Widget styling (visibility) customisation using conditionals

[Robodashy]

Hi helpfull forum community!

I have included a widget area at the bottom of certain pages to include the "Genesis - Featured Posts" widget, selecting featured posts specific to that page's category and displaying these at the bottom.
I'm wondering if there is a way to have that widget area show up only if there are news items within that category. I would assume it's an if statement or something of the like:

add_action( 'genesis_before', 'do_awesome_stuff' );
function do_awesome_stuff {
if (get_category('blah')->category_count > 0) {
// do stuff which removes widget area ... which is where I'm stuck
remove_action( 'something_goes_here' );
}
}

I think the reason I'm stuck is because these widget areas have all been added through the Extender Custom settings of the "Genesis Extender Plugin" (awesome plugin) - so I'm not sure how to call in that certain widget.

Am I on the right track? Or way off?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.
– Tom Waits, “Step Right Up”

[Tom]

Some of us are familiar with Extender (and some more than others! 🙂 ) but I expect you'll find better expertise over in the forums at CobaltApps. You might also look at the Widget Logic plugin, which allows you to run custom PHP from within any given widget.

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[Robodashy]

Hi Tom.

Oops, I should have closed this one off as resolved.

It was a mix of php and javascript scorcery. For anyone else's future reference I've posted my solution below (I've tried to comment it as much as possible):

//* Add support for hide news widgets if no posts
add_action( 'genesis_before', 'ybs_empty_category' );
function ybs_empty_category() {
//* Declare variables for each category you want to check
$charter=get_posts('category_name=charter-news');
$fares=get_posts('category_name=fares-and-tickets');
$school_transport_news=get_posts('category_name=school-transport-news');

//* Make sure you're on the right page, then check if the category for that page has posts
if (is_page( 'charter' ) && $charter->post_count == 0) {
//* Use PHP to echo out javascript - See, SCORCERY!!!!
echo "
<script type=\"text/javascript\">
jQuery(document).ready(function() {
document.getElementById('news_charter').style.display = 'none';
});
</script>";
}
}

---

The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.
– Tom Waits, “Step Right Up”

[Tom]

Thanks for the update and the code.

---

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[ Follow me: Twitter ] [ Follow Themes: Twitter ] [ My Favourite Webhost ]

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