YOOtheme Pro 2.5 – Introducing the WooCommerce Builder
Today's the day WooCommerce users have been waiting for! YOOtheme Pro 2.5 adds the much anticipated WooCommerce Builder. Now you can not only design your shop with dedicated WooCommerce elements in the builder, but also load any product field into the existing YOOtheme Pro elements. This unique feature from YOOtheme Pro gives you endless possibilities for your shop. But that's not all, besides WooCommerce we added advanced filtering for all custom sources and a new related posts field. Do I have your attention? Then let's dive right in.
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WooCommerce Elements
YOOtheme Pro 2.5 introduces 18 new WooCommerce elements to the page builder which allow you to fully customize your entire WooCommerce shop. Simply create templates for the shop and single product pages as well as the categories and tag archives and arrange the new elements within your layout using page builder sections, rows and columns. The elements load the partial WooCommerce template files like the product price, rating or the add to cart button and have all the general element settings. And of course, you can mix them with all the other YOOtheme Pro elements or any WooCommerce widget.
The Products element is even more powerful. It renders the WooCommerce products shortcode which is why it can be used on any page and has all the available shortcode options. For example, you can display on sale, best rated or best selling products right on your home page and filter them by category, tags or SKU.
Here is an overview of all the new elements together with their description and pages they can be used on.
Element | Page | Description |
---|---|---|
Add to Cart | Product | Display the add to cart button |
Product Information | Product | Display the additional information of all the product attributes |
Product Description | Product | Display the short or long description of the product |
Product Images | Product | Display product images |
Product Meta | Product | Display the SKU and product category linked to the category page |
Product Price | Product | Display the product price |
Product Rating | Product | Display the product rating with a link to reviews |
Product Tabs | Product | Display the product description, additional information and reviews in tabs |
Product Stock | Product | Display the product stock |
Product Title | Product | Display the product title |
Products | Any Page | Display a products grid with the add to cart button |
Related Products | Product | Display related products with the add to cart link |
Upsell Products | Product | Display upsell products with the add to cart link |
Woo Notices | Product, shop and frontpage | Display the cart notice |
Woo Pages | Any Page | Display the cart, checkout, account or order tracking page |
By the way, breadcrumbs, pagination and reviews do not have separate elements since this functionally is already available in YOOtheme Pro. The updated Breadcrumbs element works just like the WooCommerce breadcrumbs while the product reviews can be shown using the Comments element.
WooCommerce Sources
Everything to this point is what you would expect from a common page builder. But YOOtheme Pro has the groundbreaking feature of mapping content into any YOOtheme Pro element. And it's now available for WooCommerce! You can show your products in slideshows, sliders, galleries or any other YOOtheme Pro element, including all their custom fields.
Here is a list of all product fields available in addition to the common post fields.
Name | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
SKU | Single | Render the stock keeping unit |
Price | Single | Render the product price |
Stock | Single | Render the product stock |
Rating | Single | Render the product rating with a link to reviews |
On Sale | Single | Is 1 if the product is on sale, or 0 if not. Use with dynamic conditions to display on sale products only. |
Total Sales | Single | Render the number of sales |
Add to Cart Link | Single | Render the add to cart link |
Add to Card Text | Single | Render the add to cart link text |
Additional Information | Single | Render additional information of the product like weight, dimensions or attributes with a link to their archives |
Attributes | Multiple | Render product attributes with the name and value fields |
Product Gallery | Multiple | Render the product gallery with url , alt and caption fields |
Upsell Products | Multiple | Render the upsell products |
Cross-Sell Products | Multiple | Render the cross-sell products |
But when should I use the WooCommerce sources and not the WooCommerce elements? Well, first, with dynamic content you can map the product fields into any YOOtheme Pro element and make use of all its features. And unlike most WooCommerce elements that can only be used on the products pages, with custom sources you can map the products anywhere on your site. So you can mix both techniques to get the best result.
