Balance Theme – Replace Home Page Posts with Widget

[jenwilson]

I would like to replace the "recent posts" section of the home page with just a text widget area. I have registered additional widget areas before but only in the sidebar.

Any or help or direction would be greatly appreciated.

http://agentsolutions.ca/mwpdemo

[jenwilson]

Hey there,

I was able to get a widget registered for the home page, however there is a slight alignment issue. The sidebar is being pushed down.

Any suggestions how I resolve the alignment so the sidebar sits normally to the right of the widget and post area?

Thanks in advance. 🙂

[jenwilson]

Morning...

Still looking for a bit on input on this one. 🙂

[jenwilson]

Still trying to work this out. Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[John]

Hi Jennifer,

It looks like you might have added the new widget area in the wrong place, or something along those lines, since your sidebar is now outside of your "content-sidebar-wrap" div container.

John

---

John Sundberg | blackhillswebworks.com
A WordPress developer’s toolbox: Firebug | WordPress Codex | Google 😉

[jenwilson]

Thank you so much John. This is the code I used:

Step 1

genesis_register_sidebar( array(
    'id' => 'home-featured',
    'name' => __( 'Home Featured', 'balance' ),
    'description' => __( 'This is the home featured section.', 'balance' ),
) );

Step 2

/** Add the home featured section */
add_action( 'genesis_before_loop', 'balance_home_featured' );
function balance_home_featured() {

    /** Do nothing on page 2 or greater */
    if ( get_query_var( 'paged' ) >= 2 )
        return;

    genesis_widget_area( 'home-featured', array(
    'before' => '
',
    ) );

}

Step 3

.home-featured {
    background-color: #f5f5f5;
    border: 1px solid #ddd;
    float: left;
}

Not sure exactly where I went wrong. :-/

[John]

Where did you add the code in steps 1 and 2?

---

John Sundberg | blackhillswebworks.com
A WordPress developer’s toolbox: Firebug | WordPress Codex | Google 😉

[jenwilson]

Step 1 - Added to the bottom of the functions.php file

Step 2 - Added directly after the <?php of the home.php file

[John]

If I were doing this, I would probably handle step 2 differently.

Instead, in home.php I would copy the two sections of code for the home-featured-left and -right widget areas, paste that code below those sections (and above the 'loop' actions, and then modify the code to reflect the 'home-featured' widget area you're wanting to achieve.

Then I would comment out the line that says

add_action( 'genesis_loop', 'child_grid_loop_helper' );

or just remove it and the child_grid_loop_helper function.

Finally, finish with whatever CSS edits are necessary to complete.

---

John Sundberg | blackhillswebworks.com
A WordPress developer’s toolbox: Firebug | WordPress Codex | Google 😉

[jenwilson]

Hmmmm... I will see if I can follow that.

What do you mean by "comment out"...

Thanks a lot for helping out with this.

[John]

In PHP you can comment out a line by adding // to the beginning of that line. Or you can comment out a block of PHP code by wrapping it in /* and */, much like CSS comments.

When you comment something in the code, your server ignores whatever is in the commented area.

---

John Sundberg | blackhillswebworks.com
A WordPress developer’s toolbox: Firebug | WordPress Codex | Google 😉

[JohnsonMktg]

I'm having a similar issue with the Education theme.... I've registered an extra widget in the functions.php file using:

genesis_register_sidebar( array(
	'id'			=> 	'close',
	'name'			=>	__( 'Close', 'education' ),
	'description'	=>	__( 'This is the close section displayed below the call to action banner.', 'education' ),

) );

and then added the widget hook to the home.php file as follows:

/** Add the home close section */
add_action( 'genesis_before_loop', 'education_close' );
function education_close() {

    /** Do nothing on page 2 or greater */
    if ( get_query_var( 'paged' ) >= 2 )
        return;

    genesis_widget_area( 'close', array(
    'before' => '
',
    ) );

}

however, no matter where i put the code to the home.php it shoves my sidebars underneath.... so any help would definitely be appreciated

[John]

JohnsonMktg,

A link to your site would help.

John

---

John Sundberg | blackhillswebworks.com
A WordPress developer’s toolbox: Firebug | WordPress Codex | Google 😉

[JohnsonMktg]

I figurd it out John... Thanks tho! However, Jen here is the code in the home.php i used after registering the new widget in functions.php:

/** Add the home close section */
add_action( 'genesis_after_content', 'education_close' );
function education_close() {   
/** Do nothing on page 2 or greater */
    if ( get_query_var( 'paged' ) >= 2 )
        return;

    genesis_widget_area( 'close', array(
    'before' => '<div class="after-post widget-area">',
			'after' => '</div>',
  ) );

}

All you should have to do is change the "education_close" to balance_home_featured or and "close" to home_featured or whatever your new widget name is and it should work perfectly!

[jenwilson]

I will give it a go. Thank you JohnsonMktg. 🙂

[Author]

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