How to use get_sidebar in plugin folder?

  • Resolved Irina Sokolovskaja

    (@oriolo)


    11 years ago

    I’ve created the plugin that adds custom post type and custom taxonomies for this post type. Templates for the post type and the taxonomies are located in plugin folder.

    Now I need to add sidebar for the post type and taxonomies pages. I’ve tried to use the following code for sidebar:

    function mytype_get_sidebar($mytype_sidebar) {
// load sidebar template
if (file_exists(plugin_dir_path(__FILE__) . '/sidebar-mytype.php'))
    return plugin_dir_path(__FILE__) . '/sidebar-mytype.php';

// Default return
return $mytype_sidebar;
}
add_filter('get_sidebar', 'mytype_get_sidebar');

    And then on the page where the sidebar should be:

    get_sidebar ( apply_filters( 'mytype_get_sidebar', '' ) );
    But it doesn’t work. var_dump returns NULL:

    $my = get_sidebar ( apply_filters( 'mytype_get_sidebar', '' ) );
var_dump($my);

    Is there any way how to do that?

    Thanks in advance.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Moderator bcworkz

    (@bcworkz)

    You’re not really using filter hooks correctly. First of all, ‘get_sidebar’ is an action, not filter. Using add_filter() will still register your callback, the problem is actions don’t expect returned values, so returning your file path will have no effect.

    In order to load a template from an action callback, just load the template, no need to return anything. The problem here though is a call to get_sidebar() will still load sidebar.php from the theme no matter what you do from the action callback, short of using die() or exit() or similar.

    I suggest forgetting get_sidebar(). If you want to load your sidebar template, use load_template().

    FYI, you’re not using apply_filters() correctly either, unless you’ve added another filter like so:
    add_filter( 'mytype_get_sidebar', 'some_other_callback' );
    or you’re simply providing a hook for others to use in the future (a good idea actually) and you really intend to pass an empty string to get_sidebar(), because without an added filter, applying filters just returns the second parameter.

    If I were a mind reader and knew your intention was to ensure mytype_get_sidebar() is called when you call get_sidebar(), I would tell you to not apply any filters. The fact you added your function as a callback means simply calling get_sidebar() with no extra coding is all that’s needed to cause your function to be executed. But I’m not a mind reader. I’m not sure what you’re trying to do, but it doesn’t look right.

    One last thing and I’ll stop picking apart your code. get_sidebar() never returns a value, so there’s no point in checking the return with var_dump().

    Thread Starter Irina Sokolovskaja

    (@oriolo)

    Thank you bcworkz, finally I understood how add_filter() and get_sidebar() work.
    I’ve done like this:
    load_template ( dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/sidebar-mytype.php' ) ;

    Moderator bcworkz

    (@bcworkz)

    You’re welcome. Filters are a little hard to grasp at first, but understanding them is very important when hacking WordPress. Your knowledge should serve you well in the future.

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