WooCommerce CSS
Since WooCommerce elements and sources still render partial WooCommerce template files, we had to either override these files or customize their CSS. We decided to leave the template files as they are to make YOOtheme Pro update-proof even if WooCommerce updates its template files. Instead, we completely reworked the WooCommerce CSS in every detail. All the different product types and states as well as the WooCommerce widgets will look great in your shop.
We also added new WooCommerce options to the style customizer, so you can easily change the look of your shop without writing any code. Here you will find different style options like font, color and margins for the product price, title and rating. Of course, you can set them differently for the shop and single product pages.
Some UI components in WooCommerce were rarely used in our demo websites, which is why we made some extra effort and optimized them in all our styles. These include the badge, form range, navbar and search toggles, form focus as well as the card badge. While this sounds like a small thing, it was a huge workload for our designers who had to test and update the components in almost 40 styles. But we think it's worth it because we really care about the quality in our style library.
WooCommerce Settings
As the icing on the cake we added the quantity to the cart menu item. You can show the cart quantity in brackets or as a badge and of course use an icon instead of the text for the cart menu item.
Variable products can now show the lowest price instead of the price range. What's really cool is that they adjust their price, stock and description depending on the chosen variation.
If the products are on sale, you can show the sale price before or after the regular price. Additionally, products have an option to set the number of columns for the gallery thumbnails.
Balou and Tech Space Rebuilt with WooCommerce
To show you the full potential of YOOtheme Pro 2.5 we have completely reworked our two e-commerce theme packages: Balou and Tech Space. We converted their content structure to WooCommerce and created new layouts and templates for all the WooCommerce pages. They are now fully functional shops. Just install the demo package and start adding your own products.
That's all for WooCommerce. Now let's look at all the other features.
Advanced Filtering for Custom Sources
YOOtheme Pro 2.5 comes with huge improvements to filter custom sources. Before you could only limit custom sources by categories and tags showing only posts from all selected terms. Now you can set the logical operator to match at least one of the terms, none of the terms or all terms. This gives you more control over how the terms are compared and which posts are loaded.
Operator | Description |
---|---|
Match One (OR) | Display posts from at least one of the selected terms |
Match None (NOR) | Display posts from terms other than selected terms |
Match All (AND) | Display posts from all selected terms |
Filter Custom Sources by User
We added another filter option for custom sources. In addition to filtering posts by taxonomies like categories or tags, you can also filter them by user.
Related Posts Field
If you are using dynamic content, you may have been waiting for this feature – the related posts field. Up until now, to load posts from the same category you had to pick them manually. Now all posts have a related posts field by default and the relationship is not just limited to categories. You can set the logical operators for how the posts relate – to categories, tags, users or any other custom taxonomy and even exclude upsell and cross-sell products. Of course, it goes without saying that the current post is excluded.
Limit Templates by Language
With YOOtheme Pro 2.5 you can limit the template assignment by language which is very useful for multilingual sites.
What's New Landing Screen
From now on YOOtheme Pro shows a What's New dialog after an update showing all its highlights. It's a common software practice, and we hope this way no one will miss the new features and can start using them right away. The information is loaded from the local news.md
file in the YOOtheme Pro theme folder and is only shown once after the update. To show it again, click the button next to the Changelog in the YOOtheme Pro About panel.
Menu Improvements
The header and toolbars are now also available as menu positions. It is a nice shortcut to publish menus without having to create modules.
If you do use menu modules, you can also set options for their navbar items in the Layout → Header panel which was not possible before.
Additionally, menu modules can be rendered as a nav, subnav or iconnav on any position.
Last but not least, we added an option in Joomla to pick an image for the menu item to the Navbar Items panel, so it is just like in WordPress.
Socials Element
The Socials element also got a small update. You can now either use one of the icons available in the UIkit icon library or pick a custom image. We also updated the icon list and added icons for Discord, TikTok and Twitch. In addition, social icons can now be aligned vertically.
