Adding a widget above the page title on certain pages

[oiseau73]

Hi there,

Here's the site: http://dow.us/

In the navigational sections that can be found on the left sidebar (here's an example: http://dow.us/dow-managed-portfolios/ ) there are links and green icons before the start of the page's content but below the page's title. The client now wants to have the icon section above the page's title. The icons and links are different in each section and the pages that are accessed by the top nav have no icon/links area at all. My thought was to create widgets for each of those sidebar sections, which I have, but then I am stuck. Would I create a page template for each section? What do I add to the functions.php file to pop those widgets above the titles? Or would I leave the functions.php alone and add things to each page template?

Thanks!

Suzy

http:// http://dow.us/

[Brad Dalton]

The icons and links are different in each section

How many times will they be different?

---

Tutorials for StudioPress Themes.

[oiseau73]

Hi Brad,

The different sections are:
Portfolio Review
Overview
Client Services
Managed Portfolios
Fixed Income
Corporate Retirement
Institutional Investing
Investor Education
Advertising

I am guessing that each of those sections would need a page template? I can add a widget for each section and add the code for the icons/links in there. What I need help with is what code with what genesis hooks I would add for each template.

Thanks!

[Brad Dalton]

You add a conditional tag after the functions for the widgets from your functions file or hard code them into a template. http://wpsites.net/web-design/adding-new-widget-areas-in-studiopress-themes/

Hooks

genesis_before_entry
genesis_entry_header

---

Tutorials for StudioPress Themes.

[oiseau73]

Oh boy, I have spent the past hour making a fine mess! Fortunately, there is a demo version of the site (whew) and I have been trying to add in the Managed Portfolios widget to this page:
http://bft-int.com/wp-demo1/dow-managed-portfolios/

I like the idea of using a conditional tag, but I have to tell you, I haven't a clue as to what I am doing. Starting with the code from your post:

add_action( 'genesis_after_header', 'your_widget' );
function your_widget() {
if ( is_front_page() && is_active_sidebar('new-widget') ) {
genesis_widget_area( 'new-widget', array(
'before' => '<div class="new-widget widget-area">',
'after'	 => '</div>',
		) ); 
 
  }
 
}

I have been trying different things:

add_action( 'genesis_before_entry', 'managed-portfolios' );
function genesis_entry_header() {
if ( is_page( 407 )  && is_active_sidebar('managed-portfolios') ) {
genesis_widget_area( 'managed-portfolios', array(
'before' => '<div class="content-column">',
'after'	 => '</div>',
		) ); 
 
}

Which does not work. 🙂

This line:
if ( is_page( 407 ) && is_active_sidebar('managed-portfolios') ) {
is trying to assign this sidebar to just page ID 407 which is the Managed Portfolio page.

This line:
'before' => '<div class="content-column">',
"content-column" is the div the icons & links are sitting in.

Guidance would be appreciated! Obviously, programming is not something I attempt very often.

Thanks!

[Brad Dalton]

It doesn't work because you have missed part of the code.

The first part of my code registers the widget which you have not used.

---

Tutorials for StudioPress Themes.

[McGuive7]

Hi Suzy,

I think you're on the right track with widget areas. If you needed different output on a per-page basis, then I would recommend implementing custom fields, however widget areas will work better for content that's shared across pages in specific sections. Anyhow, here's the solution I've implemented for this type of functionality on previous projects:

1. Create your widget area. Sounds like you've done this already.
2. It looks like the content is essentially mimicking the menu structure, so you could use a plugin like Simple Section Navigation. Not sure if that's what you're going for. Either way, add you content-specific widgets to the new widget area.
3. Use a plugin like Widget Context or Widget Logic to control where the widgets display. This will allow you to output specific content on specific sections of your site, either via url pattern matching, or custom PHP logic. This will be dictated by how your different sections are defined. If they are just based on your page structure, then Widget Context and URL matching should work well.
4. Output the widget area on whichever action hook works best for the location you want. Based on what you've described and the current layout of the site, it looks like genesis_entry_header should work well (the Genesis Visual Hook Guide is a great resource to figure this out). One thing to mention is that you'll likely want to add an if ( is_singular() ) conditional to make sure the widget isn't output on posts on archive/search/etc pages.

So that's the top-level view of what I've done. Let me know if you need more specifics or have any questions. Best of luck!

[oiseau73]

Hi Brad,

Sorry I left that out. This is what I have to register the widget:

genesis_register_sidebar( array(
	'id'          => 'managed-portfolios',
	'name'        => __( 'Managed Portfolios', 'metro' ),
	'description' => __( 'Managed Portfolio links.', 'metro' ),
) );

Thanks, McGuive7, I will take a look at those plugins.

[McGuive7]

Hi Suzy,

I think you're on the right track with widget areas. If you needed different output on a per-page basis, then I would recommend implementing custom fields, however widget areas will work better for content that's shared across pages in specific sections. Anyhow, here's the solution I've implemented for this type of functionality on previous projects:

1. Create your widget area. Sounds like you've done this already.
2. It looks like the content is essentially mimicking the menu structure, so you could use a plugin like Simple Section Navigation. Not sure if that's what you're going for. Either way, add you content-specific widgets to the new widget area.
3. Use a plugin like Widget Context or Widget Logic to control where the widgets display. This will allow you to output specific content on specific sections of your site, either via url pattern matching, or custom PHP logic. This will be dictated by how your different sections are defined. If they are just based on your page structure, then Widget Context and URL matching should work well.
4. Output the widget area on whichever action hook works best for the location you want. Based on what you've described and the current layout of the site, it looks like genesis_entry_header should work well (the Genesis Visual Hook Guide is a great resource to figure this out). One thing to mention is that you'll likely want to add an if ( is_singular() ) conditional to make sure the widget isn't output on posts on archive/search/etc pages.

So that's the top-level view of what I've done. Let me know if you need more specifics or have any questions. Best of luck!

[Author]

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