Title: Hard coded widgets Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # Hard coded widgets * [lancelotfl](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lancelotfl/) * (@lancelotfl) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hard-coded-widgets/) * Maybe I’m being completely naive here, but I’m not a PHP coder and it’s very annoying to find that a blog template has some unknown widgets that a non-programmer has absolutely no control over. There are no plugins that you can update to delete them and no reference to them in the wp-admin area. It’s pure programmer stuff. * Ignoring the fact that extraneous widgets that do nothing are ugly and annoy viewers, what is the point of hard coding them into the WordPress template? * I found one WordPress template that not only had empty widgets in the sidebars, but the navigation bar was a graphic that couldn’t be changed unless you edited the image AND the header.php file. * Is there a simple and easy way, involving plain English, to dump those hard coded widgets? I hate to keep downloading WordPress templates and then finding out there’s a bunch of hard coded stuff in the template. * Am I missing something here? Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total) * Thread Starter [lancelotfl](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lancelotfl/) * (@lancelotfl) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hard-coded-widgets/#post-1321050) * My apologies. My terminology is wrong. Widgets are something that you actually have control over. I’m referring to sidebar items that appear on the WordPress template, like “Blogroll” that appear nowhere in wp-admin, give you zero clues about how any values might mysteriously appear here, and do not make it easy for you to free up unused screen real estate by removing them. * [Clayton James](https://wordpress.org/support/users/claytonjames/) * (@claytonjames) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hard-coded-widgets/#post-1321052) * Have you spent much time looking around in your dashboard and learning your [administration options](http://codex.wordpress.org/Administration_Panels)? * I think you may find that 99% of wordpress themes have widgets coded into the sidebar.php by design. You will also find that if you look around in your dashboard and find the area for [“widgets” ](http://codex.wordpress.org/Appearance_Widgets_SubPanel), well… read some of this. * [http://codex.wordpress.org/Administration_Panels#Widgets](http://codex.wordpress.org/Administration_Panels#Widgets) * In most cases, moving a widget of your choice into a sidebar area usually removes most or all of the default “hard coded” widgets provided by a theme and allows you to pick and choose what you want. * [edit] I know that’s a picture of an older version of wordpress that I linked to, but the concept is still the same. * Thread Starter [lancelotfl](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lancelotfl/) * (@lancelotfl) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hard-coded-widgets/#post-1321327) * I guess I’m still not being clear. Look at [http://www.cookscatalog.org](http://www.cookscatalog.org). The sidebar on the right has “Categories” and “Blogroll”. They are not in Widgets anywhere and I cannot find either word in any of the .php files. * WordPress is touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread. You don’t need to know anything about PHP or HTML and plugins take care of everything. This does not appear to be true in this case, or several other themes I have discarded for the same reason. * There is zero value in placing ANYTHING into a theme that cannot be maintained by the theme user. I’m sure the PHP programmer felt is was as plain as a mud fence, but tricky stuff is the antithesis of “user friendly”. I like the theme, but I don’t need the Categories and Blogroll entries in the sidebar. * In addition, the sidebar.php file controls the sidebar on the left side. I have no clue to the name of the file that controls the right side because there is only on file containing the word sidebar. * Any clues as to how I can get rid of those sidebar elements? * [Michael](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alchymyth/) * (@alchymyth) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hard-coded-widgets/#post-1321332) * i feel, it is not fair to blame wordpress for the ‘attitude’ of these theme authors, who for whatever reason thought it neccessary to encode the footer, to write copyright warnings into it, and to hide the code for the second sidebar within the encoded footer – not even allowing widgets. * [Clayton James](https://wordpress.org/support/users/claytonjames/) * (@claytonjames) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hard-coded-widgets/#post-1321340) * I have to agree 100% with alchymyth’s summation. Your issue is not being caused by WordPress features. It’s because you chose a shady theme from a third party source that places encrypted sponsored links in their themes, essentially denying you, the user, the choice and control to remove their advertising from your site. Your footer.php is completely encrypted by the way. That’s a sponsored theme you’re using. * > Any clues as to how I can get rid of those sidebar elements? * Absolutely. Open sidebar-right.php and delete or change them at your whim. Assuming you’re really going to continue using that theme. * [Clayton James](https://wordpress.org/support/users/claytonjames/) * (@claytonjames) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hard-coded-widgets/#post-1321341) * Just for fun, here is the decrypted contents of your footer.php. * ``` ?>