Sneaked into 2.4
Some smaller features sneaked into YOOtheme Pro 2.4 since they were needed for our DevStack theme package. And here is a quick walk-through.
We added a menu divider option for all menus – the menu positions, the Nav element and the menu modules and widgets.
Multiple items elements can have a different link text for each item.
Buttons in all YOOtheme Pro elements have a new full width option.
We added a new animation option to the Grid and Gallery elements. Before the element animation always applied to the items. Now you can select whether to animate the element itself or its items.
Additionally, the filter animation in the Grid and Gallery elements can be disabled.
Finally, custom posts in WordPress can be ordered by Post Order which corresponds to the Article Order in Joomla. This requires the free WordPress Post Types Order plugin which allows you to order posts using drag and drop.
Further Improvements
YOOtheme Pro 2.5 comes with even more improvements and fixes. For example, you no longer need to add a REST API base slug for custom post types in WordPress. We solved the long-standing issue in Joomla where the YOOtheme installer plugin got uninstalled together with Widgetkit or ZOO. The menu accordion option now works in the modal and offcanvas layouts and the navbar text items can no longer be closed by click if in hover mode. For the full list of features and fixes, check out the changelog.
Next Steps
YOOtheme Pro 2.5 not only introduces the long-awaited WooCommerce builder, but it also brings great refinements for dynamic content. So what's next? All we can say is that we started looking into improving the menus, if you know what that means? 😉
Now go ahead and try YOOtheme Pro 2.5 yourself. As always we are looking forward to your feedback, so let us know what you think in the comments below.
hanne.vriens
To Quick? :)
Thanks
hanna
NOTIZ
moloseb
bulat.gazizoff
lucas c.s.
arthur.rosa
best wishes from brasil.
https://arthurrosa.com
brad.kaiser.43
Despite being a Joomla guy who hates WP and WC, I can see the power and flexibility this will provide when I need to build e-commerce.
You're giving your professional customers a great edge over their competitors!
eskemas
filippo.frigeri
Enomax.com
Thanks to the Team!
webprovide
This is amazing!!!
arkady.rutman
radioart
I think that now you have to put a little more effort in the mobile version of a commerce site. There is a logo mobile potition but there is not a header mobile position, so if we want to display a shooping cart on the right corner of the page we have to override files.
Thanks
hanna
ermal
g.gab
Now please think about your joomlers! Please add virtuemart or hikashop integration... we need an ecommerce solution too! :)
southwood
sandstorm871
A J2Store integration would be awesome especially as it uses core joomla articles for its products.
matreas
nbit
they explained that the reason is that there is not a leading ecommerce solution for Joomla.
Actually the reason is not that important, the problem is that til now Yootheme Pro development for Joomla and Wordpress was following the same pace, but since Yootheme Pro 2.5 the Wordpress version is much more powerful because of woocommerce support.
And it is not clear if Yootheme team has any intention to fill the gap
groovedan
sandstorm871
I just think YT should look at doing the same for Joomla/J2Store - I think J2S as it keeps as much as possible close to core Joomla.
I do know of pro2.store and have looked into it, but it doesn't seem as powerful as J2Store
sigrid.gramlinger
sandstorm871
I was always very impressed with it and had spoken with Claes on a few different occasions.
However, I have never had the same feeling for Virtuemart, which is often clunky, poor support, and 3-4 steps behind everyone else.
If VMUIKIT made an alternative for J2Store or other more popular e-commerce solutions, they'd be onto a winner ;)
sven.mediafish
robert.gabriel
:-)
jwellman
hanna
digisys
toth.thomas
hanna
sandstorm871
However, this is of no use to your Joomla customers.
Do you have any plans to adopt a similar update for Joomla,(maybe J2Store) in the future?
