote from Alex Dovlatov on March 23, 2026, 13:06

Hello Simon

Before we dive in, we want to make sure we understand what you actually need — because your request could mean two different things.

Option 1: You simply want the filter to show only brands that have products in the current category, so clicking any brand will always return results. If this is the case, no custom code is needed at all. Just go to WOOF settings, enable "Dynamic results count" and turn on "Hide empty positions". WOOF will then automatically hide any brand that has no products in the current category context.

Option 2: You have your own business logic and want full manual control — meaning you decide exactly which brands appear on each specific category page, regardless of whether they have products or not. For example, on the Electronics page you always show only brands A, B and C, and on the Clothing page only brands D and E. If this is what you need, we have a custom functions.php snippet ready that handles this via a category-to-brands mapping.

Could you confirm which of these two matches your goal? And if it is Option 2, one more thing we need from you: what is the taxonomy slug used by your Brands plugin? The most common values are "product_brands" or "pwb-brand" — you can check it in WP Admin under Products, it will be visible in the URL when you click on the Brands menu item.

 

/**
 * Shortcode [mywoof] — outputs WOOF filter with category-specific brand whitelist.
 * Usage: place [mywoof] in any widget, page or template.
 * 
 * Map category slugs to brand term IDs that should be visible (whitelist mode).
 * On any category not listed, all brands are shown as usual.
 */
add_shortcode( 'mywoof', function() {

    // The taxonomy slug for your Brands plugin (adjust if needed)
    $brand_taxonomy = 'product_brands';

    // Map category slug => brand term IDs to SHOW (comma-separated)
    $category_brands = array(
        'electronics' => '23,45,67',
        'clothing'    => '12,89,34',
        'furniture'   => '56,78',
        'sports'      => '90,11,22',
        'toys'        => '33,44',
    );

    if ( ! is_product_category() ) {
        return do_shortcode( '[woof]' );
    }

    $term = get_queried_object();

    if ( ! isset( $category_brands[ $term->slug ] ) ) {
        return do_shortcode( '[woof]' );
    }

    // Save original settings
    $original_excluded = woof()->settings['excluded_terms'][ $brand_taxonomy ] ?? '';
    $original_reverse  = woof()->settings['excluded_terms_reverse'][ $brand_taxonomy ] ?? 0;

    // Patch settings: show ONLY the listed brand IDs for this category
    woof()->settings['excluded_terms'][ $brand_taxonomy ]         = $category_brands[ $term->slug ];
    woof()->settings['excluded_terms_reverse'][ $brand_taxonomy ] = 1;

    $output = do_shortcode( '[woof]' );

    // Restore original settings
    woof()->settings['excluded_terms'][ $brand_taxonomy ]         = $original_excluded;
    woof()->settings['excluded_terms_reverse'][ $brand_taxonomy ] = $original_reverse;

    return $output;
} );

 

Quote from simonbbs on March 23, 2026, 20:17

Good Afternoon Alex,

Thank you a ton for the information here.

I think option #1 is exactly what we are looking for, but it is good to know option #2 exists.

I attempted to test option #1, however, that dropdown is blocked off for us: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ran1u0pm9wrkerlfholix/For-Support.png?rlkey=g91aquf1fvb8twgk0apv3mjw8&st=4o4vde79&dl=0

Am I correct in my understanding that we need to upgrade to the paid version of the plugin to unlock that option?

Thanks so much!

-Simon

 

Quote from Alex Dovlatov on March 24, 2026, 17:04

Hello Simon

Yes, "hide empty terms" is in premium version of the plugin, but sure you can try option #2 :)

Welcome!