Showing sidebar-2 on custom template page

Question

Environment: WP 3.5, Twenty Twelve child theme. I created a custom template. Now, I'd like to display the built-in sidebar-2 in this custom template page (instead of the default sidebar-1). sidebar-2 is already registered by twenty twelve functions.php. I read a bit about get_sidebar and how to activate other sidebars, but I'm still a bit confused. To activate sidebar-2 on this custom template I created a file sidebar-customtemplate.php in my child theme directory with this content:

<?php if ( is_active_sidebar( 'sidebar-2' ) ) : ?>
    <div id="secondary" class="widget-area" role="complementary">               
        <?php dynamic_sidebar( 'sidebar-2' ); ?>
    </div><!-- #secondary -->
<?php endif; ?>

Then in my custom template file I replaced get_sidebar(); with <?php get_sidebar( $customtemplate ); ?>. Then I added some widgets to the sidebar-2 (from Appearance - Widget), but in the home page still sidebar-1 is displayed! Why? :(

Answer 1

you can put this code in your functions

add_action( 'init', 'register_my_menus' );
function register_my_menus() {
    register_nav_menus(
        array(
            'menu-1' => __( 'Head' )
        )
    );
}

and this code, in the place you want your second menu

<?php wp_nav_menu( array( 'theme_location' => 'menu-1' ) ); ?>

and than, you can control your new menu, through the menu section in the admin panel

Answer 2

<?php get_sidebar( 'customtemplate' ); ?> 

did the thing :)

Answer 3

Rename that sidebar-2 into sidebar-sidebar2.php and after use this code

<?php get_sidebar('sidebar2');?>

hope its may work

Answer 4

Did you create a CSS that includes both left and right side bars?

/*----------------------------------------------------
    2 sidebars
---------------------------------------------------- */
#sidebar {
    Float:left;
    width:20%;
    display:block;
}
#sidebar-core {
    margin-right:20px;
}
#main {
    float: left;
    width: 65%;
    display: block;
}
#intro,
#main-core {
    margin-right: 20px;
    margin-left: 20px;
}
#sidebarright {
    display: block;
    float: left;
    width: 15%;
}
#sidebarright-core {
    margin-left: 20px;
}

Upload this in your styles in your theme. Name it something like two-sidebars.css, then go to your functions.php and require this once. You will have to define the path, an example is like this:

wp_register_style( 'twosidebars', get_template_directory_uri() . '/styles/layouts/two-sidebar.css', '', '1.1' );

You will see the other sidebar options for requirements. Model what you do off that.

Now you will need a new sidebar.php that calls the CSS, so create a new one and name it something like sidbar2.php and insert something like this:

<div id="sidebar">
        <div id="sidebar-core">    
            <?php do_action( 'before_sidebar' ); ?>
            <?php if ( ! dynamic_sidebar() get_sidebar() ); ?>   
        </div>
</div><!-- #sidebar -->

<div id="sidebarright">
        <div id="sidebarright-core">
            <?php do_action( 'before_sidebar' ); ?>
            <?php if ( ! dynamic_sidebar() get_sidebar(sidebar2) ); ?>   
        </div>
</div><!-- #sidebar2 -->

Now all of this assumes you have already registered the array sidebar2 as an array in your functions.php. This also assumes you edited your stylesheet to include a separate style for sidebar2.