Code for Custom Sidebars

Well it kind of depends on if you are hardcoding the widgets into your sidebar or not.

If you are, you can use conditional statements like is_home() is_page() is_single etc to wrap around it, if (is_home()) { }

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Conditional_Tags

If you are using widgets, there are “widget logic” plugins that let you choose locations and pages that you want individual widgets (that are dragged to the sidebar locations)

Example plugin:
https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/widget-logic-visual/

^ there’s a bunch on the repo

Why don’t you try custom sidebars

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/custom-sidebars/

It’s really easy to use and not coding needed.

“I am aware there is a custom sidebars plugin, but I’m trying to not depend upon plugins too much. “

from original OP.

Thank-you for the information. I have now tried to use the code from the page you provided a link to. However, I think that one reason it may not be working is because it says that there needs to be something specific done if there is a theme involved. I do have a theme.

The widget-logic visual plugin might be what I end up going with, but I do want to try and find the correct code if possible. That plugin looks perfect if I cannot get the code right. Thank-you for that.

What I know works, at least to put something on all of my pages, is to enter whatever I want my code to be in a widget.

In my sidebar page in the editor, I currently have the following code. It was there originally. It’s just one part of the overall code that is there. Is there something I can put after this code to indicate I want “a” on only page “a” and “b” on only page “b” and “c” on every page, etc?

<div id="sidebar-right">
     <?php if ( function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') && dynamic_sidebar('Sidebar_Right') ) : else : ?>

You can add the conditional directly to the if statement. Example:

<?php if (!is_page('34') && dynamic_sidebar('Sidebar_Right') ) : else : ?>

This says if it’s NOT page ID # 34 and there’s something in the dynamic sidebar labelled sidebar_right then echo the contents of what is in that sidebar, else do what comes after :

So what you want to do is find out what the ID numbers of the pages you don’t want the sidebar in and do if !is_page(ID#) for them. (read that conditionals page for better examples)

Thank-you again. I can see this is making progress.

This had interesting results. I put the page id# in on a page I wanted to test this with. I then put one code in the widget, and the other code after the : else : part of the above code we last discussed.

The code I put in the sidebar somehow appeared twice on every page (one above, one below) except for the page that I put in the page id# for. On that page, the code I put in after the : else : was there on only that page (hurray!), but then the code that I put in the widget still appeared under that.

Is there possibly code to enter after the : else : that would tell it to exclude this page on page id on only page id 1,2,3 etc?
For example, if there was code to exclude pages, then whatever code I have would appear everywhere except for what I specifically told it to exclude.

Is there such a thing?

The “else” part means that whatever is in the else will be displayed if there is not anything in the sidebar ;/

and yeah you do the same thing if (is_page(‘##’)) { then do this; }

Viola!

I think I have some code that will work. I won’t say it’s the most efficient, but it looks like a combination of what you provided along with something else I discovered is what will work.

In my theme functions editor, I found some code that where I was able to create a new sidebar where I can put the widgets in to. I found:

));

if ( function_exists('register_sidebar') )
	register_sidebar(array(
		'name' => 'Sidebar_right',
		'before_widget' => '<li id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
		'after_widget' => '</li>',
		'before_title' => '<h2>',
		'after_title' => '</h2>',
	));

I just copied that code one row down, and changed ‘Sidebar_right’ to a new name, ‘Sidebar_Right_2.

Then, I went back in to my sidebars editor, and applied the code that you provided as a test (changing ‘Sidebar_right’ to what I named the new one to, ‘Sidebar_Right_2).

This looks like it will work. I’ll just keep adding new sidebar places to drag widgets in to, and I think it’ll work.
What I’m finding that works so far is to enter the following in to my sidebar editor:

<div id="sidebar-center">
	<?php if (!is_page('1') && dynamic_sidebar('Sidebar_Right_2') ) : else : ?>

    <?php endif; ?>
  </div>
  <div id="sidebar-center">
	<?php if (!is_page('2') && dynamic_sidebar('Sidebar_Right') ) : else : ?>

  <?php endif; ?>
  </div>

After I add the code in to the sidebar editor area, I can then drag widgets around.

Now, excluding pages will be a lot of work, but I’ll take it since it seems to be the solution! Thank-you very much!

Would anyone happen to have any ideas as to why I’m getting a black dot next to what I add to the sidebar? Could it be that there’s a list code somewhere that’s causing that?

You can’t use two ID= ‘s of the same name in html, but otherwise ?? .. you can make them classes or differ the two.

Oh, thank-you for catching that. I think I might know what you mean.

