Category Children Coupons for WooCommerce
The category restriction fields in the coupon Usage restriction tab.
Category Children Coupons for WooCommerce provides a complete replacement for WooCommerce’s built-in coupon category restrictions with additional flexibility:
Include children mode: Select a parent category and all its subcategories are automatically included. With WooCommerce’s default restrictions, selecting “Clothing” only matches products directly in that category – not products in “T-Shirts” or “Trousers” subcategories. This plugin includes the entire category tree.
Exclude children mode: Match only the specific categories you select, without including subcategories. This mirrors WooCommerce’s built-in behavior but is managed within this plugin’s unified interface.
Future-proof coupons: The plugin stores your category selection and dynamically expands child categories at validation time – new subcategories are automatically included (or excluded) without editing existing coupons.
Features
- Four category restriction fields for complete control:
- Product categories (incl. children) – allowed categories with all descendants
- Exclude categories (incl. children) – blocked categories with all descendants
- Product categories (excl. children) – allowed categories only, no descendants
- Exclude categories (excl. children) – blocked categories only, no descendants
- Automatic subcategory handling based on your preference
- Works alongside WooCommerce’s other (non-category coupon) restrictions
- Customizable error messages via filter
- AutomateWoo compatibility – category restrictions are copied when generating coupons from templates
How It Works
When you select a category in an “(incl. children)” field, the plugin automatically includes all subcategories during validation. When you use an “(excl. children)” field, only the exact categories you select are matched. Selected categories with children included are validated at usage time, so the current children are automatically used, even if they have changed since the coupon was set up.
Filters
runthings_category_children_coupons_error_message
Customize the error message shown when a coupon fails category validation.
Parameters:
$message(string) – The default error message.$context(array) – Contains ‘coupon’ (WC_Coupon object) and ‘type’ (‘allowed’, ‘excluded’, ‘allowed_excl’, or ‘excluded_excl’).
Example:
See readme.md on GitHub for detailed code examples.
Additional Notes
Built by Matthew Harris of runthings.dev, copyright 2025.
Visit runthings.dev for more WordPress plugins and resources.
Contribute or report issues at the GitHub repository.
Icon – Discount by Gregor Cresnar, from Noun Project, https://thenounproject.com/browse/icons/term/discount/ (CC BY 3.0)
Icon – Tree view by Paweł Gleń from Noun Project, https://thenounproject.com/browse/icons/term/tree-view/ (CC BY 3.0) – https://thenounproject.com/icon/tree-view-3894745/