Widgets

July 14, 2009 | documentation

Several custom widgets comes with the BigFeature theme. They are prefixed with BF, so it’s easy to see them in the widgets admin area. They were initially written for the pre wp2.8 API, but since the multiwidget API got so much simpler, they were recoded. That also means that the theme’s minimal requirement became WP2.8, but new is better than old! The new admin area widgets also got much simpler, now widgets can be dragged to a sidebar and rearranged without having to save.

Featured posts

Lists a set number of posts from a chosen category (e.g. featured). There is also an option to show thumbnails of the posts. In version 1.3.4 a width parameter was added due to adding a 2. sidebar column. This makes it possible to use this widget in a narrow sidebar column (like the 2. sidebar column or even the footerlinks widget area).

Page

This is simply a widget for displaying a page in the widget area (if no title only the contents will be shown). This can be useful for displaying ads or designing a static html “widget” with images (images can be uploaded and added to pages).

Feed

A widget with rss links and a feedburner email subscription form. The subscription for is only shown if a feedburner ID is entered in the theme settings.

Sidebars

There are 7 widget areas for this theme, the 2 sidebars, one for footer links and 4 for ads. The ones for ads can be used for adding other widgets too, but they are not styled for this purpose. Ads can be added with the text or page widgets. The advantage with using the custom page widget is that you can upload and add images more easily (or style text ads). Ads can be added to the main sidebar too of course, and there is also styles for the wp125 plugin/widget. Several custom widgets have also be created for this theme (listed below). See the widget documentation for more information on the sidebars and widgets.

Widget areas

Main sidebar
The right sidebar displayed if widgets are added to it (width can be set in the theme settings).
Sidebar 2
A second sidebar column displayed if widgets are added to it (width can be set in the theme settings).
Footer links
A styled widget area at the footer. It got 4 columns (182px wide each with default container width). Resize the featured posts widget if it’s added to this widget area.
Adspace
Top of the Page – Widget space above the logo/sitetitle. scope: the whole blog.
Adspace
Below Article – Widget space below the article. scope: front page (index.php) and single post page (single.php).
Adspace
Bottom of the Page – Widget space below the content and main sidebar. scope: the whole blog.
Adspace
Blog home below nav – Widget space below the navigation of the frontpage of the blog. This one can be used to add as a featured section (by adding a slider, bfthumbs or an featured image). scope: frontpage of the blog.

Example of usage

Here are some screenshots how these widgets can be used.

Page Widget

Page widget can be used for any html information/design in the sidebar and the ad widget spaces.

Image below is showing how the page widget can be used to add advertisement. The ads can be html formatted text with images and forms or just a linked image like in the example below. The sidebar used is “Adspace – Bottom of the Page”.