If I take the first (!is_page('1') and change it to (!is_page('1,2') while leaving the second one as (!is_page('2'), it’s not excluding the first one from page id#2.

It feels like I’m getting really close to the answer, though.

How do I make the classes you mentioned?

<div class="sidebar-center">

Remember, read the line on what you wrote as if it was english.

If (not) page # 2 and there’s something in dynamic_sidebar(‘whatever’) then display whats in the dynamic sidebar ‘whatever’ ELSE display whats in the else statement after the if statement.

So when you put if (not) page #1 AND #2 and there’s something in dynamic sidebar … etc..

What you wrote above, *should* exclude page ID #2 from both of them ;/ ..

Maybe you should write it differently..

if (!is_page('1,2')) {
          if (dynamic_sidebar('whatever')) : else :
               // content if nothing is in the sidebar 'whatever';
          endif;
}

Widget logic if you want to switch off single sidebar widgets.

Another Way:
Create your new sidebars in functions.php as per your code above.

Your sidebar code should be in a file called sidebar.php, if not then copy it to a file sidebar.php

Open sidebar.php and save as sidebar-{slug}.php so this could be sidebar-home.php, sidebar-one.php, sidebar-single.php, sidebar-archive.php, sidebar-search.php, sidebar-members.php, sidebar-foo.php, sidebar-bar.php, sidebar-foobar.php, anything you want after the hyphon ‘-‘ all lowecase single word.

Inside the copied file just change the dynamic_sidebar({$slug-name}) for your new sidebar.

Then in the templates files call the different sidebars with or without a conditional statement.

Example page.php

<?php if (is_page('1,2')) : ?>
   <?php get_sidebar('one'); ?>
<?php else : ?>
   <?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php endif; ?>

Example single.php

<?php get_sidebar('single'); ?>

Example search.php

<?php get_sidebar('search'); ?>

Example archive.php

<?php get_sidebar('archive'); ?>

Example index.php

<?php if ( is_user_logged_in() ) : ?>
   <?php get_sidebar('members'); ?>
<?php else : ?>
   <?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php endif; ?>

HTH

David

Thanks for providing more ideas.

I tried the class part in to what I had, and it didn’t seem to make a difference.

Also, if I put in page id#’s 1 and 2 for both lines of the code in what I had above, then things get excluded only on page id 1, and nothing on page id 2.
This seems so close, but I’ll need to be able to constantly repeat a lot of the same page id’s to exclude them to use this, and it’s not allowing me to do so.

I did try various things with the different code you provided, but I for whatever reason am unable to get it to work. I’m not sure what I’m missing.

And, I think the bullet points I mentioned above are coming from that ‘li’ code, so I’m not sure what could be altered there to eliminate those bullet points either.

David: I’ll take a look in to what you’ve provided information on too, thanks!

David: Thank-you so very, very much! That is what is working.

So that anyone else reading this can hopefully understand what I did, I offer the below explanation:

I logged in to my hosting company’s CPanel, used the file manager, drilled down to my theme’s .php files, and copied + added new .php files as explained above by David.

Then, I created the new sidebars I wanted in my functions.php file with the following code (like this example):

if ( function_exists('register_sidebar') )
	register_sidebar(array(
		'name' => 'Sidebar_2',
		'before_widget' => '<id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
		'after_widget' => '<br />',
		'before_title' => '<h2>',
		'after_title' => '</h2>',
	));

Please note this code is a bit different than what I posted above. I removed the ‘li’ before the id, and for the after widget part, I replaced the ‘/li’ part with the br part so that my sidebar pieces will no longer have bullet points next to them and each piece will have a space between.

Next, I went to my new sidebar.php file that I created in my CPanel file manager, and changed the code to:
<?php if ( function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') && dynamic_sidebar('Sidebar_2') ) : else : ?>

(The Sidebar_2 is what changed here.)

After that, I needed to go to my page.php file, and add the following:

<?php if (is_page('2')) : ?>
  	<?php get_sidebar('sidebar2'); ?>
  <?php else : ?>
   	<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
  <?php endif; ?>
<?php if (is_page('3')) : ?>
  	<?php get_sidebar('sidebar3'); ?>
  <?php else : ?>
   	<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
  <?php endif; ?>
</div>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Please note that the code is repeated there with the different page id numbers, and that the different sidebar.php files are being called in each.
From what I have seen so far with tests is that it seems to be saying that what I want on page id 3 is contained in sidebar3, etc.

After this, I inputted my widgets in to the appropriate sidebar, and it all seems to be working just as I’m looking for so far.

I hope that makes sense to anyone else who is also trying to figure this out. Thanks everyone!