Wordpress admin option for users to select custom Sidebar widgets per page

Question

First of all, I have created sidebars on the widget panel:

add_action( 'widgets_init', 'my_register_sidebars' );

function my_register_sidebars() {

    register_sidebar(
        array(
            'id' => 'sidebar1',
            'name' => __( 'Sidebar1' ),
            'description' => __( 'The Sidebar 1.' ),
            'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
            'after_widget' => '</div>',
            'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
            'after_title' => '</h3>'
        )
    );

I have created a number of custom sidebar layouts. I want each of these layouts to be it's own widget, as an option like the default wordpress ones (e.g. archives, calendar, RSS, Search, Tag Cloud etc). So I can select which ones I want available for every site created.

Then depending on which sidebars I have made available I want the option for users (when creating / editing a page) to be able to choose from a dropdown sidebar options box, which layout they want on the relevant page - So this can then be called dynamically instead of having to call each layout specifically myself:

get_sidebar('$user-selected');

Apologies for waffling a bit, but any help is appreciated.

(p.s. I want to avoid using plugins)

Thanks, Matt.

SHd SHd · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-25T10:48:29

Just use a custom field with a select box which displays all the available sidebars. Then in your page template check for the custom field value and output accordingly.

Wordpress admin option for users to select custom Sidebar widgets per page

1 Answers