[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #17979: Avoid losing widgets when switching themes

[WordPress Trac]

#17979: Avoid losing widgets when switching themes
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 Reporter:  lancewillett             |       Owner:  ryan
     Type:  task (blessed)           |      Status:  closed
 Priority:  high                     |   Milestone:  3.3
Component:  Widgets                  |     Version:  2.9
 Severity:  normal                   |  Resolution:  fixed
 Keywords:  has-patch needs-testing  |
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Comment (by chrisbliss18):

 Long time reader, first time commenter. I would have joined in earlier,
 but ideas were already set when I saw this ticket.

 There are a couple of things that I haven't seen people directly address
 in this discussion:

  1. Themes aren't the only source of sidebars. The following are a few
 plugins that I found in about ten minutes of searching: Core Sidebars,
 Custom sidebars, Dynamics Sidebars, Sidebar Generator, Tabbed Widgets,
 Tabber Widget, Widgets on Pages, and WP Sidebars. Not only do these
 plugins add sidebars, most of them offer a variable number of sidebars, so
 the addition of new sidebars and the removal of current ones are
 relatively-common occurrences that don't involve changes in the theme.
  1. There are a number of themes that support variable sidebars either
 though options that add and remove sidebars or through filters that allow
 for control over the sidebars. Some examples that I know of: Builder by
 iThemes, Canvas by WooThemes, Catalyst, EvoLve by Theme4Press, Genesis by
 StudioPress, Headway, Hybrid by Theme Hybrid, StartBox, Thematic, and WP
 Paintbrush. As with the plugins listed above, sidebars appearing and
 disappearing during use are not rare events.

 Given the current state of this solution and the information given above,
 seeing widgets pop into Inactive Sidebar locations is not limited to just
 theme changes. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of this, but I do find it
 acceptable. The main thing I'm concerned about is how the text for the
 Inactive Sidebars very explicitly limits the explanation to an old theme /
 new theme relationship. Since it is quite possible for these Inactive
 Sidebars to be created via other actions, this could be confusing to
 users.

 All the browsers I have tested (Firefox and Chrome in Ubuntu and IE 9 in
 Win 7) cut off the Inactive Sidebar titles to "Inactive Sidebar (from
 previous them" due to it being too long to fit in the box, so shortening
 is needed. In addition, there is no explanation to users on how to remove
 the Inactive Sidebar from the Widgets page. Since this is considered to be
 a fairly rare occurrence for most users, I think having details in the
 description could be helpful.

 I'm attaching a patch with a proposed change of text. I'm not attached to
 the wording, but I do want to ensure that the wording doesn't limit the
 explanation to just a theme switch.

 Current trunk Inactive Sidebar title and description:

   Inactive Sidebar (from previous theme)

   This is a left over sidebar from an old theme and does not show anywhere
 on your site

 Title and description supplied in patch:

   Inactive Sidebar (not used)

   This sidebar that is no longer available and does not show anywhere on
 your site. Remove each of the widgets below to fully remove this inactive
 sidebar.

 I should note that I am very glad that people settled on the current
 solution (Inactive Sidebar listings) rather than the forced filling of
 sidebars. This is because I saw widget shuffling while using some of the
 above-mentioned plugins and themes due to the attempt to migrate orphaned
 widgets to existing sidebars. This was definitely not desirable.

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/17979#comment:117>
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