Dynamically create sidebars?

  • termserv

    (@termserv)


    15 years ago

    I am wondering if there is any way to automatically create sidebars for each page? A client of mine has 4-5 pages with content, but want to be able to control the content of each sidebar for each page.

    I could go on and add 5 register_sidebar functions for each page, but if the client adds a new page, this new page won’t have a sidebar. So I was wondering if there is a way to dynamically add sidebars for each page in functions.php?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • stvwlf

    (@stvwlf)

    Is the client using widgets or are the sidebars in code?

    Either way, you can wrap your sidebar code in IF statements in sidebar.php Some themes have more than one sidebar file. 

    if ( is_page( array('about', 'contact', 'another-page', 'a-fourth-page'))) {
===== do stuff ===========
}

    I realize that code is not dynamic. If you define say 3 different sidebar layouts, you could create a custom field on each page called Sidebar, and assign a value of Sidebar1, Sidebar2, or Sidebar3.

    Then your sidebar code would test for the existence of the custom field and display the sidebar accordingly. When the client adds new pages, they would create a custom field for the sidebar they wanted to display. Thus it becomes dynamic.

    In sidebar.php:

    $sidebar = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'Sidebar', true);

if ($sidebar == 'Sidebar1') {
==== sidebar 1 display code here ====
} elseif ($sidebar == 'Sidebar2) {
==== sidebar 2 display code here ====
} elseif ($sidebar == 'Sidebar13) {
==== sidebar 3 display code here ====
} else {
========  default condition code here =====
}

    They do need you to create new sidebars if an altogether new sidebar layout is added, but doing that is beyond the range of most clients anyway.

    I realize that code is not dynamic. If you define say 3 different sidebar layouts, you could create a custom field on each page called Sidebar, and assign a value of Sidebar1, Sidebar2, or Sidebar3.

    Done that here

    I think it’s possible to create a page template that holds the code for checking whether a sidebar exists, and if not create one, and use the page ID as sidebar ID.

    Never done it, but maybe you can ??

    Peter

    Just to help you going:

    <ul id="sidebar">
<?php
if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar($post->ID)) {
  if ( function_exists('register_sidebar') ) {
    register_sidebar(array(
      'id' => $post->ID,
      'before_widget' => '<li id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
      'after_widget' => '</li>',
      'before_title' => '<h2 class="widgettitle">',
      'after_title' => '</h2>',
    ));
  }
  dynamic_sidebar($post->ID)
}
?>
</ul>

    Not tested!

    Peter

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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