HTML to WP having problems

Well unfortunately what I tried did not work. I called the sidebar_left at the top of the index.php page and called sidebar_right at the bottom of the index.php page. Now the default sidebar crap is at the top of the content area and the content section for recent posts is at the bottom of the content area. I want the right sidebar will hold SOME widgets, such as the search section, a simple calendar, and RSS feed but I also want the clients links over there. The left sidebar will hold news items that he adds. Why can’t this be as straightforward as an HTML/CSS site?!?!?

Ok I think I have figured it out. I have found what is called a Text Widget. This is used in the “widgetized” sidebars. You can add anything you want to them. I have to look into this further because I was able to get “text” in the left sidebar but it is not in the format that I need nor is it to the left of the content. I think I still need to do something with the sidebar_left.php and sidebar_right.php pages and possibly the CSS. If there are any WP gurus on this forum, please let me know if I am on the right track!

Dunno if this helps, but in sidebar_right there’s an opening parentheses on line 4. What’s it for?

<div id="sidebar_right">
  <?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')
        || !dynamic_sidebar() ) : ?>
  (
  <?php _e('Search'); ?>

Just below || !dynamic_sidebar() ): ?>, it doesn’t seem to be doing anything, but it may be confuzzling your code?

Also, can you post your functions.php file, so we can see what get_sidebar() left+right are actually doing?

I now have my sidebars showing. I chose some other code for them and to be able to handle their contents through the widget area – <?php
if(!dynamic_sidebar(‘sidebar_right’)) {
/**
* The right sidebar widget area. Manage the widgets from: wp-admin -> Appearance -> Widgets
*/
$theme->hook(‘sidebar_right’);
}
?>

Now they are working but I am struggling to get each sidebar styled. On the right sidebar my text widget I set up for links looks great but the widget calendar I have below looks awful! Through Firebug I see that the calendar is called #wp-calendar but some of my styling is not working when I try do duplicate the styling that is on the links. Another frustrating wall I have hit!

What are you trying to change in the calendar? I don’t see any id of “wp-calendar”. Since the calendar is a table, you’ll likely need to use table CSS styles to change the appearance.

It is to look like the links part. The HTML site is at https://foxdenwebsolutions.com/CACNR/index,html. I have the background and the header section just fine for the links because I was able to add the code myself in the text widget. I want a simple calendar….nothing fancy. The CSS is broken down by the div name and class subsection. When I try to apply the subsection to #wp-calendar, I get a small white box with no header background. I need the calendar to be larger (figured I would have to play with font size). My headers for all sidebar areas are h2 not h3, which I think is the wp default. So on the right, I would have to have headers for calendar, RSS feed and then whatever else the client wants over there. The left side is fine as, again, I was able to plug in my code through a text widget.

Sorry that is https://foxdenwebsolutions.com/CACNR/index.html! I can’t edit my posts here.

Have you cleared your browser cache? What browser? I’m using Firefox on a Mac. What I see looks fine — same nice headers for each section of the sidebar, simple, plain nice calendar… Left sidebar looks more problematic…not much styling there.

Have you tried validating the pages for mark-up and CSS errors?

Like I said, using search, there is NO id=”wp-calendar” on the page at all.

Sorry if I’m misunderstanding…confused.

I am sorry. What you are viewing is the HTML site. I cannot upload the WP site as it will mess up MY blog! I am working locally using WAMP. I don’t know how to set up a testing environment on my business site without installing a second instance of WP, which I don’t think I can do.

I don’t know how to set up a testing environment on my business site without installing a second instance of WP, which I don’t think I can do.

You can do it. Put your additional WordPress instances in a subdirectory like https://foxdenwebsolutions/dev/client-site-1 You will need to create a new database for each site or change the database prefix but you might have trouble with plugins that create tables and don’t use the prefix. I don’t trust option #2, in other words. Start a new thread though, if you want to pursue that.

There is really no way for anyone to help if they cannot see the site… As has been suggested, try validating the site and using Firebug to work with CSS.

I have successfully installed another instance of WP on my business site and am currently uploading the cacnr theme. Once it is up and running I will post the link so you can see where to help me! Thanks so far to everyone that is working with me.

I’d add a robots.txt file to that subdirectory telling crawlers not to index it. Don’t list the directory in the main robots.txt though as badly behaved crawlers will be tipped off to its existence.

Ok the site can be viewed at https://foxdenwebsolutions.com/test/ – I need help with styling the calendar widget as I have the links section done and I am not sure why I have 2 plane separators on the bottom of the content area. I have looked at my code and can’t see where I could have duplicated the separator. I have uploaded the functions.php here

https://pastebin.com/5xxFj6z9

I may be able to style it some from here but I am not really sure how.

Added robots.txt to test folder