Adding Blog Sidebar

[michiganseo]

Hi All,

I'm trying to add a sidebar for all my blog posts that would be different than my pages. I came across the following blog post that sounded exactly perfect: http://www.billerickson.net/code/blog-sidebar-genesis/. It did successfully remove the primary sidebar from my blog posts. However, when I go to appearance>widgets there is no "blog" sidebar listed in which I can put my widgets... Any body know what may be missing?

Thanks!

[Victor Font]

Try the Genesis Simple Sidebars plugin. It's easier.

---

Regards,

Victor
https://victorfont.com/
Call us toll free: 844-VIC-FONT (842-3668)
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[michiganseo]

Hi Victor,
Thanks for that. I definitely do use the Genesis Simple Sidebars plugin. However, my goal is to have all blog posts "default" to a "blog" sidebar -- and all existing posts to be automatically converted over without going into every single post and making that change. Thanks for your help.

[Victor Font]

Genesis Simple Sidebars works on a page level, not post level. Posts are displayed by the single.php template. You can call sidebars dynamically in functions.php with the following code:

function vmf_remove_sidebar() {
	if ( is_single() || is_category() || is_tag() ) {  //set your conditionals here
		remove_action( 'genesis_sidebar', 'ss_do_sidebar' );     //removes Simple Sidebar
		remove_action( 'genesis_sidebar', 'genesis_do_sidebar' );   //removes Genesis Default sidebar 
		add_action( 'genesis_sidebar', 'vmf_add_sidebar' ); //adds alternative sidebar in function below
	}   
}
//Alternative Sidebar
function vmf_add_sidebar() {
	dynamic_sidebar( 'blog-sidebar' ); //add in the ID of the sidebar you want to replace it with
}
add_action( 'genesis_before_sidebar_widget_area', 'vmf_remove_sidebar' );

Be careful with the conditionals. I didn't add one for the blog page itself, but you can lookup is_page in the codex if you need it. Sice you said you are using Simple Sidebars, I added a line to remove that action so there's no conflict. If you don't need it, you should comment it out.

---

Regards,

Victor
https://victorfont.com/
Call us toll free: 844-VIC-FONT (842-3668)
Have you requested your free website audit yet?

[michiganseo]

Hi Victor,
Thank you. I will try that. Is this an all or nothing proposition -- meaning if I add this code, I will no longer be able to use the Genesis Simple Sidebar on posts? Just curious. I assume I won't be able to, but just wanted to double-check.

[Victor Font]

The code I gave you removes Simple Sidebars from all posts in favor of your own custom sidebar. You can limit it to specific post categories or tags. Look up is_category and is_tag in the codex to learn how to do this. There is no WordPress conditional that I know of that tests whether or not a sidebar has been attached to a specific post or page. The WordPress sidebar conditionals test whether a sidebar has a widget or not. If there is a widget attached to a sidebar, the sidebar is considered active regardless of the origin of the sidebar. If you want something that isn't all or nothing, you'll have to either futrther filter the conditionals or create your own page template(s) that use the sidebars you want for the conditions you specify.

---

Regards,

Victor
https://victorfont.com/
Call us toll free: 844-VIC-FONT (842-3668)
Have you requested your free website audit yet?

[michiganseo]

Thank you, Victor! Much appreciated!

[Author]

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