Agentur Allison

In my current project I needed to know which fields are available for each product type. The list is below, hope it can be of use for your own project!

A word about post vs product type

In WooCommerce we have 2 main post types: “product” and “product_variation”. Post type “product” is used for all products that are visible on the category page such as simple, variable, grouped and external products. Post type “product_variation” is used for variations of a variable product and do not show on their own on the category page. Post types are core WP concepts and stored in the POSTS table. They can be used in WP_Query to filter which type of content is shown.

WooCommerce product types have 4 default types (more can be added by plugins): “simple”, “variable”, “external” and “grouped”. Product types are Woo fields; and stored in the POSTMETA table.

Explanation of Symbols
✅ = in use
❌ = not in use by this product type
⚠️ = see numbered notes
y = available but not used by WooCommerce product class

Post Fields

These fields are core WP and stored in the POSTS table. WooCommerce has its own Getter / Setter methods for retrieving and updating the fields, and these can differ from the column name in the database.

Database Field	Woo Get / Set Key	Simple	Variable	Variation	Grouped	External
id	id	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
post_author	–	y	y	y	y	y
post_date	–	y	y	y	y	y
post_date_gmt	date_created 2	✅	✅	y	✅	✅
post_content	description	✅	✅	[empty]	✅	✅
post_title	name	✅	✅	⚠️ 1	✅	✅
post_excerpt	short_description	✅	✅	⚠️ 1	✅	✅
post_status	status	✅	✅	⚠️ 4	✅	✅
comment_status	reviews_allowed	✅	✅	y	✅	✅
ping_status	–	y	y	y	y	y
post_password	post_password	✅	✅	y	✅	✅
post_name	slug	✅	✅	⚠️ 1	✅	✅
to_ping	–	y	y	y	y	y
pinged	–	y	y	y	y	y
post_modified	–	y	y	y	y	y
post_modified_gmt	post_modified	✅	✅	y	✅	✅
post_content_filtered	–	[empty]	[empty]	[empty]	[empty]	[empty]
post_parent	parent_id	y [0]	y [0]	✅	y [0]	y [0]
guid	–	y	y	y	y	y
menu_order	menu_order	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
post_type	–	✅ [product]	✅ [product]	✅ [product_ variation]	✅ [product]	✅ [product]
post_mime_type	–	[empty]	[empty]	[empty]	[empty]	[empty]
comment_count 3	–	y	y	–	y	y

Post Meta Fields

Post Meta fields are created by WooCommerce and stored in the POSTMETA table.

✅ = in use
❌ = not in use by this product type

Woo Getter / Setter Key	meta_key	Simple	Variable	Variation	Grouped	External
variation_description	_variation_description	❌	❌	✅ 4	❌	❌
sku	_sku	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
regular_price	_regular_price	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅
sale_price	_sale_price	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅
price	_price	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅
date_on_sale_from	_sale_price_dates_from	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅
date_on_sale_to	_sale_price_dates_to	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅
total_sales	total_sales	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅
tax_status	_tax_status	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
tax_class	_tax_class	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
manage_stock 2	_manage_stock	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
stock_status	_stock_status	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
stock_quantity	_stock	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
backorders	_backorders	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
low_stock_amount	_low_stock_amount	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
sold_individually	_sold_individually	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
weight	_weight	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
length	_length	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
width	_width	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
height	_height	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
Woo Getter / Setter Key	meta_key	Simple	Variable	Variation	Grouped	External
upsell_ids	_upsell_ids	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
cross_sell_ids	_crosssell_ids	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
children	_children	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
purchase_note	_purchase_note	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
attributes 1	_product_attributes	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
default_attributes	_default_attributes	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
virtual	_virtual	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
downloadable	_downloadable	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
downloads	_downloadable_files	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
download_limit	_download_limit	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
download_expiry	_download_expiry	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
image_id	_thumbnail_id	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
gallery_image_ids	_product_image_gallery	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
rating_count	_wc_rating_count	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
average_rating	_wc_average_rating	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
review_count	_wc_review_count	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
product_url	_product_url	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅
button_text	_button_text	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅
	_file_paths 3
	_product_version 3
	_wp_old_slug 3
	_edit_last 3
	_edit_lock 3

Taxonomies

WooCommerce uses taxonomies for categories and tags as well as visibility and shipping class. Attributes are also taxonomies, but the assignment of attributes to products is done as postmeta field in array format.

Woo Getter / Setter Key	Term	Simple	Variable	Variation	Grouped	External
type	product_type	simple	variable	❌	grouped	external
category_ids	product_cat	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
tag_ids	product_tag	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
shipping_class_id	product_shipping_class	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
	product_visibility 1	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
catatalog_visibility [hidden, catalog, search, visible] 2	[included above]	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
featured	[included above]	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
average_rating	[included above]	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
stock_status	[included above]	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅

Here is how the product_visibility is set in WC_Product_Data_Store_CPT: