WooCommerce shortcode to output product categories randomly

functions.php

<?php
/**
 * Create the new WooCommerce shortcode [random_product_categories] to output product categories randomly.
 * Based on [product_categories] (/plugins/woocommerce/includes/class-wc-shortcodes.php).
 *
 * This new shortcode accepts all attributes used by [product_categories], except 'orderby' and 'order', of course.
 * See more at @link https://woocommerce.com/document/woocommerce-shortcodes/.
 *
 * @param  array $atts User defined attributes in shortcode tag.
 */
function random_product_categories_shortcode( $atts ) {
	global $woocommerce_loop;

	$atts = shortcode_atts( [
		'number'     => null,
		'columns'    => '4',
		'hide_empty' => 1,
		'parent'     => '',
		'ids'        => '',
		'hide_title' => 0,
	], $atts );

	if ( isset( $atts['ids'] ) ) {
		$ids = explode( ',', $atts['ids'] );
		$ids = array_map( 'trim', $ids );
	} else {
		$ids = [];
	}

	$hide_empty = (bool) $atts['hide_empty'];

	// Get terms and workaround WP bug with parents/pad counts.
	$args = [
		'hide_empty' => $hide_empty,
		'include'    => $ids,
		'pad_counts' => true,
		'child_of'   => $atts['parent']
	];

	$product_categories = get_terms( 'product_cat', $args );

	// Shuffle the array of objects `$product_categories`.
	shuffle( $product_categories );

	if ( '' !== $atts['parent'] ) {
		$product_categories = wp_list_filter( $product_categories, [ 'parent' => $atts['parent'] ] );
	}

	if ( $hide_empty ) {
		foreach ( $product_categories as $key => $category ) {
			if ( $category->count == 0 ) {
				unset( $product_categories[ $key ] );
			}
		}
	}

	if ( $atts['number'] ) {
		$product_categories = array_slice( $product_categories, 0, $atts['number'] );
	}

	$columns                     = absint( $atts['columns'] );
	$woocommerce_loop['columns'] = $columns;

	ob_start();

	// Reset loop/columns globals when starting a new loop.
	$woocommerce_loop['loop'] = $woocommerce_loop['column'] = '';

	if ( $product_categories ) {
		woocommerce_product_loop_start();

		if ( ! empty( $atts['hide_title'] ) ) {
			remove_action( 'woocommerce_shop_loop_subcategory_title', 'woocommerce_template_loop_category_title' );
		}

		foreach ( $product_categories as $category ) {
			wc_get_template( 'content-product-cat.php', [
				'category' => $category
			] );
		}

		if ( ! empty( $atts['hide_title'] ) ) {
			add_action( 'woocommerce_shop_loop_subcategory_title', 'woocommerce_template_loop_category_title' );
		}

		woocommerce_product_loop_end();
	}

	wc_reset_loop();

	return '<div class="woocommerce columns-' . $columns . '">' . ob_get_clean() . '</div>';
}

add_shortcode( 'random_product_categories', 'random_product_categories_shortcode' );

@filipecsweb Thx man. That is just incredibly awesome. It works perfectly. Just a question, you may know the answer to. When I am log'ed into my site everything Random works perfect. When I am not, nothing Random works. Du you have any idea what plugin or function causes this?

@Hebhansen the first thing that came to me is cache. Do you have any cache plugins active? Wp fastest cache, wp rocket, etc...
Those cache plugins normally don't cache your page if you're logged in, but the page is cached if you're not, which means the random magic wouldn't work on every page request.

@Hebhansen the first thing that came to me is cache. Do you have any cache plugins active? Wp fastest cache, wp rocket, etc... Those cache plugins normally don't cache your page if you're logged in, but the page is cached if you're not, which means the random magic wouldn't work on every page request.

Hey Filip

So two years later I am still a fan. 2 years ago I remember changing a setting in my cache that sorted random. I do not remember what setting!

I have now made a new site, and I am back at square one. Something blocks random from working for all users, also admin. I have Litespeed cache now. Do you happen to know this fix? You may see this on my frontpage at svalinnart.com where only categories under themes and genres are supposed to be random (where 4 cats shows)

Finally, do you know how to hide overflow on mouse over? I have a zoom effect on the cat image, but I cannot get it to clip the overflow.

All the best

@Hebhansen It seems the cache comes from Cloudflare. You'd have to correctly setup your cache settings under the Cloudflare platform and/or under any WP plugin that integrates your website with Cloudflare.

About the overflow I couldn't reproduce what you described.