WooCommerce: Display product variation/variable description

Question

I'd like to always display the variation descriptions for each variation on the product page (currently it will only show the description for whatever variation is selected via the dropdown). I can't seem to access the

In plugins/woocommerce/templates/single-product/add-to-cart/variation.php, it seems to be accessed via:

{{{ data.variation.variation_description }}}

When inspecting the desired field in the edit product page, its name= is :

variable_description0

I tried accessing via both of these, as well as:

if($product && taxonomy_exists($attribute)) {
  $terms = wc_get_product_terms($product->get_id(), $attribute, array(
    'fields' => 'all',
  ));

  foreach($terms as $term) {

    $variable_description = get_post_meta( $id, '_variation_description', true );

    if(in_array($term->slug, $options, true)) {
      $radios .= '<div><input type="radio" name="'.esc_attr($name).'" value="'.esc_attr($term->slug).'" '.checked(sanitize_title($args['selected']), $term->slug, false).'><label for="'.esc_attr($term->slug).'">'.esc_html(apply_filters('woocommerce_variation_option_name', $term->name)).' <span class="description">' . 'DESCRIPTION' . '</span></label></div>';
    }
  }
} else {
  foreach($options as $option) {

    // var_dump($options);
    $variable_description = get_post_meta( $id, '_variation_description', true );


    $checked    = sanitize_title($args['selected']) === $args['selected'] ? checked($args['selected'], sanitize_title($option), false) : checked($args['selected'], $option, false);
    $radios    .= '<div><input type="radio" name="'.esc_attr($name).'" value="'.esc_attr($option).'" id="'.sanitize_title($option).'" '.$checked.'><label for="'.sanitize_title($option).'">'.esc_html(apply_filters('woocommerce_variation_option_name', $option)).' <span class="description">' . $variable_description . '</span></label></div>';
  }
}

However everything returns as NULL.

What should I be using for $id/how do I print this out for all variables?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 28 '19 at 18:43

I ended up being able to accomplish this by getting all variations of a product, looping through them, finding the match, then setting that description as the variable. This seems a little clunky and could cause issues for larger catalogs, so any improvements are welcome!

// Get all variations of product
$variations1 = $product->get_children();

// Loop through variations to find description
foreach ($variations1 as $value):

    $single_variation = new WC_Product_Variation($value);

    $variation_full_name = $single_variation->name;
    $variation_name = str_replace($product->name . " - ", "", $variation_full_name);

    // Set the variable description
    if ( $option === $variation_name ):
        $variable_description = $single_variation->description;
    endif;

endforeach;

Nat · Answer 2 · 2020-01-30T06:51:49.693

UPDATE 30/01/2020 It seems we were using deprecated code

I have replaced:

$variation_data[$single_variation->attributes[$attribute]] = $single_variation->description;
}

with

$variation_data[$single_variation->get_attributes()[$attribute]] = $single_variation->get_description();

Same issue here. I can't believe there isn't a simple solution.

Thanks for your code - very useful

One improvement (I hope) is to only do the loop over the variations once and save the values to an array.

so:

function mc_return_variation_data($product, $attribute){
    $variation_data = array();
    $variations = $product->get_children();
    foreach ($variations as $value){
        $single_variation = new WC_Product_Variation($value);
        $variation_data[$single_variation->get_attributes()[$attribute]] = $single_variation->get_description();
    }
     return $variation_data;
}

Then call the function once, after you have values for $product and $attribute, so:

$variation_data = mc_return_variation_data($product, $attribute);

Then to get the actual description when you're in the foreach($terms as $term) loop use:

$variable_description = $variation_data[$term->slug];

The only thing I"m not sure of is how much error checking I need to do to make sure that

$variation_data[$term->slug]

is defined

GREAT CALL. That should save a lot of calls. And yes, just in case of any weirdness it might make sense/be safest to do an if/then if $variation_data[$term->slug] isn't defined, to just set an empty string for $variable_description — user2521295, Jan 29 '20 at 19:57
Note that my code assumes you only have one variations attribute on your product page. — Nat, Jan 30 '20 at 13:00

WooCommerce: Display product variation/variable description

2 Answers2