Solved. Maybe not elegant, but working...
I changed the way my sidebar logic operates, using two levels of conditionals... so that I could say else {} twice, once only if_page() and at the end... without specifying whether page or category or single (basically, if using the index page, since the only time it is ever used is when clicking one of the categories AND no posts exist)
<?php
if (is_page()) {
if($post->post_parent) { // page is a child
wp_list_pages('depth=1&sort_column=menu_order&title_li=&child_of='.$post->post_parent);
echo('');
}
elseif(wp_list_pages("child_of=".$post->ID."&echo=0")) { // page has children
wp_list_pages('depth=1&sort_column=menu_order&title_li=&child_of='.$post->ID);
echo('');
}
elseif (is_page(11)) {
echo ('
<p>stuff I want to show</p>
');
}
else { include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/file_i_want_to_show.php');
}
}
elseif (is_category()) {
echo '<h2>Text title here</h2>
';
wp_list_categories('title_li=&orderby=name&hide_empty=0&child_of=54&use_desc_for_title=0');
echo '
';
}
else {
echo '<h2>Text title here</h2>
';
wp_list_categories('title_li=&orderby=name&hide_empty=0&child_of=54&use_desc_for_title=0');
echo '
';
}
?>
seems to work, though I am sure it is not elegant... so if there IS some way to test for using the index.php file (when clicking a cat list link where the cat has no posts) and then displaying specific sidebar content, I'm still all ears. meanwhile, I'll mark this resolved, since it seems to work.
