From Custom Code to No-Code Logic: Building Smarter with Crocoblock

If you are creating a complex, highly dynamic website or just a project that requires more than the default WordPress post types, relations, and taxonomies, you will definitely need extra functionality that not only adds some particular fields or logic, but also enhances the way the website stores, fetches, and displays content. 

It can be achieved using a ton of different custom code snippets, or there’s a modular solution that does the job for you, but you don’t have to code – Crocoblock suite with its central and incredibly powerful plugin – JetEngine. 

When Custom Hooks Are Not the Solution

When mentioning “custom code,” I don’t mean quite harmless CSS custom rules, but PHP functions or PHP + JavaScript solutions hooked into WordPress to control behavior, output, or dynamic interactions. However, hooks are not as bad, if not overused, but the worst scenario is hardcoding theme files directly. 

Writing such custom code snippets might seem like a flexible solution, but it often comes with hidden drawbacks. They can conflict with plugins or theme updates, break silently when WordPress changes its core behavior, and are harder to debug, especially when multiple snippets interact in unexpected ways. Maintaining them over time becomes a burden, especially in larger projects or when working in teams. Plus, what starts as a “quick fix” often turns into a tangled mess that’s difficult to scale or hand over to another developer.

Let’s talk about such drawbacks more specifically.

Drawbacks of Custom Code Snippets

Using custom PHP or JavaScript snippets in WordPress is a common way to add dynamic functionality, but it’s not always the best long-term approach. Here’s why:

• Conflicts and compatibility issues can arise, as custom code can easily clash with plugins, themes, or even core WordPress updates. What works today might silently break tomorrow.
• Debugging gets complicated because when something goes wrong, it’s not always obvious which snippet is the culprit. Especially in projects where multiple devs have added logic over time.
• Poor scalability. As your project grows, what started as a simple piece of code can turn into an unmanageable web of dependencies and conditionals.
• Not easy to maintain and client-friendly. If you’re handing the project off to a client and their maintenance team is less technical or just can’t track all your custom snippets, it will be a big issue if something needs to be changed. 

As you can see, tweaking WordPress functionality using code snippets is not really a sustainable solution, unless it’s just a couple of things to be changed. And, if such a need arises, here are some recommendations.

What If You Still Need Some Custom Code?

Sometimes, custom code is unavoidable, especially for very specific functionality that no plugin covers. In that case, here’s how to do it right:

• If your snippet relies on specific plugins, post types, or user roles, clearly indicate this in the code comments, readme file, or website documentation.
• Use dedicated plugins for code snippets, so you can clearly see what is working under the hood, debug, and deactivate them.
• Wrap bigger code chunks into custom plugins instead of dumping snippets into functions.php. This keeps your logic separate from the theme, making it portable and avoiding accidental loss during theme updates.
• Stick to WordPress best practices and use actions and filters (hooks) instead of hardcoding things into templates. This keeps your code flexible and easier to troubleshoot.

Meet the Crocoblock Tools: No-Code Powerful Solution for Dynamic Websites

Crocobloc suite is 20 plugins plus the JetFormBuilder form plugin. All of them have an accent on dynamic content. Most of the plugins are premium and can be purchased separately; however, the most profitable method is to opt for the All-Inclusive plan, which costs $199 per year for one site and $399 for unlimited sites. Lifetime deals are also available. 

Most of the plugins are made for dynamic content, filtering, bookings, and forms that work with the Block Editor, Elementor, and Bricks. In the future, Divi compatibility will also be available. And, there are also Elementor add-ons that extend the builder’s functionality. 

The key plugin that adds a lot of functionality under the hood is JetEngine – it’s, as the name suggests, comparable to the powerful jet engine that puts your website on steroids. The module system, which allows you to switch components on and off, makes the website lightweight, plus, the Performance settings provide full control over builder-support loading. 

And, of course, it has seamless compatibility with the rest of the plugins, extending their functionality. Using it, you can create custom post types, custom fields, taxonomies, relations, or compact content types called Custom Content Types that are perfect for a performance boost.
But the uniqueness of this plugin comes at the point when the data should be queried – the unique Query Builder tool can do it for you using a friendly visual UI. 

