[wp-hackers] Sidebar ID Naming Problems

[Charles K. Clarkson]

Chris Jean wrote:

>  I'd love a solution that allowed me
> to specify very specific sidebar IDs using alphanumeric, -, and _ 
> characters.
> 
> I'm going to start working on a Core patch that does just that. Does 
> anyone know of any potential pitfalls as I begin working with this? For 
> example, is there code in the widget handling that expects/requires an 
> integer sidebar id?

Hey Chris,

I already have a ticket open: http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/11160

It does what you want by allowing you to pass an array as the parameter:

array(
     'id' => 'foo'
     'name' => 'My Weird Sidebar name',
}

I didn't test for this solution yet, but you should be able to pass the same
array to is_active_sidebar(), dynamic_sidebar() and unregister_sidebar() as
you do to register_sidebar().

So, you could set your arrays up for register sidebar and then use those same
arrays for all other sidebar functions.

Assuming $my_sidebars is a long list of sidebars:

foreach ( $my_sidebars as $name => $side_bar ) {
     register_sidebar($side_bar);
}

if ( is_active_sidebar( $my_sidebars['categories'] ) ) {
     dynamic_sidebar( $my_sidebars['categories'] );
}

Unlike now, dynamic_sidebar() will find the id in the array and do the right
thing.


HTH,

Charles Clarkson
-- 
Mobile Home Investor
Free Market Advocate
Programmer

I'm not really a smart person. I just play one on the Internet.

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