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1. pauley13
   Member
   Posted 10 months ago #
   

   Hi there,

   NICE little plugin!

   But... I seem to be having a fundamental problem with it: it doesn't APPEAR to work, no matter what I try.

   Here's what I'm trying to do:

   - I got 4 HTML "text" widgets, each with slightly different content, each to be displayed in the SAME area, but on different pages on the blog

   - three of them should display only when an article within a given category is selected

   - one of them should show up in "all other" cases

   I tried both methods:

   - set "yes" to show in categories, EXCEPT... and then clicked on all categories except the one

   - set "no" to show in categories, EXCEPT... and clicked on just the one category i need

   I treated each of the 4 widgets in this way (the latest attempt):

   - the "main" widget, set to "yes" EXCEPT... the 3 categories I don't want it on

   - each of the "replacement" widgets set to "no" EXCEPT the one category (for each widget) where I want it to show up.

   The result?

   - I can only ever see the "main" widget. No amount of changing changes anything...

   Any ideas?

   Am using latest WP and a premium theme "TheSource" from Elegant Themes, also latest version.

   Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

   cheers :) paul

   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/dynamic-widgets/

2. Qurl
   Member
   Plugin Author
   Posted 10 months ago #
   

   Hello Paul,

   First please make sure all 4 widgets do actually display without setting any rules (aka static). The start hiding one widget in the areas you want to hide it. For categories, make sure you're selecting the options in the right section. There are categories under "Single Posts" and the "Categories" section itself. You need the categories within single posts when you want to hide / show widget(s) when a single blogpost (article) is shown.

   When it's still not working, your theme might 'confuse' DW. Put DW into OLD method and see if it helps. You can put DW into OLD method by going to the DW overview page. At the bottom, click Advanced and tick the checkbox for OLD method.

3. pauley13
   Member
   Posted 10 months ago #
   

   Hi there,

   Thanks for your reply!! :)

   Yes, I have in fact tried this...

   - I did "Old method" early on and saw no discernible difference. Later I un-checked that.

   - I have indeed selected the "correct" categories, I'm quite sure of that.

   - I also ran them as "static" the FIRST time I tried it. Then ALL 4 appeared one underneath the other. After I selected the categories the way I described (first the "yes" then "no" options), I can now only see the "default" one on ALL pages including the "excepted" ones. But the targeted widgets don't show up anywhere. If I then disable the "default" widget, NONE of the 4 ads show up on either the "normal" or the "targeted" pages.

   I have tried using Widget Context plugin and it DOES work, BUT doesn't allow me to pick categories unless they're part of the URL/permalink structure which sucks.

   In the process I tried a few other plugins - all with mixed success and I don't like the look of ANY of them - except YOURS...!

   So, I keep trying to get it to work.

   If you can think of anything else I could try...

   Big thanks in advance,

   :) Paul

4. Qurl
   Member
   Plugin Author
   Posted 10 months ago #
   

   Check if your theme is doing custom queries before going to the sidebar(s). When that's the case, the theme might not perform a wp_reset_query(). That can result in unexpected behaviour.

5. Hoplock
   Member
   Posted 10 months ago #
   

   I'm having the same problem -- on category pages, only 1 of 3 widgets appears in the sidebar -- all three appear on all other pages and on posts, no problem except for category pages. The one widget that appears does so whether static or dynamic. Have tried all combinations of options, including the "old" method. I have a hunch it is the "reset query" you mention. This is a custom theme (Elegant-ebusiness). How can I find out whether the the theme is doing custom queries -- can you direct me to a php file?

6. Qurl
   Member
   Plugin Author
   Posted 10 months ago #
   

   It looks like you have almost the same problem. That does alert me there might be something going wrong in DW or this theme is indeed also doing custom queries and not doing a wp_reset_query().

   Before I dive into it to see if I can reproduce the problem, a wp_reset_query() does not do harm (most of the time when placed at the right position). However, I wouldn't recommend to start fiddling around with PHP when you do not have the knowledge about PHP. The function should come before the sidebar is called. Most themes have a separate sidebar.php. That would be the best place to put this in as the file is included everytime when a sidebar is requested.

7. pauley13
   Member
   Posted 10 months ago #
   

   Hi there,
   Looks like I solved the problem: I duplicated the exact same settings in "Categories" and in "Single Posts" - and... no more problem.
   Seems a bit redundant though, but still enough to make the plugin kick all others out of the water.
   Thanks!!
   :) paul

8. Hoplock
   Member
   Posted 10 months ago #
   

   Bingo! Pauley13 you gave me the solution. I had entered my settings under the "Show widget default on category pages" section of the "Pages Sidebar" section of my theme (well, it is a page!), which is different than than the "Posts Sidebar" section. When I enabled "Show widget default on category pages" in the "Posts Sidebar" section, the missing widget appeared! The odd part is that all along my other widget (a newsletter signup) appeared in Category pages simply by entering in the "Page Sidebar" section of the theme. Strange. And thanks, Qurl, for responding so quickly.
   Dan

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