AC
tobias.luger
hanna
florianwachter
i am still missing the templates ... and as a jommla guy - woocommerce is not interesting 4 me- sorry.
skyd34th
njsloan
robert.gabriel
joomla client since 2011 ... I have the feeling that joomla is almost dead ...
why did you prioritize wordpress when yootheme started with joomla?
This is what leads me to wonder if joomla is dead anytime soon.
Having said that, as usual, work of the highest quality! Congratulations.
hanna
slashplus
Could you please add a cart or at least a cart position for mobile devices? Currently there is neither an indicator (cart icon/link) nor a mini cart on tablets or smartphones. This is fundamental for any shop (don't forget that even Google says its time for "mobile first")
hanna
pmarty
But this release is a huge step for YTP,
BRAVO !
xooler
hanna
akcreation
Thanks very much Yootheme :)
leoparddesignstudio
digitaloverdose
:-/
riaz.budree
I've been using Elementor/Divi and their integrated WooCommerce builders for a while now more out of necessity than want.
I am FINALLY stupid levels of excited to test Yootheme Pro with this feature. Very excited as I love UI Kit.
Now..... about those pagespeed scores... Are more improvements coming for this?
sascha
mol4
As a Joomla webbuilder I would also like J2Store in this way like user Sandstorm871 mentioned. That would be great fro the Joomla users among us :-)
marcin.rownicki
Joomla is not popular like WP+WC to build e-commerce.
This is all a calculation.
Im a J! site builder and teaching how to use.
The problem with Joomla stores at least in my country is that payments or other integrations are not always available.
Sometime better choose is WP not J! because it is very popular, there are many plugins that extend the functions and many payment gateways for different countries.
Of course, it will be nice when there are elements for j2store.
For now, we have.
YTP+Pro2 store = e-commerce
@Hanna great work for team!
You are planning to add to the YTP when choosing colors conforming to WCAG 2.1 AAA
So that it is easier to choose colors in relation to the contrast.
Or add keyboard control for menu item?
hanna
kamyar.hu
dviolante
But i think there is something missing... how to load Woocommerce plugins information / functionalities in the Product Page? Right now its not possible. =(
Many Woocommerce users use 3rd party plugins that automatically are loaded to the product page below or above the Add to Cart button. Trying YOOtheme Pro Woocommerce elements and YOOtheme Pro native elements with the dynamic functionalities, there is no way to load this Woocommerce plugins.
I think this is very important.
Congratulations!!
hanna
dominick.j.cassone
Remember there are a lot of Joomla users out here that used YOOtheme products before you supported WordPress...please don't forget about us.
Thanks,
Dom
hanna
https://extensions.joomlapro.com/vmuikit
https://pro2.store/
eric.paap.13
n00bster
fertichs
after I updated 2 pages from my customers to the latest YooTheme version, i have the same problem with both.
Previously the respective logo and the menu bar were on a transparent header. Although this setting is still selected, the logo is no longer on a transparent layer but on a colored background.
How can I change this?
hanna
grouponline
Being able to customize the product page is a huge high five!
Are you planning to add the option to customize the cart and checkout page?
fredrik.t
yoosh2
but after this huge step ... all fine. Congratulations !
abdallah.gharbi
But just to approve, because I'm on the Joomla side too :P
With a J2Store integration, the Joomla! community will have as much e-commerce power as Wordpress users!
I would like to believe it, you are our favorite editor ;)
gianfranco.ruggeri
yorlinq
Also the SHOPPING CART MENU OPTION niiiiiiiiice.... Just would be perfect if you could activate 'HIDE IF CART IS EMPTY'
doguz
digisys
it would be great if you create this for J VM from your house.. i payed a lot for vmuikit subs. but there are still many issues.
and meanwhile pls, make at least the WP WC element "product Images" available also on joomla. we can use this layout in VM product details.
thanks
dimkelvin
I used them in my wordpress and my angular and vue projects.
But honestly, performance for customizer has slowly been dropping in quality, the customizer is now kinda laggy and slow.
