You've made a mistake in your widgets.php file, most probably forgetting to add an opening </php
tag at the start of your file. Also, I forgot one more thing, require_once("includes/widgets.php");
should not be in any function or hook
Just for the sake of interes, you can cut down on code if you register many sidebars by using a foreach
loop. Here is how I register my sidebars in my theme
<?php
function pietergoosen_widgets_init() {
$mainWidgets = array (
'sidebar-10' => array (
__( 'Main Sidebar', 'pietergoosen' ) => __( 'Main Sidebar for the website pages', 'pietergoosen' ),
),
'sidebar-11' => array (
__( 'Content Sidebar', 'pietergoosen' ) => __( 'Additional sidebar on the right of pages', 'pietergoosen' ),
),
// Sidebars 12, 13 and 14 not redundant as from twentyfourteen
'sidebar-15' => array ( // Used in footer-functions.php
__( 'Footer Widget One', 'pietergoosen' ) => __( 'Footer widgets', 'pietergoosen' ),
),
'sidebar-16' => array ( // Used in footer-functions.php
__( 'Footer Widget Two', 'pietergoosen' ) => __( 'Footer widgets', 'pietergoosen' ),
),
'sidebar-17' => array ( // Used in footer-functions.php
__( 'Footer Widget Three', 'pietergoosen' ) => __( 'Footer widgets', 'pietergoosen' ),
),
'sidebar-18' => array ( // Used in footer-functions.php
__( 'Footer Widget Four', 'pietergoosen' ) => __( 'Footer widgets', 'pietergoosen' ),
),
'sidebar-19' => array ( // Used in content-functions.php
__( 'Inside first post widget for advertising', 'pietergoosen' ) => __( 'Inside first post widget', 'pietergoosen' ),
),
'sidebar-20' => array ( // Used in content-functions.php
__( 'After first post widget', 'pietergoosen' ) => __( 'After first post widget for ads', 'pietergoosen' ),
)
);
foreach ( $mainWidgets as $mainId => $mainWidget ) {
foreach ($mainWidget as $mainWidgetname => $mainWidgetdescription)
{
register_sidebar(
array (
'name' => __( $mainWidgetname, 'pietergoosen' ),
'id' => $mainId,
'description' => __( $mainWidgetdescription, 'pietergoosen' ),
'before_widget' => '<aside id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
'after_widget' => '</aside>',
'before_title' => '<h1 class="widget-title">',
'after_title' => '</h1>',
));
}
}
}
add_action( 'widgets_init', 'pietergoosen_widgets_init' );