Then, to display it on the front end, you can use the template editor and your favorite builder, from Elementor or Bricks, to the Block Editor or even Twig, if you prefer the lightest DOM structure. There are calendars, tables, sliders, and maps available to display your content on the front end with no effort. 

Not to mention that JetEngine’s REST API functionality offers more features than even dedicated premium plugins. 

This is just JetEngine, and I will talk more about the details later. 

But there are more plugins: the feature-rich JetFormBuilder, powerful and user-friendly JetSmartFilters, JetBooking and JetAppointment for flexible booking functionality, JetSearch offers flexible and controllable search functionality, JetThemeCore is responsible for Theme Building for Elementor and Block Editor, JetWooBuilder will help you to edit Elementor WooCommerce templates, and much more in the full Crocoblock toolkit. 

So, here are some of the use cases when custom code can be easily replaced by the fully visual functionality of Crocoblock plugins.

Modifying WooCommerce Templates in Elementor

Crocoblock plugins involved: JetWooBuilder, JetThemeCore (optional)

While WooCommerce is a very powerful tool, it lacks flexibility in template editing, and to hide or move some sections in any of its templates, you will need to write a hook to first hide it, then (if you move it), display it but with another priority. In case you want to change the visual appearance of elements, you will have to find their CSS classes and add custom CSS to make the changes. But if you want to add animation or change behaviour requiring JavaScript, you have to be careful and make sure that the script will not affect other elements. 

Here is where JetWooBuilder comes to the rescue – it’s a more in-depth and flexible solution than the similar functionality of Elementor Pro, not to mention that, if you use free Elementor, this functionality is not available. 

For example, this is the code you need to move the “Add to Cart” button a bit higher and place it under the title:

/* Unassign the old priority */
remove_action( 'woocommerce_single_product_summary', 'woocommerce_template_single_add_to_cart', 30 ); 

/* Assign the new priority */ 
add_action( 'woocommerce_single_product_summary', 'woocommerce_template_single_add_to_cart', 6 );

With JetWooBuilder, you can do it just by dragging and dropping elements wherever you want them to be. In combination with JetThemeCore, you can also add custom headers and footers and different templates for particular user roles, devices, query variables, etc.

Fetching Any Content From WordPress Database

Crocoblock plugins involved: JetEngine

Let’s say I have the Event custom post type, and want to fetch values of custom fields “date,” “event name,” and “event description.” It’s a very simple query, just for demonstration, but this is how it looks as a code based on the WP_Query PHP class:

To show the data on the front end, I can wrap the code in a shortcode and use HTML containers around each field so I can style them later with CSS.

But what if I want to show only events by a specific author? Or filter them by category, or display only the ones where a certain custom field has a specific value? That’s where it starts getting tricky. I’d need to write a new custom query for every case, and those queries can get long and messy fast. Plus, I wouldn’t be able to control anything from the WordPress dashboard. Every time something changes, I’d have to go back to the code.

Sure, page builders like Elementor Pro or Bricks let you show posts and users with some filtering, but they hit a wall when things get more complex. For example, if I want to get a list of users who published something last week, or people with birthdays coming up next month, or if I want to filter inside repeater fields, that’s not something WP_Query can easily handle. And at that point, I’d need to write raw SQL.

That’s exactly where JetEngine’s Query Builder comes in. It lets you build those complex queries visually – combine different conditions, filter by anything you want, set the sort order, and even create multi-layered queries without touching code. 

After querying, you don’t have to worry about HTML and CSS – there’s a visual Listing Templates builder, so you can design every loop element and then display it as a grid, list, table, calendar, slider, or on the map.

Collecting Data From Different Websites on One Site Using REST API

Crocoblock plugins involved: JetEngine, JetFormBuilder

Imagine a scenario where several websites are collecting registration data for an event using forms, and all that data needs to be gathered and displayed on a central website. Why use multiple sites instead of redirecting users to one? There are plenty of practical reasons — separate campaigns with unique user flows, regional discounts, or different language and location-specific versions.