How do I reverse a yootheme version?? Because I had built a woocommerce page builder myself with my own custom positions and would like to maintain the performance from older yootheme versions.. so please create way for us to roll back if we don't like an update.
hanna
hui.ding
akcreation
https://zoolanders.com/blog/essentials-1-4-for-yootheme-pro-table-relations-composable-access-dynamic-conditions
https://zoolanders.com/essentials-for-yootheme-pro/sources/database
I don't fully understand it myself yet (haha) but it looks potentially incredible :)
akcreation
I originally purchased Facet WP to try and achieve it.... doesn't work with Yootheme Pro. So I then purchased WP Gridbuilder as well.... doesn't work with Yootheme Pro.
So this is a huge disappointment right now. I have opened a support ticket here = https://yootheme.com/support/question/147325 so that you can advise in more detail - I hope that I am missing something, or that you can offer a solution.
Thanks in advance for your help,
Keith
hanna
florianwachter
But really - everything okay at you? All are in good condition?
For the last 2 years we get less and less templates and features. The last update might have been a milestone for wordpress dudes - for us Jommla guys last update happened in May.
Believe me - i really appreciate your work and the ideas of YTP - it is great. But i am waiting for more than 2 years for a template i can use for a small creative agency. (for example)
THIS YEAR we had 2 design releases.
Yes i know - you can build you own designs with ytp - but that is not what i want and what i pay for.
Also Support Turn Around comes worse and worse ... My last 2 question got no answer for 24 day. I can even live with: that is not possible, or : you are a dump and stupid sucker - think about it. But no reaction is pretty poor.
I really hope you see my lines as an impulse and not as deadly critics... i repeat: I love your work - but at the moment i fill like a cow just givin milk.. .
hanna
We changed our release strategy in the last couple of years. Instead of doing a feature release for every single feature, we are gathering them into one huge feature release. The YOOtheme Pro 2.4 from March is a perfect example of a release which we could have split into 3 different releases like in the years before. But we like the idea of having fewer but major releases packed with features. This year we already released two, and there are three more in the making.
It's similar for the YOOtheme Pro theme package releases. Their total number is not as important as with the Warp themes. What really reflects our work is the number of layouts and styles we add to our libraries. Additionally, we are maintaining those layouts and styles with new features which is also a huge workload. For example, for the YOOtheme Pro 2.5 WooCommerce release, our designer optimized all our 39 styles. This is easily overlooked and gives not as much prestige as adding a new style, but it really was a lot of work, which by the way is also something Joomla users benefit from. But we think it's worth it because we really care about the quality in our libraries.
We understand where you get your impression from if you only look at the number of the releases, but for us it is quite the opposite. We are releasing more than ever. Let's not forget Widgetkit and ZOO which also got major updates, especially for their YOOtheme Pro integration. We will do a recap blog post soon for the last three years, where we will go over all the changes and prepare some stats for our releases making them more comparable to the times before.
Anyway, vacation season is almost over, and you can really look forward to some great feature and theme package releases.
florianwachter
i never said, that you are not doing a lot - We see YTP growing and we like it. But we have to reflect WHY we buy the YTP licenses. It´s not because we love the Technique and all the great features - it is because we have to sell websites and always fresh ideas and things to our clients. The reason is saving time in doing Designs from the scratch and searching always for the newest trends. In my opinion the Themes ar as Important as in Warp - Times.
The YTP Features are absolutely killer - Arguments. I never worked that comfortable (even if there could be one or 2 improvements in the tutorials for numb guys like me) - Unfortuntately i can only use this wonderfull editor features if i have fresh, exciting designs. And you CAN do those Designs - prooven so many times.
I Would appreciate if every year a minimum of 9 or 6 of them would appear in a period where we can rely to and what we can communicate.
I know - you are thinking more innovative and techi - i guess many of us have to think for money - even if we would like to be more creative :)
Have a great time and take care