Additional Sidebar

Question

Hi I wanted to create extra sidebar in my theme and I am not sure if what I did is correct.

In my theme functions.php I found this function:

    function blankslate_widgets_init() {
register_sidebar( array (
'name' => __('Sidebar Widget Area', 'blankslate'),
'id' => 'primary-widget-area',
'before_widget' => '<li id="%1$s" class="widget-container %2$s">',
'after_widget' => "</li>",
'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
'after_title' => '</h3>',
) );
}

and Inside I pasted the new sidebar so it is like that now

register_sidebar( array (
'name' => __('Sidebar Widget Area', 'blankslate'),
'id' => 'primary-widget-area',
'before_widget' => '<li id="%1$s" class="widget-container %2$s">',
'after_widget' => "</li>",
'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
'after_title' => '</h3>',
) );


register_sidebar( array (
'name' => __('Left Sidebar', 'blankslate'),
'id' => 'left_sidebar',
'before_widget' => '<li id="%1$s" class="widget-container %2$s">',
'after_widget' => "</li>",
'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
'after_title' => '</h3>',
) );
}

after I've done this the widget appears in the dashboard perfectly

then I add this code where I wanted the sidebar to appear

<?php dynamic_sidebar('left_sidebar'); ?>

and that worked perfectly for me.

I'm not sure if this is the correct way and just worried if my theme will crush.

Can anyone advise me please?

Answer 1

Your function seems fine and it's probably hooked on init :

add_action('init','blankslate_widgets_init')
function blankslate_widgets_init() {
 //code
}

But in your theme you probably want to add some checking :

<?php if (is_active_sidebar('left-sidebar')) dynamic_sidebar('left-sidebar'); ?>

I would use left-sidebar instead left_sidebar as sidebar ID perhaps.