Im creating my own theme. When I have a clean wordpress installation, there are some default widgets in the sidebar (search, category, recent posts etc). I know that I can remove them from the sidebar by adding a widget to that sidebar, but I want them removed in the sidebar by default. Is there a way to do that without disabling the widget (unregister_widget())?
3 Answers
This function will disable all widgets:
add_filter( 'sidebars_widgets', 'wpse134172_disable_all_widgets' );
function wpse134172_disable_all_widgets( $sidebars_widgets ) {
if (true == true) {
$sidebars_widgets = array( false );
}
return $sidebars_widgets;
}
Now the true=true
conditional will disable them all the time, while you only want this to happen with a clean install. So you will have to add a different conditional. Which one depends on your actual purpose.
You could use is_active_widget
to test whether only the standard widgets are active.
Another option would be to use the after_switch_theme
hook to make the deactivation only happen when your theme is activated.
You could even detect whether the user has visited the widgets page in the backend and decide that after this he apparently is cool with the widgets as they are. This would involve setting an option in the database.
It works for me. Deregister all widgets from sidebar. You have to call it once, for example in after_switch_theme action
EDIT:
https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_get_sidebars_widgets/
"This function’s access is marked private. This means it is not intended for use by plugin or theme developers, only in other core functions"
add_action('after_switch_theme', 'deregister_sidebar_widgets');
function deregister_sidebar_widgets () {
$sidebar_widgets = wp_get_sidebars_widgets();
foreach($sidebar_widgets['sidebar'] as $i => $widget) {
unset($sidebars_widgets['sidebar'][$i]);
}
wp_set_sidebars_widgets($sidebars_widgets);
}
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wp_get_sidebars_widgets is an internal function and you can't use it in your code directly. if you know the widget class there is a better solution: stackoverflow.com/a/9219730/4110112– Den PatJun 29, 2020 at 6:08
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@DenPat You CAN use it in code directly. And your suggested solution does not work for me– G.F.Jun 30, 2020 at 15:25
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Please check the codex: developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/… You should not use that function when codex says it, we should not do it.– Den PatJul 1, 2020 at 8:29
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@DenPat But you can use it, and wordpress gives you that ability. In codex not pointed that you shouldn't use it, just being told "is not intended for use by plugin or theme developers". Please, be precise in expressions :)– G.F.Jul 2, 2020 at 18:28
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1@DenPat not, it's not directly translated as shouldn't. I'm completely disagree with you. You can interpret words like you want. My interpretation is: not recommended but allowed to use. I will edit the post to aware users about it– G.F.Jul 3, 2020 at 11:02
I have a widget area called "aftercontent" and I wanted to disable the Categories and Annual Archive Widgets when viewing a custom post type called Staff. This is how I did it.
add_filter( 'sidebars_widgets', 'epca_disable_widgets' );
function epca_disable_widgets( $sidebars_widgets ) {
if ('staff' == get_post_type()) {
foreach($sidebars_widgets['aftercontent'] as $i => $widget){
if(substr( $widget, 0, 10 ) === "categories"){
unset($sidebars_widgets['aftercontent'][$i]);
}
if(substr( $widget, 0, 21 ) === 'annual_archive_widget'){
unset($sidebars_widgets['aftercontent'][$i]);
}
}
}
return $sidebars_widgets;
}
I used "substr( $widget, 0, 10 )" because if I want to remove any widget that begins with "categories". Else I could have just said "if($widget == 'categories-3')" or whatever the exact name of the widget is.
WP_DEFAULT_THEME
in yourwp-config.php
on brand new installs and make sure your own theme folder exists properly in order to avoid default WP themes being activated.