In this setup, you have a Central site (where the data is collected and displayed) and sites A and B (where users submit their registrations). The communication between them is handled via the REST API. And even today, if you want to build something this connected and dynamic, you’re still going to need custom code.

This is an example of code just to send data from sites A and B, where you should connect the submit event of your form so it would trigger the sending process:

Then you will need twice as many lines of code to register a REST API endpoint on the Central site and, finally, write a query to fetch it and then somehow display it on the front end. 

There’s also an additional layer of coding and testing to control security, so your website would not receive some random spam instead of registrations. 

Goot news that JetEngine can handle it fully visually, in three simple steps:

1. On the Central site, create a “Participants” CCT (custom content type that stores data on a separate DB table, not to bloat your wp_posts table) and switch the REST API endpoint toggle to the ON position – you will get the endpoint URL generated. You can configure security settings right there. 
2. On the A and B sites, create JetFormBuilder forms. Choose REST API Request on the post-submit actions on the form settings, and paste the endpoint URL from the Central site. 
3. Congrats! The form records will be saved on the Central website in the “Participants” CCT, which you can display on the front end by creating a Listing Template by JetEngine fully visually. 

There’s a second way to display, not only form submission, but any data from website A on website B. On the website B, go to JetEngine > JetEngine and open the REST API tab. There, insert the API endpoint for the post type from site A that you want to display on site B. For example, you have “Doctors” post type on website A. The URL will be:

https://website-A.com/wp-json/wp/v2/doctor

Insert it there, adjust the security, and test the connection.

Then, go to JetEngine > Query Builder and choose the REST API query type (yes, you can query even data from remote sites using Quethe ry Builder) and define what exactly you want to display – you can choose among all available fields. 

And, finally, create a Listing Template based on this query.

Other Cases When You Don’t Need to Code If You Have Crocoblock

Show or hide blocks based on user status or role, device, time of the day, time period, etc.
Use JetEngine’s Dynamic Visibility to control whether a section appears based on whether the user is logged in, has a specific role, or even based on their custom meta fields – no PHP IF statements or role checks needed.
In case you want conditional visibility on the post level (header, body, footer), use a variety of conditions by JetThemeCore.

Display different form steps or fields depending on user input with JetFormBuilder Conditional Block. You can make certain fields or entire sections of a form appear only when specific conditions are met.

• Create posts, register users, call webhooks to connect third-party services, or custom hooks on your website, register or remove relations on post submit, thanks to the big list of post-submit actions by JetFormBuilder.
  
• Use the Context feature – you can use any of the Listing Templates and add Context (e.g., Current User, Current Query), etc., to show specific data. Normally, it takes custom-coded PHP  templates to specify the context. 

• Dynamic tables with post meta fields or WooCommerce products. Crocoblock offers two solutions for building dynamic tables – one is the JetEngine’s module, and your table will be based on a Query Builder query, which, as you already know, can fetch any data. You can also add buttons and even create templates for each table cell. 

There’s also a JetProductTables plugin specifically for WooCommerce to create tables listing products or product variation tables easily. Buttons and sorting functionality are available.

AI Website Structure Builder. This tool by JetEngine gets your prompt and, based on it, builds website structures: in under one minute, creates custom post types, custom fields, posts, and user relations, and AJAX-based filters by JetSmartFilters. You can re-prompt if you don’t like the result, and, of course, you can edit everything, having access to everything from one dashboard.

Takeaway

Using some custom code snippets can be handy, but only up to a point. When your site starts relying on too many of them, it’s worth asking if there’s a better, more solid solution out there. Crocoblock plugins give you the flexibility and power to build almost any kind of site  – from membership portals to booking systems and custom dashboards, without drowning in code.

That said, if your site has lots of content and heavy database queries, you’ll definitely want a fast, reliable hosting provider like Rapid Cloud. Even the most powerful dynamic site can struggle with performance and SEO if its Core Web Vitals aren’t up to par.