How to Widgets anywhere and NOT in Sidebar

You can add widgets to any template file in exactly the same way that you add them to a sidebar.

Thanks for your response esmi, but wouldn’t that add them to all my pages?
I would like to have just one page with widgets inside the main area.

Thanks.

Create a widget-ready custom page template and apply it to that page.

Sweet. I’ll start working on it tonight. If anyone has tried this on their site, can you post a link.

Thanks esmi. If you want to keep this thread open for a day or two, i’ll try to post results and steps etc., but you are free to do what you want.

PT

Hi Phil,

If the widgets that you’re planning on adding are php-based, then I think the smartest choice for you would definitely be a little plugin called Exec-PHP.

Basically, this plugin enables you to read and execute php code from practically everywhere in your WP blog. I use it myself and it has proven to be very useful and solid. The author really knows his stuff and even answers support questions on the plugin website.

If you’re running a blog with multiple users, you will need some sort of role management functionality that would allow you to set different permissions (called “capabilities”) to your different users (mainly, as a security measure, because you might not want to let all user classes run php code). All of this is explained in the plug-in documentation, and there’s even a suggested Role Manager plug-in.

The plug-in can be a little tricky to set up, so if you wanna go for it and you have any questions, let me know.

Cheers!

Err, I guess I forgot my tag, hahaha. Sorry for that!

[moderated – fixed that for you]

Wow, that sounds a lot easier!
I would by no means by writing my own code! I would just use plugins and widgets that already exist.

I’m going to set up my site on flashdrive first so that I don’t screw anything up. lol

Thanks Marventus!

I have to say that the author at your link is the most thorough writer. Amazing. Thanks again.

Hi Phil,

No pb! It really worked out for me so I hope it will for you too. There are a lot useful threads out there and in the WP Codex about including php code efficiently and accurately, so I don’t think you will have any trouble there.
Also, a lot of people use this plug-in, which translates into a great deal of officious support, ??

Hi Phil,

Since you were able to figure this one out, could you mark the thread as resolved? It helps a lot to filter out which threads were solved and which were not.

Thanks!

I’m still working on it, but I want to make this community as efficient as possible. Done

Is there anything you want to give you a hand with? Just let me know and I’ll be glad to help.

Its been like a month and I can’t get it. I should follow that with I don’t know much about coding.

The first thing I tried was that plug-in you suggested. It should (I’m sure it does) let me execute a php within a post. So I installed and tested it using their sample test sentence. Works fine.

I then found a plugin that I wanted. I picked a “popular post” plugin. I installed it. I then made a new post and called it “My most popular posts”. I turned off the wysiwyg editors and everything just like the first plugin directed to.

in this new post I put:
<?php 'wppp.php'; ?>

hoping that it would put the most popular posts in, but nope..nada. Again, I know i’m calling it incorrectly, but idk coding.

My next idea was to do what esmi suggested and that was to make a new page template. lol, that lasted an hour or two.

Again, the goal is to go to a separate page. This page will look just like the main page, but in each “post” will be a separate widget/plugin.

Things like: top posts, most commented etc.

Dear Phil,

It’s great to hear from you, but no so great that you’re having troubles, ?? Also, I’m sorry for asking you to mark this thread as “resolved”, since I thought my advice had worked.

After reading your previews posts in the lights of the last one, and taking a look at your site, I think I understand what you’re trying to do a little better, and I’m pretty confident I can help.

Before I give you the instructions of what I think you need to do, I’d like to make sure I understand what it is that you want to accomplish. If I’m understanding you correctly, you want to:
1. Have a default or normal page layout for your all your pages (except the one page you want to customize, “siteinfo”). For now, this default page would apply to your “Aboutme” page;
2. Have a specific page layout for your “siteinfo” page;
3. Display your sidebar (and widgets contained inside) all over your site, “siteinfo” included;
4. Display specific widgets in your “siteinfo” page.

Now, I have a doubt regarding point #4. The widgets that are only going to be appearing in the “siteinfo” page, do you want to display them as post content or in the sidebar? If it’s as post content, will the siteinfo page have any other content (text, images, etc.) other than the widgets?

If you confirm all this, I can walk you through a pretty straightforward solution.

Cheers!