Help with Conditional Tags for Archives/Category Pages

Hi —

I’m trying to make some modifications to my theme’s archives template page and have run into a roadblock. I want to have the ability to make certain sections of the template to be different using conditional tags based up the category id.

For example, you’ll see a div (<div id=”similar” class=”rightcol”>) below that includes the text EXTRA SPACE. I want to be able to use this area for different text/images depending on the category.

I’m not very fluent in PHP, so I’d definitely appreciate any help!

Here’s the code:

<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/header.php'); ?>

	<div id="content">

		<?php /* If this is a category archive */ if (is_category()) { ?>
		<h2 class="blocktitle"><span><?php echo single_cat_title(); ?></span><a href="<?php echo $feedURL; ?>" class="ico-rss"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/feed.png" alt="RSS: News Maker" /></a></h2>

		<?php /* If this is a daily archive */ } elseif (is_day()) { ?>
		<h2 class="blocktitle"><span>Archive for <?php the_time('F jS, Y'); ?></span><a href="<?php echo $feedURL; ?>" class="ico-rss"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/feed.png" alt="RSS: News Maker" /></a></h2>

		<?php /* If this is a monthly archive */ } elseif (is_month()) { ?>
		<h2 class="blocktitle"><span>Archive for <?php the_time('F, Y'); ?></span><a href="<?php echo $feedURL; ?>" class="ico-rss"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/feed.png" alt="RSS: News Maker" /></a></h2>

		<?php /* If this is a yearly archive */ } elseif (is_year()) { ?>
		<h2 class="blocktitle"><span>Archive for <?php the_time('Y'); ?></span><a href="<?php echo $feedURL; ?>" class="ico-rss"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/feed.png" alt="RSS: News Maker" /></a></h2>

		<?php /* If this is an author archive */ } elseif (is_author()) { ?>
		<h2 class="blocktitle"><span>Author Archive</span><a href="<?php echo $feedURL; ?>" class="ico-rss"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/feed.png" alt="RSS: News Maker" /></a></h2>

		<?php /* If this is a paged archive */ } elseif (isset($_GET['paged']) && !empty($_GET['paged'])) { ?>
		<h2 class="blocktitle"><span>Blog Archives</span><a href="<?php echo $feedURL; ?>" class="ico-rss"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/feed.png" alt="RSS: News Maker" /></a></h2>

		<!--do not delete-->
		<?php } ?>

		<?php
			$paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
			if (($paged == 1) && (is_category())) { //if this is page 1, then use the same layout as the homepage and the special archive sidebar
		?>

		<div id="lastpost" class="leftcol">
			<?php
				$lastPost = new WP_Query();
				$lastPost->query($query_string . '&showposts=1&paged=1');
				while ( $lastPost->have_posts() ) : $lastPost->the_post();
			?>

			<?php if(get_post_meta($post->ID, "image", $single = true) != "") : ?>
				<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/thumb.php?src=<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, "image", $single = true); ?>&w=450&h=300&zc=1&q=95" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" id="post-image" /></a>
			<?php endif; ?>

			<div class="snippet leftcol">
				<h2 class="title"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
				<p class="meta">Posted on <?php the_time('F j, Y'); ?> in: <?php the_category(', '); ?></p>
				<div class="excerpt"><?php the_excerpt(); ?></div>
				<p class="readmore"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>">more</a></p>
			</div>

			<div id="similar" class="rightcol">
				<h3>EXTRA SPACE</h3>
Use this space for something useful			</div>

			<?php endwhile ?>	

		</div>	

		<div id="latestposts" class="rightcol">
			<?php
				$latestPosts = new WP_Query();
				$latestPosts->query($query_string . '&showposts=4&offset=1');
				while ( $latestPosts->have_posts() ) : $latestPosts->the_post();
			?>
			<div class="snippet">
				<?php if(get_post_meta($post->ID, "image", $single = true) != "") : ?>
						<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/thumb.php?src=<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, "image", $single = true); ?>&w=160&h=100&zc=1&q=95" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" class="alignleft" /></a>
				<?php endif; ?>

				<h3 class="title"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title() ?></a></h3>
				<div class="excerpt"><?php the_excerpt(); ?></div>
			</div><!-- .snippet -->
			<?php endwhile ?>
		</div>

		<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/featured.php'); ?>

		<div id="archive">

			<h2 class="blocktitle"><span>Archives</span></h2>

			<div id="archive-listing" class="leftcol">
				<?php
					$morePosts = new WP_Query();
					$morePosts->query($query_string . '&showposts=5&offset=5&paged=' . $paged);
					while ( $morePosts->have_posts() ) : $morePosts->the_post();
				?>
				<div class="snippet">
					<?php if(get_post_meta($post->ID, "image", $single = true) != "") : ?>
						<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/thumb.php?src=<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, "image", $single = true); ?>&w=120&h=80&zc=1&q=95" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" class="alignleft" /></a>
					<?php endif; ?>
					<h3 class="title"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title() ?></a></h3>
					<p class="meta">Posted on <?php the_time('F j, Y'); ?> in: <?php the_category(', '); ?></p>
					<div class="excerpt"><?php the_excerpt(); ?></div>
				</div><!-- .post -->
				<?php endwhile; ?>

				<div class="navigation">
					<div class="navleft"><?php previous_posts_link('<img src="' . get_bloginfo(template_url) . '/images/btn_prev.png" alt="Prev" />', '0') ?></div>
					<div class="navright"><?php next_posts_link('<img src="' . get_bloginfo(template_url) . '/images/btn_next.png" alt="Next" />', '0') ?></div>
				</div>

			</div>

			<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/sidebar_category.php'); ?>

		</div>

		<?php } else { //if this is not page 1, then use the archive layout ?>

		<div id="archive-listing" class="leftcol">
			<?php
				while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
			?>
			<div class="snippet">
				<?php if(get_post_meta($post->ID, "image", $single = true) != "") : ?>
					<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/thumb.php?src=<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, "image", $single = true); ?>&w=120&h=80&zc=1&q=95" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" class="alignleft" /></a>
				<?php endif; ?>
				<h3 class="title"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title() ?></a></h3>
				<p class="meta">Posted on <?php the_time('F j, Y'); ?> in: <?php the_category(', '); ?></p>
				<div class="excerpt"><?php the_excerpt(); ?></div>
			</div><!-- .post -->
			<?php endwhile; ?>

			<div class="navigation">
				<div class="navleft"><?php previous_posts_link('<img src="' . get_bloginfo(template_url) . '/images/btn_prev.png" alt="Prev" />', '0') ?></div>
				<div class="navright"><?php next_posts_link('<img src="' . get_bloginfo(template_url) . '/images/btn_next.png" alt="Next" />', '0') ?></div>
			</div>

		</div>

		<?php get_sidebar() ?>		

		<?php } ?>

	</div><!-- #content -->

<?php get_footer() ?>

Thanks so much for the help! Feel free to let me know if you need more details.