Implementing Custom Widgets Areas in WordPress Themes
Posted on 20th June 2023
Implementing Custom Widget Areas in WordPress Themes
The WordPress platform is very versatile and flexible. One of the features that makes it so versatile and flexible is the ability to easily create custom widget areas. A widget area is a section of a WordPress theme that is devoted to displaying widgets. Widgets are small blocks of content that can be displayed in a variety of locations within a WordPress site. Examples of widgets include Recent Posts, Recent Comments, Archives, and Categories.
WordPress themes usually come with a handful of default widget areas. However, there may be times when you want to create a custom widget area for a specific purpose. For example, you may want to create a widget area for displaying a newsletter sign-up form or a contact form. Or, you may want to create a widget area for displaying ads.
In this article, we will show you how to easily create custom widget areas in WordPress themes.
Creating Custom Widget Areas in WordPress Themes
The first thing you need to do is create a file called sidebar-new.php and place it in your theme’s folder.
The next thing you need to do is edit your sidebar.php file and add the following code to it:
‘
‘after_widget’ => ‘
‘,
‘before_title’ => ‘
‘,
‘after_title’ => ‘
‘,
));
?>
This code tells WordPress to look for a file called sidebar-new.php. If it finds sidebar-new.php, it will use it to display the widgets in that area. If it doesn’t find sidebar-new.php, it will use sidebar.php.
The next thing you need to do is edit your functions.php file and add the following code to it:
‘Sidebar 2’,
‘before_widget’ => ‘
‘after_widget’ => ‘
‘,
‘before_title’ => ‘
‘,
‘after_title’ => ‘
‘,
));
?>
This code tells WordPress to look for a file called sidebar-2.php. If it finds sidebar-2.php, it will use it to display the widgets in that area. If it doesn’t find sidebar-2.php, it will use sidebar.php.
The next thing you need to do is edit your header.php file and add the following code to it:
‘Header’,
‘before_widget’ => ‘
‘after_widget’ => ‘
‘,
‘before_title’ => ‘
‘,
‘after_title’ => ‘
‘,
));
?>
This code tells WordPress to look for a file called header.php. If it finds header.php, it will use it to display the widgets in that area. If it doesn’t find header.php, it will use sidebar.php.
The next thing you need to do is edit your footer.php file and add the following code to it:
‘Footer’,
‘before_widget’ => ‘
‘after_widget’ => ‘
‘,
‘before_title’ => ‘
‘,
‘after_title’ => ‘
‘,
));
?>
This code tells WordPress to look for a file called footer.php. If it finds footer.php, it will use it to display the widgets in that area. If it doesn’t find footer.php, it will use sidebar.php.
And that’s all there is to it! Now you know how to easily create custom widget areas in WordPress themes.
A widget area is a section of a theme where widgets can be displayed. Widgets are small blocks of content that can be displayed in the sidebars and other areas of a WordPress site. By default, WordPress comes with a few widgets that can be used in most themes.
In order to add a custom widget area to a WordPress theme, the first thing that needs to be done is to register the sidebar in the functions.php file. This can be done by using the register_sidebar() function. The register_sidebar() function takes an array of arguments. The most important arguments to define are ‘name’ and ‘id’. The ‘name’ argument is the name of the sidebar that will be displayed in the Widgets section of the WordPress admin. The ‘id’ argument is the unique identifier for the sidebar. Other arguments that can be defined are ‘before_widget’, ‘after_widget’, ‘before_title’, and ‘after_title’. These arguments define what HTML elements will be displayed before and after the widgets in the sidebar.
After the sidebar has been registered, it can be displayed in the theme by using the dynamic_sidebar() function. This function takes the ‘id’ argument of the sidebar as a parameter. The dynamic_sidebar() function should be used within the WordPress loop.
Adding a custom widget area to a WordPress theme is a relatively simple process. By registering a sidebar and using the dynamic_sidebar() function, theme developers can easily add custom widget areas to their themes.
After you have registered your widget areas in your theme’s functions.php file, you can now add widgets to them from the Appearance > Widgets screen in the WordPress admin.
To add a widget to a widget area, simply drag and drop the widget from the Available Widgets section into the desired widget area in the Sidebars section. Once you have added all the widgets you want to the widget area, be sure to click the Save button to save your changes.
Now that you have added widgets to your custom widget areas, they will appear on your website in the location you specified when you registered the widget areas.
So, how do you actually go about creating and adding custom widget areas to your WordPress theme? Let’s take a look at a few different methods you can use.
One of the easiest ways to add custom widget areas to your WordPress theme is by using a plugin. There are a few different plugins that you can use, but we recommend using the Widget Areas plugin. This plugin allows you to easily create custom widget areas and add them to your theme.
Another method you can use to add custom widget areas to your WordPress theme is by editing your theme’s code. This method is a bit more advanced and we only recommend doing this if you are comfortable with editing code. To add a custom widget area to your theme using this method, you will need to add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file:
__( ‘Main Sidebar’, ‘my-theme’ ),
‘id’ => ‘sidebar-1’,
‘description’ => __( ‘This is the main sidebar.’, ‘my-theme’ ),
‘before_widget’ => ‘
‘,
‘before_title’ => ‘
‘,
‘after_title’ => ‘
‘,
) );
}
add_action( ‘widgets_init’, ‘my_custom_sidebars’ );
?>
This code will create a custom sidebar called “Main Sidebar”. You can change the name, id, and description to anything you want. You can also change the before and after widget code to anything you want. This code goes in your theme’s functions.php file.
You can also add custom widget areas to your WordPress theme by using a child theme. If you are using a child theme, you can add the following code to your child theme’s functions.php file:
__( ‘Main Sidebar’, ‘my-theme’ ),
‘id’ => ‘sidebar-1’,
‘description’ => __( ‘This is the main sidebar.’, ‘my-theme’ ),
‘before_widget’ => ‘
‘,
‘before_title’ => ‘
‘,
‘after_title’ => ‘
‘,
) );
}
add_action( ‘widgets_init’, ‘my_custom_sidebars’ );
?>
This code will create a custom sidebar called “Main Sidebar”. You can change the name, id, and description to anything you want. You can also change the before and after widget code to anything you want. This code goes in your child theme’s functions.php file.
There are a few different methods you can use to add custom widget areas to your WordPress theme. We recommend using a plugin or child theme if you are not comfortable with editing code.
