Wordpress Themes - WP Forum at BFA - Noobish question: Do I have to hard code to add widgets to just one particular page?

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- Atahualpa 3 Wordpress theme (http://forum.bytesforall.com/forumdisplay.php?f=2)

- - Noobish question: Do I have to hard code to add widgets to just one particular page? (http://forum.bytesforall.com/showthread.php?t=8803)

Noobish question: Do I have to hard code to add widgets to just one particular page?

Hi all.. i'm extremely new at wordpress (and website creation for that matter) and just installed atahualpa, which i think is the best theme i've came across so far.

1)I would like to have a landing page where I put a content slider or some other widgets/feeds (ie. a typical homepage). I've tried adding a new widget area but it ended up in all pages and posts. I hope I don't have to end up coding the page as I don't know codes at all (perhaps just some basic html).

2)I have added a blank page and pointed the blog page option to this blank page where my posts will be shown. I hope this is the right way to do it.

I would really appreciate if someone can enlighten me on this. Thank you!

You can use plugins like Frontpage-Slideshow which you can set to only show on the front page or you can use a plugins like Display Widgets to choose which pages a widget you put in a widget area shows up on. I spend many hours testing and trying plugins, various configurations, and use to test a whole bunch of themes until Atahualpa. It does have a steeper learning curve but it will also do just about anything I want. Have fun and wander through (and test) the various settings and you will be even more convinced.

Also a healthy knowledge of CSS will serve you well and W3Schools.com can help there.

Hope that helps.

Hi Larry, thank you.. that was great information :) i'll try to digest some stuff off w3schools hopefully..

I'm finding it quite difficult to focus on my learning cos there is just too much information around.. free or paid? dreamweaver, wordpress or joomla? etc etc.. i'll be looking through information on a site or topic before it gets linked to another which also has a wealth of information and i start to get distracted. Is there anyone out there who faces the same difficulty?

Well, Ive gone the Dreamweaver and Joomla route and am sold on WordPress for a platform. But for any of them knowing CSS is an immense help.

:) I'll stick with wordpress.. w3schools has great tutorials, thanks again

Hello! I'm new to WP and Atahualpa, as well. Wow! It's amazing, as we all know.

As for the widget thing: For me, I used the Atahualpa Theme Options:

ATO > Sidebars & Widgets > Add new WIDGET AREAS

I called it 'product footer' for example. Then I see the new widget area when I go to Appearance > Widgets. I added the stuff I want to 'product footer' just like the other sidebar widget areas.

The cool thing is that my brother found a post on how to optionally display things (or optionally turn them off) certain pages. (See this post.) I modified this approach by optionally turning off my new 'footer widget' in the actual footer (ATO > Footer):

PHP Code:


		
			
<?php if( !is_page('410') ) :?>

      <?php bfa_widget_area('name=proargi_footer'); ?>

<?php endif;?>

(blah blah blah - rest of real footer)...

So this means that I want my 'product footer' widget stuff to show up everywhere *except* on that one page (which happens to be our actual product page - I don't want the info twice.) You could do the same thing, but take out the "!" so it will show ONLY on that page you specify.

I hope this is the correct approach. I wanted to avoid editing PHP files directly so I look for solutions within WP and Atahualpa. So far I have done everything I need to do without having to edit any 'system files'. Good luck!

- Suzanne.

Another option instead of using the is_page is the Display Widgets plugin. It adds a section on each widget to either show or hide on certain pages. For me it beats coding.

Quote:

Another option instead of using the is_page is the Display Widgets plugin. It adds a section on each widget to either show or hide on certain pages. For me it beats coding.

Thanks! I was looking for something like this - perfect. I'll give it a try. I'm working on my "plugin search skills"... There are many and a few are gems.

- Suzanne.

PS - in my case, for the footer, I only have code in that one part - works for my specifics, although the plugin you mention seems to be very useful. I noticed, however, that many plugins add a lot of overhead - so my goal has been to seek solutions within the WP and Atahualpa settings whenever possible. I have some wild & crazy (lazy?) friends that add plugins for everything - and end up with conflicts and huge sites. Just trying to simplify! [question to self: so do plugins make a site more 'portable' to other themes? Hmmmm]