16May Widget on WP v. 2.2 – What is WordPress Widget?
A few of my friends are not very sure what is [tag]widget[/tag] and why some of the things on their sidebar seem to disappear when they use one of those widget ready theme. Well, this newly launched [tag]WordPress version 2.2. Getz[/tag] will make your blog widgetised. After your upgrading, you will see an extra pane on your dashboard.
See? Under Dashboard – Presentation, you get an extra page for Widget.
To explain simply, Widget is like little drawers in your cupboard. Your sidebar is the cupboard where you store a lot of things. To make things easy, you put them into individual little boxes. Some of the plugins you download may be widget ready and they normally appear as little boxes which you just drag to where you want it. There are widgets like RSS, Recent Comments, Categories, TextLinkAds and etc.
This is the bottom of the page with all the little drawers or widget. Do you note that there are some just call Text? This is where you insert your stuffs like Google Adsense codes or something like your links etc. To do it, just drag one Text box to where you want it appear. Then, you click on the Text box. A small window will appear.
Then, just copy over the codes that you want. For example, in the above little box, I added my Feedburner button.
Click save changes and voila, the thing will appear on your sidebar.
Once you are used to using Widget, you never want to add codes to your sidebar anymore. It is all drag and drop. This means, you can add as many things as you like or take away whatever without having to delete the code.
Just the other day, one of my friend accidentally deleted a php function and her whole sidebar disappeared. Now, with widgets, the risk is less.
So, go on, download WP 2.2 and enjoy the ride.
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May 16th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Lilian,
You make a good teacher, your explaination is much clearer than those tech guys.:-)
BTW, thx for writing the “idiot guide to PPP”, that helped a lot! i.e. I didn’t know I was supposed to click the “take the opp” button before I start writing until I read your “guide to idiots”. I did miss one or two opps becoz of that earlier.
May 17th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Wah Lilian (can I call you that?), taking over “my” job? I think you should at “Technology” in your title. LOL.
There was a plugin for WP called “sidebar-widgets”. I think the WP 2.2 just integrated this plugin into the core of it. I’m using the sidebar-widgets on WP 2.1.3. I’ve read and noticed some themes are not compatible with this sidebar-widgets.
I’m not sure if it’s the same case with the new WP 2.2. Just be on the lookout. I haven’t done any research on WP 2.2, we’ll see.
May 17th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
arrggghhhhh
*waves fist*
i d/loaded it….but i can’t find it in my plugin !!!!!
*sobs uncontrollably*…..why?? WHY?? WHY???!!!!
;-)
May 17th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
I have a few years teaching experience in the IT industry and I must say 5xmom explanation on widget rocks! :)
TenthOfMarch, WordPress 2.2 does have the widget built in it’s core so no need to install the old sidebar-widget separately. Also, some themes don’t support widget but you can “force” them to by adding a few lines in some files. I did it at my blog.
May 17th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Andrew Ooi: I know we don’t need to install the widget separately after WP 2.2. I was just wondering if WP 2.2 still has the same compatibility problem with certain themes (which you confirmed — thanks). The problem is, if upgrading to WP 2.2 will break some blog’s theme, then it will be a little problematic.
May 18th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Wow, that’s a really great feature, I might have to install it after all! I kind of didn’t want to because I was afraid of losing some plugins. Hmm… now I can’t decide!!
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:55 am
OOoooo…liddat is it? I very scared of upgrading coz I hate it when things get wonky. I normally get help from my host to upgrade. Safer…hehehe but I should learn n try lar. If somethign goes wrong then learn from it lor. But must first back up!! :) Very important…