How could a Widget behave differently depending on sidebar

Question

if sitting on sidebar-1, I need my widget to behave differently than if it were on sidebar-2. How can i detect the sidebar it is sitting on from within the widget() function?

The widget contains a list of links to posts. Depending on which sidebar, it should use a different custom image size version of its thumbnail.

So what will change is the thumbnail size reference name. For instance, in one sidebar, "xs-square-thumb" will be used; in another "L-square-thumb" will be used.

Ex: get_the_post_thumbnail($post->ID,'xs-square-thumb');

Answer 1

there isnt a clean way of handling this, since there isn't a conditional for checking which sidebar is in use, just whether or not it exists. however, you could do the following:

1. make two different versions of the widget (which would make it "future proof" in regards to what widget names could exist).

2. add a checkbox to the widget options to choose which size image to use.

Answer 2

You can check the 'id' variable that is passed in the $args variable in the widget() function, it will give you the id of the widgitized area it is currently in.

ex:

public function widget($args, $instance) {
  if( $args['id'] == 'sidebar-1' ) {
    //do sidebar stuff
  } else {
    //default behavior
  }
}