This plugin hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.

iThemes Exchange – Custom Loop Add-on

Description

This add-on for iThemes Exchange adds the ability to create multiple loops for the products (store) page, including grid/list view selection, pagination, data selections and order by functionality. It allows you to create product category pages, pages per product type etc.

To create a new store page, in the wp-dashboard go to pages, “add new” (or edit an existing page) and tick the box to enable the custom loop. Do not use the Exchange store shortcode on that page.

Add Grid / List View

Set a default view, either List view, or Grid view. Define how many columns you want in a grid, and how much padding between the items. Define at which viewport width a Grid view should transform in List view.

Add Pagination

Set the number of products per page, and the Previous / Next Page text.

Data Selections

Select one, more, or all Categories, or Product Types.

Sort Order

Set a default Sort order for the products. Order by date, price, name, or use the Exchange default.

Frontend Options

Enable or disable a grid/list button for the store, so the user can dynamically change the view. Enable or disable a “order by” dropdown, so the user can change the order in which products are displayed.

New fields to add content before or after the loop

This allows you to use a wysiwyg editor to add content before or after the custom loop. Add (for instance) introduction text for your categories or downloads, a slideshow, a video, anything you can thinks of. And at the bottom of your loop, add a newsletter subscription form, social / share and whatever else you wish to add.

New in 1.0.11

Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where editing the Exchange templates would result in an infinite loop
Minor bug fix

New in 1.0.10

Compatibility Fix: Updated constructor to prevent warnings in PHP 7

New in 1.0.9

Minor bug fix

New in 1.0.8

Fixed version

New in 1.0.7

Minor bug fixes

New in 1.0.6

Fixed an issue that caused a (harmless) notification when wp_debug is enabled
More localisation enhancements, and I added Serbian translation, kindly provided by Ogi Djuraskovic from firstsiteguide.com

New in 1.0.5

Is a minor update that enhances translation abilities

New in 1.0.4

Added wysiwyg fields to add content before and after the loop, as well as preserve existing page content and show the loop before or after existing content.

New in 1.0.3

Fixed an issue where the Default Grid/List View setting wasn’t being applied when frontend view wasn’t enabled

New in 1.0.2

  • You can now choose the text (if any) to display in front of the sort order dropdown
  • Added grid/list option “none” to not affect an existing loop at all, so no need to choose either grid or list. It will default to the Exchange default. Note that this will disable the grid/list selections.
  • None relevant options are “greyed out” based on selections made.

Translations

Translators, you are invited to translate the plugin, send the translated files over, and I will add your translation to the plugin, with an attribution.

It is common issue with plugin translations that (custom) translations will be overwritten on plugin update. To prevent this, if you have a custom translation, or customised an existing translation, copy the relevant translation (.mo) file to wp-content/languages/plugins/exchange-addon-custom-loop/ The translation file should be named “rvw-exchange-addon-custom-loop-{locale}” where {locale} is your language locale, e.g. de_DE or nl_NL.

Screenshots

  • Overview of all Custom Loop settings and options on the “Add Page” screen
  • The Activation option on the Add (or Edit) Page screen
  • The Grid List Settings
  • The Pagination Settings
  • The Data Selection Settings
  • The Order By Settings
  • The Front End Settings
  • Additional option for grid/list (since 1.0.2)
  • Optional Label text for the “order by” dropdown (since 1.0.2)
  • Added content blocks before and after the loop (since 1.0.4)

Installation

  1. Upload the folder ‘exchange-addon-custom-loop’ to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory
  2. Activate ‘iThemes Exchange – Custom Loop Add-on’ through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
  3. Open the ‘Addons’ screen through the ‘Exchange’ menu in WordPress
  4. If Custom Loop is not enabled, click Enable beside the ‘Custom Loop’ entry in the Addons listing

  5. Once enabled, the standard WordPress “Add Page” (or when editing an existing page) will have an extra option to enable the custom loop. Upon ticking that option, all custom loop options will become visible and editable. For an overview of all options, see the screenshots section.

Please visit the official website for further details and the latest information on this plugin.

Reviews

2016-09-03
I was really disheartened at the layout options in iThemes exchange…enough that I figured I wasted my money on the Pro Pack and was about to move on. Then, I saw @ronaldvw ‘s extension and decided to give it a try. Holy cow, this is exactly what I was looking for. If I were iThemes, I would be looking to integrate all of these features into iThemes Exchange core. It’s the biggest thing missing from the plugin and I am incredibly thankful for it. Thank you so much!
2016-09-03
Thanks Ronald for the great plugin. Greatly improves the user experience and reduces clutter which is essential for a positive customer experience in an online store. The Custom Loop add-on is also easy to configure by activating the custom loop with a check-box on any normal WordPress page. From there you can configure the store how you would like. Support is also great when needed with prompt replies and action.
2016-09-03 1 reply
Thanks for your plugin, now i can see my e-magz showcase much better than before. For everyone who want or already use exchange, this plugin number one list you should try.
Read all 10 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“iThemes Exchange – Custom Loop Add-on” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Changelog

1.0.14 – 2016/04/04

  • Minor Bug Fix: Fixed an issue causing notifications when wp_debug is enabled when the product categories addon is not activated

1.0.13 – 2016/02/11

  • Minor Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where cmb datepicker css conflicts with other instances of jQuery ui datepicker

1.0.12 – 2016/02/05

  • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where the cart superwidget would not display properly on store pages

1.0.11 – 2016/01/11

  • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where editing the Exchange templates would result in an infinite loop
  • Fixed an issue that caused a (harmless) notification when wp_debug is enabled

1.0.10 – 2015/11/03

  • Compatibility Fix: Updated constructor to prevent warnings in PHP 7

1.0.9 – 2015/04/20

  • Minor update to fix code that resulted in PHP notices when wp_debug is set to true

1.0.8 – 2015/03/10

  • Fixed version tag

1.0.7 – 2015/03/09

  • Use literal for textdomain
  • Removed code that would register the add-on with the iThemes updater

1.0.6 – 2015/02/04

  • Fixed an issue that caused a (harmless) notification when wp_debug is enabled
  • More localisation enhancements, added the ability to store translations in the wp-content/languages/plugins/exchange-addon-custom-loop/ folder
  • Added Serbian translation, provided by Ogi Djuraskovic from firstsiteguide.com

1.0.5

  • Minor update that improves translation abilities and added a .pot file.

1.0.4

  • Added wysiwyg fields to add content before and after the loop, as well as preserve existing page content and show the loop before or after existing content.

1.0.3

  • Fixed issue where Default Grid/List View setting is not applied when frontend view not enabled

1.0.2

  • Added optional “order by” text for the order by dropdown on the frontend
  • Added grid/list option “none” to not affect an existing loop at all
  • Grey out options that are not relevant in the backend

1.0.1

  • Updated Readme.txt
  • Fixed issue where Grid/List would fail if no cookie set yet

1.0

  • Initial release