Template System & Overrides

Every storefront view StoreEngine renders — the checkout form, cart tables, single-product parts, emails, dashboard, notices — is a PHP template file loaded through a small locator layer in StoreEngine\Utils\Template (includes/utils/template.php). Because the locator checks your theme before it falls back to the plugin, you can override any template by copying it into your theme, exactly like WooCommerce.

This page covers the search order, the override path, the template functions, and the hooks and filters that let you intercept template loading.

How templates are located

The defaults live in the plugin's templates/ directory. The locator resolves a template name against three candidates, in priority order:

1. yourtheme/{template_path}{template_name} — e.g. yourtheme/storeengine/checkout/form.php
2. yourtheme/{template_name} — e.g. yourtheme/checkout/form.php
3. storeengine/templates/{template_name} — the bundled default (fallback)

{template_path} defaults to storeengine/ and is filterable (see storeengine/template_path). The first file that exists wins, so a theme copy always beats the plugin default.

Override path

To override a template, copy the default file from the plugin's templates/ directory into yourtheme/storeengine/{template-name}.php, keeping the same sub-path. For example, override the checkout form by copying templates/checkout/form.php to yourtheme/storeengine/checkout/form.php.

Category and tag templates

Template names containing storeengine_product_category or storeengine_product_tag are normalized from underscores to dashes before lookup (e.g. storeengine_product_category → storeengine-product-category), so archive templates for those taxonomies resolve to dash-cased theme files.

Worked example: overriding the checkout form

Say you want to add a trust badge above the checkout form fields.

1. Locate the default in the plugin: wp-content/plugins/storeengine/templates/checkout/form.php.
2. Copy it — preserving the sub-directory — to your theme:

mkdir -p wp-content/themes/your-theme/storeengine/checkout
cp wp-content/plugins/storeengine/templates/checkout/form.php \
   wp-content/themes/your-theme/storeengine/checkout/form.php

3. Edit the theme copy. It now takes priority over the plugin default on every checkout render:

<?php
// yourtheme/storeengine/checkout/form.php
if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) {
	exit;
}
?>
<div class="my-theme-trust-badge">
	<?php esc_html_e( 'Secure checkout — 256-bit SSL', 'your-theme' ); ?>
</div>
<?php
// ...keep the rest of the original template markup below.

Because templates receive their data through extract(), the same variables the plugin passed ($order, $products, $cart_sub_total, etc.) are already in scope in your copy — do not re-declare them.

Keep overrides in sync

A theme override is a full copy, frozen at the plugin version you copied it from. When StoreEngine updates a default template, your copy will not pick up the change. Re-diff your overrides after major updates.

Template functions

All methods are static on StoreEngine\Utils\Template.

Method	Purpose
get_template( $template_name, $args = [], $template_path = '', $default_path = '' )	Locate and include a template. Extracts $args into scope, fires the before/after hooks. Echoes output.
get_template_content( $template_name, $args = [], $template_path = '', $default_path = '' )	Same as get_template() but buffers and returns the rendered string. Result passes through the storeengine/template/get_content filter.
locate_template( $template_name, $template_path = '', $default_path = '' )	Resolve a template file path (theme override wins). Returns the located path.
get_template_part( $slug, $name = '' )	Load a {slug}-{name}.php / {slug}.php part (theme-overridable).
template_path()	Returns the theme sub-path, default storeengine/ (filterable).
plugin_path()	Returns the plugin root path (filterable).

Rendering a template from your code

use StoreEngine\Utils\Template;

// Echoes the located template with $args extracted into scope.
Template::get_template( 'shortcode/apply-coupon-form.php', [
	'placeholder'  => __( 'Coupon Code', 'my-plugin' ),
	'button_label' => __( 'Apply', 'my-plugin' ),
] );

// Or capture the markup as a string.
$html = Template::get_template_content( 'shortcode/apply-coupon-form.php', $args );

get_template() guards against a caller passing an action_args key (it is reserved and stripped with a _doing_it_wrong() notice), and uses extract( $args, EXTR_SKIP ) so template variables can never clobber globals.

get_template_part() resolution

get_template_part( $slug, $name ) looks for, in order:

1. yourtheme/{slug}-{name}.php
2. yourtheme/storeengine/{slug}-{name}.php
3. storeengine/templates/{slug}-{name}.php
4. then, if none found, yourtheme/{slug}.php / yourtheme/storeengine/{slug}.php

The resolved path passes through the storeengine/get_template_part filter before it is loaded with load_template().

Hooks and filters

Action hooks

get_template() fires two actions around the include, both receiving $template_name, $template_path, $located, $args:

add_action( 'storeengine/before_template_part', function ( $name, $path, $located, $args ) {
	if ( 'checkout/form.php' === $name ) {
		// Runs immediately before the checkout form is included.
	}
}, 10, 4 );

add_action( 'storeengine/after_template_part', function ( $name, $path, $located, $args ) {
	// Runs immediately after the template is included.
}, 10, 4 );

Filters

Filter	Signature	Purpose
storeengine/template_path	( $path )	The theme sub-directory (default storeengine/).
storeengine/plugin_path	( $path )	The plugin root path used as the default template dir.
storeengine/locate_template	( $template, $template_name, $template_path )	Final say on the resolved path.
storeengine/get_template	( $template, $template_name, $args, $template_path, $default_path )	Swap the file get_template() includes (validated to exist).
storeengine/get_template_part	( $template, $slug, $name )	Swap the file get_template_part() loads.
storeengine/template/get_content	( $rendered, $template_name, $args, $template_path, $default_path )	Filter the buffered string from get_template_content().

Point a template at a file inside your own plugin using storeengine/get_template:

add_filter( 'storeengine/get_template', function ( $template, $template_name ) {
	if ( 'checkout/form.php' === $template_name ) {
		$custom = plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'templates/checkout-form.php';
		if ( file_exists( $custom ) ) {
			return $custom;
		}
	}
	return $template;
}, 10, 2 );

Debug mode

Define the constant STOREENGINE_TEMPLATE_DEBUG_MODE as true to bypass theme overrides and always load the plugin defaults. This is useful when diagnosing whether a rendering bug comes from a stale theme override or the plugin itself.

// wp-config.php
define( 'STOREENGINE_TEMPLATE_DEBUG_MODE', true );

The templates/ directory map

The bundled defaults are grouped by area:

Directory	Contents
archive/	Product archive: pagination, "no products", loop wrappers.
loop/	Product loop parts (card, price, add-to-cart button).
single-product/	Single product page parts (gallery, summary, tabs, reviews).
cart/	Cart page tables and totals.
checkout/	Checkout form and its fragments.
frontend-dashboard/	Customer account/dashboard endpoints.
email/	Transactional email templates and partials.
global/	Shared wrappers, quantity input, breadcrumbs.
notice/	Success / error / info notices.
shortcode/	Templates rendered by the shortcodes.
membership/	Membership addon views.
multi-vendor/	Multi-vendor storefront and vendor dashboard.
affiliate/	Affiliate dashboard and registration.
block-templates/	Full-site-editing block template HTML.
page-content/	Default content for auto-created pages.
catalog-mode/	Catalog-mode (browse-only) overrides.
integrations/	Templates for third-party integrations.

See also

• Shortcodes — the shortcodes that render templates/shortcode/*.
• Blocks — surfacing shortcode-backed templates as editor blocks.
• Actions and Filters — the full hook reference.