1. Dynamic Sidebars and Widgets
Jason Yingling
Red8 Interactive

2. What is a sidebar?
• Sidebar can mean two things:
• An area to the side (but not always) of a post generally
containing information tangentially related to the main
content.
• Generally a themes sidebar.php

3. What is a sidebar?
• An area where widgets can be used within a theme.
Also known as a widgetized area.
• Created by using the register_sidebar() function
• Not strictly relegated to being used in sidebar.php.
Also commonly used in footers.

4. What is a widget?
• Bits of code that can be used in a widgetized
area to add functionality to WordPress sites.

5. Registering (Creating) a Widgetized Area
• Widgetized areas should be registered in the
theme as they are presentational. Generally in
functions.php.
• Widgetized area can be displayed in any template
file. Not tied to sidebar.php.
• register_sidebar($args) creates the widgetized
area
• add_action( ‘widgets_init’, $function) hooks into
WordPress to create a widgetized area when
WordPress initializes the widgets.

6. register_sidebar()
• Takes a single argument of an associative array of
parameters that set the options for the widget area.
• Wrap $args array and register_sidebar() in separate
function that can be called on ‘widgets_init’ hook

7. add_action(‘widgets_init’, ‘function_name’);
• Action hook in WordPress for connecting to the
widget initialization function
• Call previously defined function for registering a
sidebar as second parameter
• Allows WordPress to create the widget area in the
backend.

9. Displaying a Widgetized Area
• is_active_sidebar(‘widget_id’) – Checks to see if the
sidebar has any widgets activated. (optional)
• dynamic_sidebar(‘widget_id’) – Displays the
widgetized area and any widgets set inside it.
• Can be used within any template files.

10. Creating a Widget
• Custom widgets are created by a class that
extends the WP_Widget class.
• Widget is initiated by hooking
register_widget() into the ‘widgets_init’ action
hook

11. Extending the WP_Widget class
• By extending the WP_Widget class we can add
methods for our widget to use, as well as use
methods and properties present in the
WP_Widget class.

12. Constructing our Widget
• To construct our widget we use the parent
__construct function from the WP_Widget class
which takes 3 parameters
– ‘widget-id’ : The id / slug of the widget
– ‘Widget Name’ : The nice name to show on the
admin screen
– array() : An array of additional options

13. Constructing our widget

14. Displaying Widget Content
• To display the content of our widget we use
the widget() method
• widget() ‘echo’s a string wherever the widget
is placed on your site
• Takes two arguments:
– $args – Widget arguments
– $instance – Previously saved data in the database

15. Displaying Widget Content

16. Creating a Form for Editing Widget Content
• The form() method allows us to create HTML
form elements for storing data within the
widget
• Uses the $instance argument to store data for
the instance of the widget

17. Creating a Form for Editing Widget Content

18. Saving Widget Data
• To save the widget $instance we’ll use the
update() method
• Takes two arguments: $new_instance and
$old_instance
• $new_instance will contain the new values
entered in the widget’s form
• $old_instance will contain the previous values,
which are replaced with the $new_instance
on aving the form

19. Saving Widget Data

21. Registering the Widget
• Create a function to hold our
register_widget(‘Widget_Class’) function
• Hook in our newly created function into the
‘widgets_init’ action hook