How do I hide WooCommerce products with a given category based on user role

I have a client with the following issue:

I need to be able to split their WooCommerce WordPress site into essentially two categories. If a user is logged in as a "Wholeseller", only products in the "Wholesale" category get pulled from the database.

However if the user is not logged in or is logged in but not a "Wholeseller", then only products without the "Wholesale" category get pulled from the database.

I figure I’ll add something like this to the theme’s functions.php file:

add_filter("some_woocommerce_hook", "wholeseller_filter");

function wholeseller_filter() {
    if (current_user->role == "Wholeseller"){
        //omit products without "wholesale" category while browsing whole site
    } else { 
        //omit products with "wholesale" in the category while browsing whole site.
    }
}

I’ve browsed around StackOverflow, but I haven’t found what I’m looking for or quite know what keywords I should be using for my searches.

Can you point me in the right direction?

Answer

Yes it is possible. There is 2 ways:

1) With the pre_get_posts wordpress hook that is called after the query variable object is created, but before the actual query is run. So it is perfect for this case. We imagine here that the ID of 'Wholesale' category is '123'.

Here is the custom code:

function wholeseller_role_cat( $query ) {

    // Get the current user
    $current_user = wp_get_current_user();

    if ( $query->is_main_query() ) {
        // Displaying only "Wholesale" category products to "whole seller" user role
        if ( in_array( 'wholeseller', $current_user->roles ) ) {
            // Set here the ID for Wholesale category 
            $query->set( 'cat', '123' ); 

        // Displaying All products (except "Wholesale" category products) 
        // to all other users roles (except "wholeseller" user role)
        // and to non logged user.
        } else {
            // Set here the ID for Wholesale category (with minus sign before)
            $query->set( 'cat', '-123' ); // negative number
        }
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'wholeseller_role_cat' );

This code goes on function.php file of your active child theme or theme, or better in a custom plugin.

---

2) With the woocommerce_product_query WooCommerce hook. (We still imagine here that the ID of 'Wholesale' category is '123').

Here is the custom code:

function wholeseller_role_cat( $q ) {

    // Get the current user
    $current_user = wp_get_current_user();

    // Displaying only "Wholesale" category products to "whole seller" user role
    if ( in_array( 'wholeseller', $current_user->roles ) ) {
        // Set here the ID for Wholesale category 
        $q->set( 'tax_query', array(
            array(
                'taxonomy' => 'product_cat',
                'field' => 'term_id',
                'terms' => '123', // your category ID
            )
        ) ); 

    // Displaying All products (except "Wholesale" category products) 
    // to all other users roles (except "wholeseller" user role)
    // and to non logged user.
    } else {
        // Set here the ID for Wholesale category
        $q->set( 'tax_query', array(
            array(
                'taxonomy' => 'product_cat',
                'field' => 'term_id',
                'terms' => '123', // your category ID
                'operator' => 'NOT IN'
            )
        ) ); 
    }
}
add_action( 'woocommerce_product_query', 'wholeseller_role_cat' );

This code goes on function.php file of your active child theme or theme, or better in a custom plugin.

If you want to use the category slug instead of the category ID you will have to replace partially (both arrays) with:

            array(
                'taxonomy' => 'product_cat',
                'field' => 'slug',
                'terms' => 'wholesale', // your category slug (to use the slug see below)

---

You could add if you wish and need, some woocommerce conditionals tags in the if statements to restrict this even more.

References:

• Modifying the WooCommerce Product Query
• I can’t fetch WooCommerce products by category id
• WordPress Class Reference – WP Query