How can I make my theme widget aware?

stvwlf:

Wld appreciate your help. I tried using Automatic widget loader on WP and don’t see them anywhere after I activate. Suspect that I need to find and plug some code in somewhere…???

Also, any clues on how to create a contact section on my Home Page. Do I need to FTP upload the contact form and photo to my host (through Godaddy)?

Can’t be this complicated, can it? As you see, I am totally lost. Help!

Hi: Isn’t the theme atahualpa widget ready? It yalks about having widgets. I thought all the new themes were. Also: Yes, I am referring to a Contact Form. I did download it on WP but can’t find it on the site after activating. This is why I am thinking that code is necessary on the host site???. Hope not.

@stephenlove:

I’m sorry I thought your questions were being asked by the same person who started this post. His question was about making a theme widget aware, so I answered assuming your theme was not widget aware since the original question had been about making it so.

I am still not clear on what your widget problem is. My limited experience with atahualpa has been that it does things very much its own way. My suggestion for testing is switch to the default theme and see if your widget problem still exists in the default theme. If it works in the default theme and not in atahualpa then there is a problem with the way the theme interacts with the widget. If it doesn’t work in default theme either then it is a widget problem. Please start there.

Contact: Please read the instructions that come with your contact form plugin. (If you are having trouble, please post back the name of the Contact form plugin you installed as there are a number of them).

Most of them work by having you insert a specific code in the body of a WordPress post or page in the place you want the contact form appear. It won’t appear anywhere until you insert the code.

As far as photo, you have to get the photo uploaded to your server somehow – You should be able to use the builtin WordPress media library to upload your photo. Or, you can use an FTP program, or use GoDaddy’s file manager. Any of those will work.

If I haven’t answered all of your questions please post back.

Hi

I just took a look at the instructions for Contact Form 7.

They say the plugin control panel is in ‘Manage > Contact Form 7’ (on WordPress 2.7+)

Do you not see the control panel there?

If you can’t get that one to work take a look at this one
http://yoast.com/wordpress/enhanced-wordpress-contact-form/
I used it on one site and it worked great.

I suggest you set yourself up with an FTP program. This one is free and has both PC and Mac versions. Once you set the initial connection to your server up, you can download and upload things to the server easily without having to go into GoDaddy’s web based file mananger.
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_FileZilla

If you are going to run your own site its really wise to get in the habit of using FTP – it makes things much simpler once you learn the not very long learning curve. Then you just drag files from your computer to the server pane and the software automatically uploads it into whatever folder you have set the active folder to – point and click.

I’m not really familiar with WordPress for Dummies (except when I look in the mirror…) so I can’t comment on its value as a book.

There is a LOT of good material on the Codex – its a bit hard to locate sometimes – not only about WordPress but about basic computer issues related to WordPress and blogging

Start here – http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page

WordPress is not the easiest thing for newcomers to learn, but really in comparison with similar programs I find it easier to learn – it is very powerful- there are not many limits to what you can do – so of course there is quite a bit to learn. But you just learn it step by step. There are tons of blogs about WordPress and blogging, full of useful tutorials and suggestions. Just Google for WordPress Tips or WordPress Tutorials. yes there is a lot that’s not all that useful, but that’s no different than anything else – the point is there is a lot of great stuff too. just searching this forum for past forum posts and solution gives a ton of useful answers to questions.

Wish you the best with your WordPress experience – you can definitely do it if you decide you want to learn. Of course one feels dumb at times when learning something new – comes with the territory. Everyone here who seems to know something started at one point not knowing what they know now… Ask good questions & try things & you will catch on. I learn new things about it every day.
take care
Steve

I’ve checked several tutorials on how to make a theme widget-aware, but I can’t see code in my ‘sidebar.php’ that comes anywhere near matching what I’m supposed to be looking for to even make a start.

Would someone be able to describe what I need to change?

Sidebar:

<? include("adsense.php"); ?>

<h2>Pages</h2>
<ul><?php wp_list_pages('title_li=' ); ?></ul>
<h2><?php _e('Categories:'); ?></h2>
<ul><?php wp_list_cats('optioncount=1');    ?></ul>

<div style="padding-left:10px; padding-top:5px; padding-bottom:5px;">
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "<?=$GoogleADID?>";
google_ad_width = 160;
google_ad_height = 600;
google_ad_format = "160x600_as";
google_ad_type = "text_image";
google_ad_channel ="";
google_color_border = "E7EBDE";
google_color_bg = "FDFBF8";
google_color_link = "676E04";
google_color_url = "8A3207";
google_color_text = "000000";
//--></script>
<script type="text/javascript"
  src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
</div>

<h2><label for="s"><?php _e('Search:'); ?></label></h2>
<ul>
<li>
<form id="searchform" method="get" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>">
<div style="text-align:center">
<p><input type="text" name="s" id="s" size="15" /></p>
<p><input type="submit" name="submit" value="<?php _e('Search'); ?>" /></p>
</div>
</form>
</li>
</ul>
<h2><?php _e('Monthly:'); ?></h2>
<ul><?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly&show_post_count=true'); ?></ul>

<h2><?php _e('RSS Feeds:'); ?></h2>
<ul>
<li>
<a title="RSS2 Feed for Posts" href="<?php bloginfo('rss2_url'); ?>">Posts</a> | <a title="RSS2 Feed for Comments" href="<?php bloginfo('comments_rss2_url'); ?>">Comments</a></li>
</ul>

Thanks very much to anyone who may take the bother of having a go at this!