Custom Sidebars...
...for post and pages - WordPress 3 Plugin
The plugin is already available for download in the WordPress plugins repository:
Download Custom Sidebars v0.6, have a look to the new plugin features.Also I sometimes help people who have problem with the plugin in the Wordpress forum thread
To use it you willl need:- Wordpress 3.0 or greater
- A theme which uses widgets
If you liked the plugin, It's nice you support its development. I promise, no drugs, cigarretes nor booze with this money!
Why Custom Sidebars?
I had always thought that WP was a great blog system, easy with a lot of features and an exceptional community support, but everytime i tried to use it as CMS i fell in how difficult it was for createing custom post types.
Now WP3 offers custom post types out of the box, so i can manage films, cats, carrots or whatever with just few clicks! And now I think is worthy to work in WP and create some plugins for some things that still annoy me.The first of all: Why every post and page has to have the same sidebars? Am i supposed to create a different template every time i need a page to have a different sidebar?So i've tried to create something useful, plugin shaped, to solve my problem.
What is Custom Sidebars for?
Sometimes it is necessary to show different elements on the sidebars for some posts or pages. The themes nowadays give you some areas to put the widgets, but those areas are common for all the posts that are using the same template. NOTE: **You need to use a theme that accepts widgets to make this plugin work**
Custom Sidebars allows you to create all the widgetized areas you need, configure them adding widgets, and replace the default ones on the posts or pages you want in just few clicks.You can set also new default sidebars for a group of posts or pages easily:- Sidebars for all the posts that belong to a category.
- Sidebars for all the posts that belong to a post-type.
- Sidebars for lists of posts (those which belongs to a category, post-type or have some tag).
- Sidebars for author pages.
- Sidebars for the main blog page.
How to use the default sidebars? This way your will boost the content manager facet of your Wordpress installation.
Quick Howto: Replace the default sidebars
- Go to the custom sidebars option page and select the widget areas you want to be replaceable.
- Press the Save Changes button.
- Go to the edit-create form for any page or post, and there you will see a box which contain the sidebars selected on step 1. Select the sidebar you want to replace with and save the post or page. In the front end of the post you will be the new sidebar.
Quick Howto: Create a new custom sidebar
- Go to the custom sidebars option page and write a name and a description for your new sidebar.
- Click on Create Sidebar
- You will see your new sidebar in the list. There you can delete it if you don't need it anymore.
- Go to the widget admin page, and there drag some widgets to you sidebar. You won't be able to select you bar for replacement until you put some widgets in it.
- Select your sidebar to replace the default one on the edit or create page and save it.
- Go to front end and see your new marvellous sidebar.
