Problem with adding a sidebar

Yes, your code is off.

if ( function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')

basically says “If the “dynamic sidebar” function exists

&& dynamic_sidebar()) {

and a dynamic sidebar is set, then display whatever you see here

}

if you want to give a specific sidebar name, then you put it here:

&& dynamic_sidebar('name')) {

So what you’re trying to do with the code is way off.

However, I’m not exactly clear on what it is you *are* trying to do. I’m sorry, but your explanation isn’t that clear (at least not to me). But from what I can *guess*, you want a sidebar that shows only specific things – have a widgetized sidebar that is displayed only for category 62?

in that case, you need to open up your functions.php file and look for the call for the widegtized sidebar. It should look like this:

if ( function_exists('register_sidebar') ) {
  register_sidebar(array(
              'name'=>'Sidebar',
              'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
              'after_widget' => '</div>',
              'before_title' => '<h3>',
              'after_title' => '</h3>',
    ));
}

you want to add an additional widgetized section, so you add a new section to it:

register_sidebar(array(
              'name'=>'Category 62 Sidebar',
              'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
              'after_widget' => '</div>',
              'before_title' => '<h3>',
              'after_title' => '</h3>',
    ));

Now when you open up your widgets, you’ll see a new sidebar in the dropdown menu.

to associate that menu with the category, you open up your sidebar.php file and put in a conditional:

<?php if(is_category('62')) {
         dynamic_sidebar('Category 62 Sidebar');
       } else {
         dynamic_sidebar()'
} ?>

Hi

I am not an expert in this area, but have been researching it for you.

1) You refer to registering a new sidebar in functions.php. You also refer to including a custom sidebar template. As far as I know, when you register a dynamic sidebar and assign a widget to it, the sidebar template is not used – the widgets take priority. Do your two goals contradict?

2) I found very little about conditional display of dynamic widget-ready sidebars. I did find this code, about conditionally activating a sidebar only on the homepage.

<?php if ( is_front_page() ) { ?>
  <?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar(3) ) : endif; ?>
<?php } ?>

3) I assume that you are displaying ONLY posts from category 62 on this category page. Is that correct?

If so, you could try this code to see if it works. Change sidebar(3) to whatever number you used for your new sidebar.

<?php if ( is_category('62') ) { ?>
  <?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar(3) ) :
    include(TEMPLATEPATH . '/sidebar-test.php');
  endif;
} ?>

This loads, when the cat page is loading cat 62, the test sidebar file when there are no widgets defined for that sidebar. Within cat 62, if widgets are defined for that sidebar, they run.

I’d appreciate knowing if this works for you. It may need a little tweaking.

plugin http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/widget-logic/

Widget Logic
This plugin gives every widget an extra control field called “Widget logic” that lets you control when the widget appears.

i.e. is_category(’62’)

<?php if ( is_category(’62’) ) {
include(TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/sidebar-test.php’);
} ?>