aug 12 2011
Flexible Widgets for WordPress
Flexible Widgets is a plugin for WordPress that makes it possible to display a widget on selected categories and/or pages.
The Flexible Widgets plugin lets you display a widget on any category or page you wish. When setting up the widget, you are able to select the categories and/or pages where you want to display the widget. If none are selected, the widget will be displayed globally on your site, exactly like a default WordPress widget.
The plugin comes in handy if you need your sidebar content to change contextually from page to page in relation to your main content. It is especially useful if you want to use WordPress as a CMS.
Flexible Widgets will replace the default WordPress widgets.
Sreenshot
Selecting categories and pages in each widget’s back end.
Installation
- Upload the
flexible-widgetsfolder to the/wp-content/plugins/directory - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
or search for “Flexible Widgets” in the “Add new” section of the plugins menu in your WordPress admin interface and hit “Install now”.
Change log
0.3
- Fixes an issue: Optionally display widgets on the home page, whether it is set up to be a static page or the blog posts page.
0.2
- Tiny update to get the plugin and author URIs right.
- Update on the installation info.
0.1
- Brand new plugin. Still playing with the bubble wrap.
Known issues
May conflict with themes or plugins which include custom widgets.
Please see the plugin support forum.
Additional information
The Flexible Widgets plugin consists of a bunch of ideas and lines of code, I wrote for the WordPress theme in use at the website of Horsens Public Library.
This is my first plugin for WordPress. I am sure, there is room for improvement. The code is far from perfect as my programming skills are somewhat limited. But I do think the idea is quite good, so if you can write lean code and are desperately in need of a small side project, you should be very welcome to help me out.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave a reply.
aug 16, 2011 @ 22:15:48
I like this widget a lot. I installed this on my site last night and love the way it works. Very simple. Just one problem… widgets no longer show up on the home page, which is the blog post page, and there is no check box to add it. Do you have a suggestion? (BTW my site is not live yet.)
Thanks,
Mayana
aug 17, 2011 @ 13:27:54
Hi Mayana,
The plugin is based on sites, that typically has a static front page. But of course, you’ve got a point there. I will be working on a solution and it will be included in the next update.
Thank you for the feedback.
aug 29, 2011 @ 03:11:22
Hi Morten,
I love your widget. It’s easy to use and works fine. There are several small problems, which I can handle, but one thing I could not make to work. The wp-invites-widget ist not showing up the selection for the pages which I want to activate it.
Maybe you can help
Thanks in advance
Regards
Oskar
aug 31, 2011 @ 11:06:01
Hi Oscar,
Thanks for trying out the Flexible Widgets plugin.
The Flexible Widgets plugin is only designed to replace the default WordPress widgets. The wp-invites widget is part of a third party plugin and is not a default WordPress widget. That is why the Flexible Widget categories and page selection options do not show up in the settings for this widget.
I will not reject the possibility of developing Flexible Widget support for other plugins. However it requires a certain demand, because there are simply too many plugins out there, than I can possibly keep up with. At least, I haven’t found a way yet. I hope you understand.
okt 01, 2011 @ 14:38:49
The plugin is awesome for what it does!! thanks.
Just letting you know, that recently I installed the WP-Cumulus plugin which produces an animated tag cloud widget. After installation, WP-Cumulus in conjunction with your plugin causes a fatal error.
Anyway, just making you aware of this issue
dec 22, 2011 @ 23:51:31
Hi Morten, I was really happy when I found your plugin! Unfortunately it doesnt seem to work in wordpress 3.3? It keeps showing all categories no matter which one is not selected. I hope you can fix it!
jan 30, 2012 @ 22:35:56
Hi Danny. Thanks for trying out the plugin. I’m sorry it doesn’t seem to do the trick for you. Which widgets are you using it on?
I am not sure, however, that I will be keeping the plugin up to date, because recently I stumpled upon another plugin which does the same, except it works on any widget and is a lot better coded. It is called Dynamic Widgets and you can find it in the plugin directory here:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/dynamic-widgets/
I recommend You try that one out.