WP 2.8.4 widgets in sidebars become inactive swapping theme

  • Ok, I don’t know if this is a BUG or FEATURE. I just did a brand new install of 2.8.4 and then added ! more theme ‘Simple Blog Design’ I was looking for a theme with two sidebars for this test.

    1) Activate ‘Simple Blog Design’
    2) add a text widget to the left sidebar
    3) go look at the site, things look good
    4) swap to the default theme (a 1 sidebar theme)
    5) look at widgets and you see that the text widget is now in the inactive list
    6) switch back to ‘Simple Blog Design’
    7) look at the widgets – the text widget hasn’t been reactivated

    I can understand the widget not being displayed, but by deactivating itswapping themes, even to check if there is an error in a theme, is not without consequences.

    Is this the way it is meant to be??

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

  • What to expect …

    By default, “sidebar” widget areas are named numerically starting with 1, 2, 3 … see this page: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Function_Reference/register_sidebars

    You can name your widget area almost anything you want, as this page gives examples: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/WordPress_Widgets_Api/register_sidebar

    The problem you are seeing is when you place a widget into an area (ie: Sidebar 1) that does not have a corresponding matching named widget area in the next theme (eg: Left Sidebar). The default theme uses a numbered label for the widget area, I believe (without looking through 25 pages) your example ‘Simple Blog Design’ theme may use a different naming format.

    The logic, as I would expect, the “code” will deactivate any plugin that does not fit exactly in the same place as the “next” theme.

    I found the same issues with my themes when I was adding in multiple widget areas. I made a note to keep the ‘sidebar’ widgets as numbered areas and labeled the footer widgets et al. specifically.

    Long-winded: Yes. Bug: No. Feature: … maybe ??

    Thread Starter juggledad

    (@juggledad)

    thank you for the references, I’ll pass them along to the deveoper of the theme (Atahualpa) I’m using. I only picked the Simple Blog Design theme to test what I perceived to be an ‘issue’. I think this is a bug!

    I shoud be able to swap from theme A to theme B and back to theme A without having the appearance of the blog changed.

    If I use theme A which has two widget areas and then switch to theme B (which only has 1 widget area), the widgets in widget area 2 (no matter what the area is called) shouldn’t be deactivated. Give me a warning that the widget won’t showup, but don’t deactivate it – I should be allowed to make that choice.

    … Give me a warning that the widget won’t showup, but don’t deactivate it – I should be allowed to make that choice.

    That’s a very interesting point. If it wasn’t through experimentation in my theme development I would not have come across this issue before now.

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