WordPress Widgets - questions and suggestions

[Simon]

Hiya

I'm working on a couple of new blogs and I downloaded and installed the latest version of WordPress (2.2.3) and now I'm looking at the new Widget features that are built into this version (meaning the WordPress Widgets plugin which I've never used before isn't needed now).

The first thing I noticed is that Widgets seem to be an 'either-or' approach to managing sidebar content. What I mean is that from what I can tell so far, if you activate even one Widget in a sidebar, then that sidebar gets completely taken over by the "dynamic_sidebar" function and the only things that show up in that sidebar are whatever Widgets you want to add there. (If I'm wrong about this, please let me know.)

So my questions at this point are:

• Is it worth using Widgets if you lose the ability to add anything but Widget content in the sidebar?
• Are there easy ways I don't know about to add non-Widget content to the sidebars if you're using Widgets in that same sidebar?
• If it is worth using Widgets, then does anyone have some suggestions for good Widgets that you think are worth using?

Thanks for any input you can offer.




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[Lemmy]

I'm pretty sure you can still hardcode things into your sidebar if you're using widgets (unless things have changed since 2.2.2), but why would you? You can pretty much put anything you like in a text widget; html, js and whatnot.

I use widgets on my last few blogs and I'm happy with the system. Beats digging around in the code.

[walrus]

The issue is in the way the templates sidebar is coded. This is the widgets code for my right sidebar, hence the (2)

<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')

        || !dynamic_sidebar(2) ) : ?>
<?php endif; ?>

Most of the templates have everything between this statement. Move the stuff you want to code outside of the if/end and you can lay out your sidebar how you want.

[Ms Naughty]

Wow, what a useful and timely thread. I started on my first splog last night with 2.2.3 and encountered the widgets, was going to start fiddling with the sidebar today. Walrus and Lemmy - thanks!

[Lemmy]

Originally Posted by grandmascrotum

I started on my first splog last night

Welcome to the dark side.

[Ms Naughty]

LOL It was having to research RSS that did it. I was all frightened before. Thing is, I've got a number of mainstream porn domains that are sitting there being fairly useless so I'll just blog them up and let them run. I don't know if it will make me sales or not... the thing is, I don't have a lot of mainstream men's traffic.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by Lemmy

I'm pretty sure you can still hardcode things into your sidebar if you're using widgets (unless things have changed since 2.2.2), but why would you? You can pretty much put anything you like in a text widget; html, js and whatnot.

Originally Posted by walrus

The issue is in the way the templates sidebar is coded. {SNIPPED] Move the stuff you want to code outside of the if/end and you can lay out your sidebar how you want.

Thanks Lemmy and thanks Walrus.

I thought I could add things outside the if/end coding manually. I was wondering more about some hard-to-find, hidden option setting in the WordPress dashboard that would just let me flip a switch to add the widgets but keep whatever else I already had there. Or even better, a drag-and-drop interface that would allow me to position the Widgets 'in between' any other sidebar items.

I did see that some of the Widgets allowed you to add text, html, js and even php code to be executed in the sidebars. There did seem to be a few choices on which Widgets to use for those kinds of things, so I'm still looking for suggestions on what others think are the best Widgets to us (and any to stay away from).

I see a lot of Widgets listed at http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins/WordPress_Widgets so I'm also wondering if that's where I can find most of them or if there are some other good places to get them too.

Okay, that's all the new questions for now.






.

[Lemmy]

I've only installed one 3rd party widget, and that was just to see how it's done. For my needs right now I find that a default text widget fills my needs.

[walrus]

I'll be honest, I really haven't gotten into widgets much. Since I have a system based prior to the days of widgets that I like to follow it just seems easier to copy the sidebar code from one blog to the other and ignore the widget stuff.